While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in the running for their fourth straight NFC South title, the New Orleans Saints are floundering. At 5-9, the Saints' playoff hopes are long dead and they're looking ahead to what 2025 will bring for them.
It was a sad day for Bucs fans when the Saints canned Dennis Allen, who was a dream come true to lead a hated division rival. The Saints named Darren Rizzi, their special teams coordinator, as the interim head coach and now there's talk that Rizzi should be the guy in New Orleans past this season.
Buccaneers fans should really hope that the Saints fall into this trap. Interim coaches don't typically get hired for the full-time job for a reason and the history behind them taking over as the head coach the following year isn't great.
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The most recent example of this is Antonio Pierce, who was named interim head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders last season after Josh McDaniels was fired following a Week 8 loss, dropping Vegas to 3-5 on the year. Pierce then went 5-4 after taking over as the head coach and Raiders players vouched for him to get the full time gig, which he did. As we can see now, that might not have been the right move, considering the Raiders are 2-12 and one of the worst teams in the league.
An older example of this is in 2011 when the Kansas City Chiefs fired Todd Haley after Week 14. The Chiefs named defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel as their interim head coach, he went 2-1 in his three games on the job, won the head coach job for 2012, and then KC went 2-14 the following year.
Bucs fans should hope that Saints hire Darren Rizzi as their head coach
Now just because these particular instances didn't work out doesn't mean that's always going to be the norm but it's hard not to think about them. The Saints have looked better since Rizzi took over, as he's gone 3-2 in his interim role, but it's hard to ignore the history behind interim coaches getting the full-time gig.
What people are saying about Rizzi right now ("The players love him!", "The team looks re-energized!", etc.) is exactly what people said about Pierce this time last year, and look how that's turned out for the Raiders. Bucs fans can only hope that the Saints make the same mistake and that Rizzi struggles in the head coach role, which would lead to the Saints continuing to be irrelevant for the foreseeable future.