An inside look at what went wrong during Dennis Allen's tenure as Saints head coach

The Saints didn't want to crash out.

When Sean Payton decided to step down from his position three seasons ago, he gave his blessing to Dennis Allen during his farewell press conference. Everyone knew at the time that Allen was the likely successor, and though an interview process took place, everyone assumed it would end as it did — with Allen as the next head coach.

New Orleans wanted to preserve its culture. Payton wasn't getting fired, and, at the time, the roster still looked strong and ready to compete. The idea was to plug Allen into that role, keep most of the assistants the same, and keep things rolling. But the plug blew a fuse, and the Saints still crashed out.

Allen was fired on Monday, just over halfway into his third season as Saints head coach, and ends his tenure here with an 18-25 record. He's now 26-53 all-time as a head coach. The Saints will have to name an interim head coach, with the most likely candidate being assistant head coach Darren Rizzi.

The decision to move on from Allen was spearheaded by owner Gayle Benson, according to sources. Benson met with multiple players last week and traded emails with some to find out what has been going on with the team and how they felt about the head coach. Multiple players told her that the program was failing and that changes weren't just needed but urgent.

In recent weeks, Benson had grown frustrated with the direction of the team and started to consider the possibility of making a change. She saw how getting back healthy players wasn't leading to different results. Sunday's 23-22 loss to the Panthers was the final straw.

Ups and downs marked Allen's tenure, as he had the task of following behind the most successful coach in team history right at a time when the team was struggling to find a quarterback. He went an unremarkable 7-10 during his first season, a year in which he faced endless scrutiny and criticism over the decision to replace Jameis Winston with Andy Dalton as the starting quarterback.

His next season was marked by optimism after Allen and the Saints recruited Derek Carr, who, years ago, was drafted by Allen during his first stint as a head coach with the Raiders. Carr battled injuries all year, the team struggled to find consistency until late in the year, and it felt at times that Allen might end up getting fired at the end of the season. The team ended up winning four of its last five games to finish 9-8, which saved Allen's job.

Behind the scenes, cracks started to show during that season. Players griped about a lack of accountability and felt that Carr was treated by a different set of standards than everyone else. The messaging had also grown tired. Allen often told the players to "Keep chopping wood," and players started to mock the phrase.

One moment that shined a spotlight on all of the Saints issues came during Week 7 when Carr infamously snapped at Chris Olave after the wide receiver jogged through a route during a nationally-televised game against the Jaguars.

Carr became frustrated, launched the ball out of bounds, and began making a public spectacle, showing up Olave as he berated the receiver's effort. After the game, Olave publicly took the blame for the play, while Carr and Allen aimed at the wide receiver for his effort on the play.

But Olave was running a clear-out route and was never part of the progression, meaning the pass was never supposed to go to him. His effort could certainly be questioned, but the feeling was there were many dirty hands. The team later sent an update to the playbook that added the route Olave ran to the progression.

Another moment that caught the players' attention last year was when Allen never criticized Carr's decision-making after he threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown against the Falcons. Carr and Allen both said they didn't expect Atlanta's safety to play the route the way he did, but just days before, during a practice, practice squad safety Jonathan Abram played it the same way and intercepted Carr. Abram got yelled at during the practice for playing it wrong.

The most public moment of discord came in the season finale against the Falcons when the players disregarded a play call from the coach to kneel out the game and instead ran a fake kneel and handed it off to Jamaal Williams for a touchdown. After the game, the players, including Winston, who made the call in the huddle, defended the decision to act against their coach's wishes. Allen called them out in a press conference and apologized to the Falcons for a lack of sportsmanship.

After the season, Allen fired offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael and hired Klint Kubiak and new offensive staff to try to fix the problems on offense and create a better culture of accountability. The change felt like a cure to the woes and Allen started winning over his players. Accountability and criticism started getting doled out evenly, including to Carr, and the players noticed and felt the culture changing. Allen also made small changes to reward his veteran players, such as allowing them to sleep at their homes the night before home games instead of in hotels. Those little things went a long way.

New Orleans also ran a tough training camp that featured a lot of reps and long practices, which had the team prepared to start the season fast. The Saints won their first two games in stunning fashion, beating the Panthers 47-10 and the Cowboys 44-19. The performances were so dominant that national media started discussing the Saints as Super Bowl contenders, and Kubiak's name was floated as an early head coaching candidate.

Then it all fell apart. The Saints lost back-to-back games against the Eagles and Falcons due to falling apart in the final moments, and then injuries struck, taking out three offensive linemen, Carr and multiple receivers. New Orleans lost seven in a row, the final one coming Sunday against the Panthers with Carr back on the field.

The players didn't have the same complaints about how things were playing out behind the scenes. This time, it was more of a feeling that things simply were not working. The messaging had grown stale during the losing streak. Allen would tell the team to "Play Saints football," a standard they felt had fallen under his leadership. And some players believe that the team often starts slow and can't finish games because they don't practice hard enough once the season started. But this time, things just felt broken. As if things had simply run their course, more than anything. There just weren't answers to fix all the losing.

"Good guy," one player said. "But he lost the team. He just keeps saying the same shit."

New Orleans will now have to hire its next head coach. That process will start now but unfold mostly during the offseason. This time, the process will likely take them to someone who is not currently in their building. This will be the third time that Mickey Loomis will be hiring a coach. His first hire was Payton. His second was Allen.

New Orleans cast a wide net last time, talking to several candidates, but it always felt like Allen was playing with house money. And even though the hire didn't work out, it's hard to blame the logic behind trying Allen in the role. He was one of the most successful defensive coordinators during the previous seven seasons and helped build the culture that led to the team's success from 2017-2020.

This time, though, the Saints will be starting over and need to find out who will take them into the new era. Some people with ties could be candidates, like Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who was the only other person seriously considered for the job last time, or Jon Gruden. However, the team could go completely outside their ecosystem, as they did when hiring Payton in 2006.

In the meantime, the team will need to select an interim head coach and try to preserve what's left of the culture over the season's final stretch. The final ties to the previous era of Saints football are now over. The team will now have to build something new.