The New Orleans Saints are one of six NFL teams currently rounding up the best possible candidates to take over as their next head coach.
The bigger question though, as the Cajun Cannon Bobby Hebert broke down this week on WWL, is will the Saints be at the top of those coaches' lists when it comes to actually taking a job.
"The more I look at it ... we’re at the bottom of the totem pole," Hebert said. "We’re not gonna be able to pick who we want, because the ones we might want, they might pick another team."
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Hebert laid out a few reasons for that as Mickey Loomis and Co. embark on this process for the second time since 2022, and they're not particularly difficult to see: Cap and quarterback.
Here's a breakdown of the teams currently seeking a head coach, along with their presumptive starting QB and available cap space:
- Patriots: Drake Maye, $123 million
- Raiders: Aidan O'Connell, $107 million
- Bears: Caleb Williams, $80 million
- Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence, $35 million
- Jets: Aaron Rodgers, $28 million
- Saints: Derek Carr, $-50 million
Out of the six teams listed, three of them have their presumptive franchise QB in place (Patriots, Bears and Jaguars), and two of those teams also has more than $100 million in cap space to work with (Bears and Patriots). The Raiders have serious questions, but sits with $107 million in cap space to answer them with. The Jets have major questions as well, but can at least dangle the New York market as a major selling point.
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Meanwhile the Saints can say none of those things, offering a coaching gig in one of the NFL's smallest markets, a veteran QB with -- at best -- an uncertain outlook after a pair of injury plagued seasons, and the standard salary cap deficit that will have to be navigated just to get back to compliance prior to the start of the league year.
It's not difficult to understand why a coach with options might look elsewhere than New Orleans at this point in time.
"why are the Saints attractive? I’m just being objective," Hebert continued. "I’m just keeping it real. I’m not trying to say oh, we’re about to get the coach we want."
So who are the coaches in play? Right now the Saints have been linked to eight names that have been confirmed by multiple sources at least in terms of interview requests. Here are the names as of Thursday:
- Darren Rizzi, Saints interim HC
- Aaron Glenn, Lions DC
- Joe Brady, Bills OC
- Kellen Moore, Eagles OC
- Anthony Weaver, Dolphins DC
- Kliff Kingsbury, Commanders OC
- Mike Vrabel, former Titans HC
- Mike Kafka, Giants OC
There have also been conflicting reports about a pair of Broncos staffers in David Shaw and Davis Webb being requested for interviews, but both have been shot down as of now.
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Who would be the favorite of those candidates? It's long been rumored that Aaron Glenn, who previously served as a Saints assistant and is on another former Saints assistant's staff in Dan Campbell, is high on the Saints' radar for obvious reasons. Drew Brees even spoke recently to offer an endorsement of Glenn. There's only one potential issue, in that if Glenn wants to go back to a familiar spot, he could certainly look to the Jets who drafted him No. 12 overall in 1994. The Jets have also requested Rizzi for an interview.
"I kind of look at who’s attractive, who’s the quarterback and that’s why the Saints might ... not be an instant fix," Hebert continued. "We might have to weather the storm and it might be something you have to think as Who Dat Nation fans, Saints fans you know, it’s the drive through, that’s why it was invented, we want it now. It might not be all of a sudden that the Saints, oh, we’re doubling our win total, next year we’re gonna go 10-7. We won only five games, but we’re gonna win 10 next year. I think that would be an unbelievable accomplishment."