Jay Glazer is reporting that the Eagles have received permission to interview Saints’ secondary coach Dennis Allen for their defensive coordinator job. Allen is a young, up and comer… very similar to the man the Eagles just fired, Sean McDermott. Over at Bleeding Green Nation, we examined a few striking similarities between Allen and the former Eagles defensive coordinator.
A quick look at Allen’s resume is impressive.
Allen is thought of as a rising star on the Saints staff and has been tipped as Gregg Williams’ heir apparent. He has spent time with both the Falcons and Saints and had a lot of success in both places. As a defensive line coach with Atlanta his unit led the NFL in sacks in 2004. As a d-line coach in New Orleans for two seasons his unit had 48.5 sacks and produced a pro bowler in Will Smith. In 2009, the Saints gave up just 15 TD passes that year which was the 3rd least in the NFL. This season, the Saints gave up a league low 13 TD passes. For the Eagles, who gave a up a franchise record 31 TD passes, that has to be attractive.
The media speculation after the firing of Sean McDermott was that the Eagles were looking for a more experienced guy to head the defense. The interest in Allen would appear to indicated that’s not necessarily the case.