An anonymous poll from the NFL Players Association surveyed more than 1,700 players, asking them to rate their offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinators on a scale from 1 to 10 — and the NFLPA has already released the top-five at each spot, with the full rankings to come in the offseason.
Just one New Orleans Saints coordinator made the cut for the top-five: Darren Rizzi, their special teams coordinator. A longtime assistant with the Miami Dolphins before he came to New Orleans, Rizzi is respected for his ability to connect to his players and put them in position to win. Rizzi interviewed for the Saints head coach job when it became available in the wake of Sean Payton’s departure from the team, and he added the title of assistant head coach in 2022 under Dennis Allen.
So what were the exact items on this questionnaire? NFLPA president JC Tretter told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero that these were qualitative ratings with “all encompassing” criteria. Pelissero quoted Tretter as saying “Guys in the Top 5 list pretty clearly appeal to almost everybody in their locker room.”
Another former Saints assistant was also recognized by his players as a great coach: Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who came up on the New Orleans staff working with the secondary under Allen and Payton. He’s repeatedly received interviews for head coach openings around the league and he might be in line to run his own team in the near future.
