The 2023 Saints season is in the books, and all that's left to do is figure out what went right and what went wrong.
Saints GM Mickey Loomis spoke for 57 minutes this week doing exactly that and after a handful of coaching changes, most notably the firing of longtime offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, after another 9-8 finish and narrow postseason miss.
Loomis hit on a host of different topics, from thoughts on head coach Dennis Allen, who will remain in that job, to plans for Trevor Penning, a search for a new offensive coordinator and a lot more. Scroll below for some of the top quotes and insight from the season-ending press conference.
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1. ON CULTURE CHANGES
Both Loomis and Allen have instilled the idea of culture changes over the past several weeks, and that process started this week with the firing of OC Pete Carmichael, WRs coach Kodi Burns and offensive assistant Bob Bicknell. But that also extends to the players, which was driven home in a meeting with Loomis and the players after Week 18. Here's what the GM had to say on that meeting this week.
“I don’t like the word culture, necessarily, because I think, look, we’ve got really good guys, willing, and I think, look, a lot of things that I said to the players, I’m sure you guys are aware of it, were for the players’ ears only. I think collectively, though, that everybody if you asked, do you want to win? Everybody stands up, they raise their hand, right. Everybody says are you willing to do what’s necessary to win, they all raise their hand. But sometimes we’re not doing the things that are necessary to win, and that’s on me. That’s on me 100% … I’ve got to hold our guys to a standard to do the things necessary to win, and I think that I probably let that slip a little bit over the last couple years, and we’re going to get that recalibrated. And so that’s my message to our entire building. It’s not just to the players and coaches, it’s to our entire building.
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“I’ve had meetings with the team before. It’s been a while, but I felt like there were some things that needed to be said to the players, just like I think there’s things that need to be said to the coaching staff and to our football operations staff, and that’s going to be said. Again, I think maybe we’ve gotten a little too comfortable over the last few years, and so I want to make it uncomfortable.”
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2. HOW DO YOU WIN BACK FAN SUPPORT?
Booing at the Superdome? It happened multiple times this season, along with at least one opposing takeover that certainly didn't go unnoticed by the front office.
“You have to win. You have to perform well. That’s on us. … Look, there’s a little bit of a double-edged sword," Loomis said. "We just watched the Detroit Lions and their season and how fantastic that environment is and winning for the first time in a long time. We’ve experienced that here, right. We experienced it in 06, in 07-8-9, you raise the bar, right? We raised the bar, and that’s a good thing. And so now that we’ve raised the bar we’ve got to meet it, and if we’re not meeting it, that’s on us.
"The only thing I really don’t like is when we sell tickets to the opposing team and allow a big group in our building, and look, that’s popular here because New Orleans is a destination. When our opponents look at their schedule and they see New Orleans, ah, that’s the trip I’m going on. We understand that. It’s part of the deal, part of being in a great city like New Orleans. But in terms of booing, the crowd reaction, that’s on us. That’s not on the fans. Look, if I was in the stands, there’s a couple times I might’ve booed. I don’t know.”
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3. ON MOVING ON FROM PETE CARMICHAEL
The now-former Saints OC just completed his 18th season with the team, the last two of which he was thrust into a more prominent role as the play-calling offensive coordinator.
“It’s really emotional. Pete is such a – he’s a great coach, not a good coach, he’s a great coach, and he’s done, you know, I think, listen, we had historically good offenses here for a long period of time and Pete was a much bigger part of that than he gets credit for. Really brilliant, look, his first game as a play-caller I think we scored 60 points, so yea, it’s emotional and he’s such a good person and such a great representative of the organization for all these years and it was emotional for me, that’s for sure, and it was emotional for a lot of people.”
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4. THOUGHTS ON DENNIS ALLEN
The Saints finished 9-8, but not without significant criticism of the head coach and continued calls for change. Still, Loomis is staying in Allen's corner. Here's what he has to say.
“Here’s what I think, I think sometimes the easy thing to do, the lazy thing to do is look at the results of the season and say, ah, it’s the coach’s fault or it’s the quarterback’s fault. I think oftentimes you have to look beyond that. I was just – look, I was prepared for this question, right? Chuck Knoll his first 3 years, Hall of Fame coach, he was 1-13, 5-9, 6-8, but they recognized that this guy is a good football coach, right? Bill Belichick, here’s his first 3 seasons, 6-10, 7-9, 7-9. Tom Landry, 0-11, 4-9, 5-8, 4-10, 5-8. Hall of Fame coaches, all of them. Bill Walsh, first year, 2-14, second year, 6-10.
"So I think the easy thing to do is just look at the results and say ‘oh, no, we’ve got to have a change.’ We’ve got to look beyond that. What were the reasons we were 9-8 instead of 13-4, and look, it’s collective. It’s the players, it’s the coaches, it’s me. It’s our personnel staff. It’s our roster. It’s variables that sometimes we don’t have any control of. So my assessment is: Dennis Allen is a good coach. And, again, you know, with Sean Payton we went 10-6 the first year, but then we were 7-9, 8-8 and I heard some of the same noise, but at the time I knew we had a good football coach, and so I think sometimes the hard thing to do is to be patient and recognize your other shortcomings and get those fixed, and that’s what we’re doing.”
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5. WHY ARE YOU SO FIRED UP?
Loomis told us on WWL last week that he was already excited for the 2024 season, perhaps moreso than he would've been at this point in other seasons, because he thinks the future is bright for this team. His demeanor and tone certainly echoed that on Wednesday. Here's what he had to say on that front.
“I’m excited about it. I’m excited about the prospects of the guys that are on the team and they’re – I’m excited about the willingness of all of our people, players, coaches, staff, to look inward and say, look, I’ve got to do better, yea, including me, and so that gets me fired up. Look, I hate doing these press conferences, you guys know that. So typically I’m very stoic and unenthused, right? But I think we need enthusiasm. I think we need a boost in energy and excitement in our building and so that, again, that – all that stuff starts with me.”