Sad News: USA Today has announced its NFL coach rankings, and the Saints’ Dennis Allen get no love……

USA Today has released its NFL coach rankings, and Saints’ Dennis Allen gets no love.

New Orleans Saints fans love to blame Dennis Allen for the team’s inability to make the playoffs over the last two seasons, and few league analysts see the Texas native as one of the NFL’s best head coaches.

But one item grading by the NFL’s head coaches goes a step further, with a scathing evaluation and a ranking that Allen’s biggest detractors will happily agree with.

Jarrett Bailey of USA Today’s Touchdown Wire placed Allen 32nd out of 32 NFL head coaches in his latest column.

“Dennis Allen is the head coaching version of sitting on a whoopee cushion,” Bailey remarked, explaining why the Saints’ coach is dead last in the NFL. “The Saints have been dreadfully boring with no sense of direction ever since Sean Payton stepped away.”

It’s difficult to disagree with Allen’s detractors when you consider that he has yet to secure a postseason spot in five seasons as a head coach. He is regarded as a defensive guru, although his effectiveness as a head coach is debatable.

Allen’s first winning season as head coach came in 2023, when the Saints finished 9-8 and fell just short of the playoffs. That winning percentage isn’t particularly great considering the Saints were a strong favorite to win the NFC South. The Saints and Buccaneers were tied for first place in the NFC South, but Tampa Bay had an advantage due to a tiebreaker.

Allen’s career record is 24-46, owing primarily to a difficult three-year stint with the Raiders from 2012-14. He is 16-18 with the Saints.

While Allen is far from the only NFL coach with a career record below.500, it’s evident that his disastrous spell in Oakland and middling stay in New Orleans weigh on his standing as a head coach.