Carmichael Done as Saints OC

There is shakeup coming in the Bayou.

The New Orleans Saints have sent offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael Jr. packing after 18 seasons on the job, along with senior offensive assistant Bob Bicknell and receivers coach Kodi Burns. Bicknel along with Burns were in their second seasons with the franchise.

“These types of decisions are never easy to come to, but are necessary as we move forward,” Saints coach Dennis Allen, who is in charge of the Saints defense, said in an announcement made Tuesday.

The Saints were middle of the pack, ranked 14th overall in yards per game with 337.2, but the offense, led by veteran quarterback Derek Carr, who has been in the league for 10 years, often failed to move the ball in clutch, got to have it situations during the initial 12 games of the season. In his defense, it was his first year in this system, coming over from Las Vegas. New Orleans (9-8) started 5-7 before winning four of its final five games, just barely missing out on the playoffs due to tiebreakers that did not go their way with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay Packers, even after taking care of their business with a 48-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

The Saints converted a dreadful 53.3% of red zone opportunities into touchdowns, which ranked 18th. For the lion’s share of the season, however, the Saints were in the bottom third of the NFL in that statistic and came out on the losing side of things in seven games by fewer than 10 points.

Carmichael has been with the Saints since 2006, when he was hired by then-rookie coach Sean Payton as quarterbacks coach in what also was signal caller Drew Brees’ first season in New Orleans, after being traded from the San Diego Chargers.

Carmichael made his way up the ladder to offensive coordinator under Payton in 2009, but the head coach still maintained total control and oversaw the structure and calling of the offense that was run like clockwork, breaking several records by the now-retired Brees for 15 seasons.

“I would especially like to thank Pete for his contributions to this staff for 18 seasons,” Allen said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the job he has done and as a colleague.”

When Payton, now the Denver Broncos’ coach, retired briefly after the 2021 season and took a job in television at Fox Sports, Allen, who had been elevated from his defensive coordinator role, kept Carmichael on board to oversee the offense.

While that side of the balls output remained solid, it struggled to create chunk play down the field consistently during the past two seasons, halted in part by musical chairs at the quarterback position in 2022, when season-opening starter Jameis Winston was limited by a back injury and replaced for much of that season by veteran backup Andy Dalton.

The crowning achievement of Carmichael’s tenure overseeing New Orleans’ offense came in 2012, when Payton was banned for an entire year in connection with the NFL’s bounty investigation into under-the-table cash rewards offered to defensive players for big and sometimes dangerous hits under former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

With Carmichael calling the plays and Brees under center, the Saints ranked second in the NFL in offense that season with 410.9 yards per game.