Since leaving the Saints the first time, Dennis Allen has very quietly built up an impressive resume as a defensive coach in the NFL. Not only has Allen produced some solid units, but more importantly he has shown an ability to find talent and build up a unit over time to become a cohesive whole. Allen is judged by many on the surface of his firing in Oakland, but the Raiders rise to one of the up-and-coming teams in the AFC is directly attributable to Dennis Allen and his approach.
With the firings of Joe Vitt, Bill Johnson, and Greg McMahon, Sean Payton has finally done away with the old guard, and Allen is now the last remaining coach outside of Payton himself from the team’s Super Bowl team, and it needs to stay that way.