It's Tough To Argue That The Saints Shouldn't Bring Back Dennis Allen As Defensive Coordinator

https://t.co/Xe3K3WCehy >> Sean Payton says there is a ‘likelihood’ Dennis Allen will return to Saints as defensive https://t.co/TzoNe0CA2c

— New Orleans Saints (@saintsbuzztap) January 7, 2016

Payton on Dennis Allen: "I think he did a great job" #Saints

— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) January 6, 2016

Okay Saints fans, here's a little lesson for you. You see that picture above? Yeah, the one where Dennis Allen is holding his hand up in the air like a Black Panther. It's not because he supports a radical African American socialist organization from the 70's (although he may), it's because that hand signal also stands for 4th down. I know, I know, I didn't see it often this year either, but the fact that I found a picture of Dennis Allen doing it even once means that he did a better job orchestrating the Saints defense than Rob Ryan. A punt? A real life punt? Three consecutive downs where the opposing offense didn't gain ten cumulative yards AND Brandon Browner didn't molest anybody?! That, my friends, is what we call a marked improvement. 

Can I sit here and tell you that Dennis Allen has what it takes to field a defense competent enough to compliment the offense from time to time? No, I can't. If you want to go through his resume you can probably find some pretty glaring statistics that show me that Dennis Allen isn't all that good of a defensive coordinator. He did, however, improve a defense that looked absolutely hopeless on short notice. He did find a way to make what limited talent he had available to him perform well enough to play winning football. Obviously - being the worst defense (statistically and aesthetically) in NFL history -  they had no where to go but up, but up they went and you have to give their leader some credit for that. Dennis Allen gave this defense a new voice when the old voice was falling on deaf ears. Granted, he literally had nothing to lose, but he wasn't afraid to make adjustments. He wasn't afraid to take chances. As bad of a hand as Rob Ryan was dealt with inexperience on the D-line, injuries at linebacker, and Brandon Browner in the secondary, he still failed to make changes any significant changes whatsoever to his approach. I can't say the same for Dennis Allen, and that's why I don't mind him being part of this team's future. Well, that and the fact that Sean Payton's history of defensive hires shows that the only other alternative is a big name that will inevitably come up small.  Plus, don't they look great together?