A pair of numbers had followed Dennis Allen around since he returned to New Orleans, particularly when head coaching conversations began to get louder.
The number was 8-28, his overall record in his first stint as a head coach in leading the then Oakland Raiders. It was a job that R.C. Slocum, Allen's former coach and later boss at Texas A&M, also took a look at. But he was advised against it, and if he had another chance he'd make sure to warn Allen about it, too.
"I think he took a bad job," Slocum said, now 77 and retired.
“I just think he erred at taking that job," he continued. "If you’re going to get your one shot, make sure it’s a good one where you’ve got a chance.”
And it wouldn't have been out of character for such a warning to take place. Slocum gushed about his former player and assistant's football intelligence, which was a large factor in what got him on the field in the first place. There were more talented players he'd beat out in his college days, simply because he played better and with understanding. They're characteristics that still serve the Saints new leader today. Slocum went so far as to joke that if he had a roster full of Dennis Allens, he'd still have dark hair.
"He was really tough, and he studied the game. He studied football," Slocum said. "So he ended up being a very good player because of that. He was a made player."
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After an unsuccessful shot in NFL camp, Allen rejoined A&M as a grad assistant in 1996. It was a tough job with no pay beyond a scholarship, long hours and little recognition. It's a list that drove many interested former players off, Slocum said, but Allen embraced it. He would eventually hop over to Tulsa in 2000 to become a secondary coach, having finally landed a full-time job. Within a year he was recruited to join the Atlanta Falcons at a low-level defensive quality control position, which Slocum equated to a grad assistant role. But he unequivocally advised Allen take it. He saw the NFL as a much faster route for quality coaches to rise to the top.
But Allen's biggest issue with his first head coaching stop was impatience, Slocum said. In identifying teams with sustained success, he pointed to alignment with the front office and coaching staff, the ability to have input in player and personnel decisions. In short, a lot of the things that couldn't be said about the Raiders during Allen's short tenure in Oakland.
Go through the rosters, draft classes and signings for struggling teams with the benefit of some hindsight, and it probably won't be a pretty picture.
"It's no wonder the coach doesn't win there, and they go through coach after coach after coach and still don't win," Slocum said. "All those coaches aren't bad guys. They didn't all get dumb when they got to those organizations. There are factors beyond the coach."
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The Saints, a team Slocum would likely point to as the inverse of those troubling issues, appear to feel similarly. That 8-28 career record didn't stop the Saints from handing over the keys to their former defensive coordinator following Sean Payton's retirement and a two-week search.
They'll begin to find out in the 2022 NFL season if that hunch was right. And for Allen, it marks a second chance that isn't always guaranteed in his business.
“He’s paid his dues to have this opportunity in New Orleans," Slocum said, "and I’m excited for him.”