Will Saints’ Dennis Allen still call plays? What does he want at QB? What we’ve learned

There is no question about whom Dennis Allen is as a football coach, at least not around these parts.

Allen, whom the New Orleans Saints introduced as their next head coach during a nearly 45-minute news conference Tuesday, has spent the majority of his 20 seasons as an NFL coach right here in New Orleans, the last seven of which have come leading the most successful defense of the most successful era in team history.

Part of the reason the Saints felt so comfortable selecting him was their experience with him over the years. As general manager Mickey Loomis said, they chose Allen “because of his leadership skills, because of his teaching skills, because of his football acumen — and, frankly, he’s just a damn good football coach.”

But for all the Saints know about Allen as a man and as a football coach, there is so much that is unknown about him in the franchise’s top coaching role.

Allen took a crack at answering some of those questions during his news conference Tuesday. Here’s what we learned, and what still is up in the air.

Will he still call defensive plays?

It doesn’t appear that the play sheet is going to leave his hands any time soon.

“I was telling someone before, it’s hard to turn your baby over, you know what I mean?” Allen said. “So I see myself still being … heavily involved with the game plan and even potentially the play-calling.”

It’s not like a head coach serving as the play-caller is a novel concept in New Orleans. And it’s not particularly unusual across the NFL for the head coach to call plays in some form or another. At the start of last season, more than half of the NFL’s 32 head coaches handled offensive or defensive play-calling duties.

Assuming Allen does keep the play sheet, there are a few questions that come along with that: Will that make a defensive coordinator position on his staff less appealing, since that coach would not necessarily get the credit (and, therefore, bigger opportunities) that come with calling the plays for a successful defense? And is Allen ready to handle the dual role of calling plays while also being the CEO of the Saints’ game-day sidelines? Time will tell.

Will he keep Sean Payton’s offense?

Here’s another question that is going to need some time to play out before we get an answer. A league source informed the Times-Picayune’s Jeff Duncan that longtime offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael is not expected to stay in that role under Allen, creating a void at a key position on Allen’s staff.

But, stylistically, it sounds like Allen wants to run something that looks similar to the types of offenses Payton ran with so much success for 15 seasons in New Orleans.

“There are maybe a few things we can tweak and do things a little bit differently,” Allen said. “But I want to be a physical offense; I want to be able to run the football; I want to be able to create explosive plays; I want to be a smart offense that doesn’t have a lot of negative plays; I want to protect the football; and I want to be good situationally.”

That sounds a lot like the pillars of the Payton offense: Control the line, run the ball well, be explosive while also being careful with the ball.

“We’re going to be a good offense; we’re going to be able to put some points on the board; we’re going to be explosive; we’re going to be exciting,” Allen said.

That sounds like a Payton offense, too. Saying it and doing it are two different things, however.

Allen appears to know what he wants his offense to be. To get it there, he’s got to find the right offensive play-caller, and he’s also got to find the right trigger man.

What’s his priority at quarterback?

Allen knows what poor quarterback play can do to a head coaching career. His Raiders teams wandered the quarterback desert, starting five different players (Carson Palmer, Terelle Pryor, Matt McGloin, Matt Flynn and the first four games of Derek Carr’s rookie season) during Allen’s 36 game tenure.

Those players compiled a cumulative 77.5 passer rating while throwing nearly as many interceptions (42) as touchdowns (45). There were many reasons Allen failed with the Raiders, but as much as anything, poor quarterback play doomed him.

Now he inherits a team that has a lot of desirable qualities except for the most important one: Who is going to play quarterback? It’s a huge question that is likely going to define this next phase of his career.

“It’s the most important decision that you make,” Allen said. “That’s going to be one of the first things that we do as we get together as a staff, as an organization, and evaluate that position. Then we’ll make the best decision for this organization that we think is the right thing for us moving forward.”

Allen never was going to provide a cut-and-dry answer about the Saints’ offseason plans for the position, but he did say what specific quality he’s looking for.

“We want a winner,” Allen said. “You know what I mean?”

How involved will he be in personnel decisions?

Like his predecessor, Allen plans to be very much involved in the Saints’ collaborative decision-making process on personnel.

Payton put a premium on football intelligence when it came to adding players to his roster, especially if those players cost a premium in cap space or draft resources. In recent years, New Orleans’ scouting staff has targeted players (in the draft especially) with premier athleticism.

It remains to be seen what Allen’s type is, but he made it clear he will have a say in who is and is not on his roster.

“That’s one of the major roles of the head coach is to be heavily involved in the personnel,” Allen said.