Joe Woods to be hired as Saints defensive coordinator: Reports
The New Orleans Saints are expected to hire former Browns defensive coordinator Joe Woods to the same position, according to multiple reports.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was the first to report the news.
Woods spent three seasons running the Browns defense under head coach Kevin Stefanski. He was fired hours after the Browns’ 7-10 season ended with a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 8.
The Browns replaced Woods with longtime NFL coach Jim Schwartz last month. Schwartz, who won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles as their defensive coordinator in the 2017 season, was a senior defensive assistant for the Tennessee Titans for the previous two seasons.
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Saints coach Dennis Allen and Woods worked together with the Oakland Raiders during the 2014 season. Allen, then the head coach, was fired four games into the season, while Woods was the defensive backs coach.
According to NewOrleans.football.com’s Nick Underhill, Allen will actually run the defense for the Saints. Woods will be his top defensive assistant while also coaching the defensive backs.
The inability of the Browns defense to sustain consistency over a full season put Woods on a hot seat throughout the season. For the second consecutive season, it was unable to start the year off well, but managed to turn it around over the last month-and-a-half.
The Browns’ defensive turnaround began in a Week 12 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Starting then, they allowed 305 yards a game, compared to the 349.9 they had allowed over the first 10 games.
For the season, the Browns finished 20th in points per game allowed at 22.4. However, they gave up just 16 a game over the final seven games.
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The pass defense, which was allowing 214.8 yards a game over the first 10, allowed an average of just 172.4 yards over the last seven. That improvement allowed the Browns defense to rise to 14th in the league in total yards allowed at 331.5 yards per game.
Their pass defense, which was 16th coming out of the Week 11 loss to Buffalo, finished fifth at 196.2 yards a game.
The Browns also had a massive uptick in takeaways over the last six games. They created just eight through the first 12 games, then created 12 over the final six games.
The part of the defense that ultimately sealed Woods’ fate was the run defense. After being ranked seventh in the league through three games, allowing just 83.7 rushing yards, they ended the season ranked 25th by giving up 135.2.
The second-half turnaround mimics what the Browns did in 2021 as well, specifically in points allowed. They gave up 45 points in a Week 10 loss in 2021 at New England, at which point they were allowing 24.1 points a game, to a final season average of 21.8 points.
The Browns were a top-10 defense in 2021, despite the team’s 8-9 record, in multiple categories. They were fifth in yards per game (311.5) and passing yards a game (202.3), while they were 13th in points allowed per game and 12th in rushing yards a game (109.2).
Stefanski hired Woods, with whom he had coached with the Minnesota Vikings, on his original staff when he was named Browns coach in 2020. That season, the Browns went 11-5 in the regular season, earning just the franchise’s second playoff appearance since its 1999 rebirth and its first playoff win since Jan. 1, 1995, when it defeated the Steelers in the AFC Wild Card round.
The Browns finished that season ranked 17th in yards allowed at 358.4 and 22nd in passing yards allowed at 247.6, but ninth against the run at 110.8 yards allowed. They were 21st in points allowed at 26.2, but did create 21 turnovers in the regular season and another six — five in a Wild Card win over Pittsburgh — in two playoff games.
Woods was also a defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos in 2017-18, before spending the 2019 season as the San Francisco 49ers defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator. He also coached defensive backs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2004-05) and Minnesota Vikings (2006-13).
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