Saints fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan

Hours after insisting that Rob Ryan is “absolutely” still a member of the New Orleans Saints coaching staff, Coach Sean Payton announced Monday night that he had fired his defensive coordinator.

“I’m disappointed for Rob it didn’t work out,” Payton said on his weekly radio show. “He’s a fantastic staff guy. He’s a guy that was respected greatly, not only in the locker room but by his peers. We just had to at some point look closely (at making a change) because the direction we were going wasn’t good. We really struggled with substitutions, getting lined up, getting our guys the defensive call and being able to function.”

Senior defensive assistant Dennis Allen will assume Ryan’s duties.

The morning after getting blown out by the Washington Redskins, the Saints were rumored to have decided to fire defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, brother of Buffalo Bills Coach Rex Ryan, according to a report by Fox Sports.

The Saints are giving up an NFL-worst 31.5 points a game and have allowed more than that in their last three games, including 47 to the Redskins and 49 to the New York Giants. They’ve been giving up an average of 424.7 yards a game, which is also the worst in the league.

Ryan was hired by the Saints in 2012 and coached one of the NFL’s best defenses that year, giving up 305.7 yards a game (fourth in the NFL) and 19.0 points (fourth). But the bottom fell out last year, when the Saints gave up an average of 384.0 yards a game (31st) and 26.5 points (28th).

He was previously defensive coordinator for Oakland, Cleveland and Dallas. When fired by the Cowboys after the 2011 season, Ryan famously said, “”I’ll be out of work for like five minutes.”

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