Defining moment: Promoting Dennis Allen to head coach.
It was obvious that Allen was New Orleans’ top coaching candidate from the moment Sean Payton stepped down Jan. 25, and the Saints made it clear that the intent was to keep the team intact instead of starting over from scratch. That meant retaining almost all of the assistants and promoting two of them to co-defensive coordinators instead of having one voice. It’s hard to know how the season would have gone with a fresh start, but the current 6-9 record has made one thing clear: The Saints can’t stick with the status quo if they want a winning record in 2023.