The New Orleans Saints struggled in almost every aspect in 2022, limping to a 7-10 record in a weak NFC South Division that left them well outside the playoff picture. 2022 was their first year under new Head Coach Dennis Allen and the initial results left much to be desired.
Louisiana sportsbook apps bettors were unable to make money on the team winning games, and perhaps even more frustrating was the team's inability to even cover the spread, with an identical 7-10 mark, good for a bottom-10 showing in the league.
Perhaps Saints fans shouldn’t have been too surprised with their lack of success against the spread, as LouisianaBets ran a study on which NFL head coaches had the most success against the spread and found that Allen has been one of the worst NFL coaches against the spread in his career, compiling a 21-31-1 record ATS including his 7-10 effort last season.
Best NFL Head Coaches Against The Spread
With the NFL season fast approaching, LouisianaBets continue to give you the edge with Louisiana sportsbooks by running this study using data from TeamRankings.com to gather every active NFL head coach’s record ATS, dating back to 2003 when data was made available. We did not include records from interim stints.
Will Allen improve and cover the spread more this season? You can track the Saints playoff chances all season on LouisianaBets.com.
Where Dennis Allen Ranks ATS
The entire top four on the list of top coaches against the spread is made up of coaches with less than five years of coaching under their belt.
History indicates that over time the betting market will catch up to the coaches and how well-prepared they have their teams and those results will inch closer to the 50% mark that the majority of coaches hover around. Brian Daboll comes in at the top of the list, coaching the Giants to a surprisingly successful year last season and covering the spread almost 75% of the time.
With the markets catching up to their success, this number is very likely to come down in 2023. Behind Daboll comes Dan Campbell, Zac Taylor and Matt LaFleur.
The most impressive ranking on the list may come at five, with legendary Patriots head coach Bill Belichick holding strong with a 58% record ATS despite his long 28-year career. Belichick coached the Patriots dynasty for years and was still able to cover more than half of the team's spreads despite being favored heavily in the majority of his games.
Allen’s 2022 mark lined up with his career mark of 40% when it comes to covering the spread, besting only Chicago’s Matt Eberflus who had an ATS record of 6-11 in his debut season with the Bears last year.
Covering spreads won’t get any easier for New Orleans this season, which is currently the favorite to win the NFC South with odds of +120 at Louisiana DraftKings Sportsbook, which means that the Saints will likely be favored in most of their divisional games making it harder for them to cover the spread.
While winning some ATS bets would be profitable, Saints fans and bettors would probably forgive Allen and the Saints if they managed to cash in the +120 bet to win the division, guaranteeing themselves a playoff game and an outside chance to win the Lombardi Trophy. The Saints Super Bowl odds stand at +4000 at the moment.
