The drive remains for New Orleans Saints Executive Vice President/General Manager Mickey Loomis to construct winning football teams, as does the belief that he and the committee involved in the Saints' coaching search can find the right person to lead the franchise on the field.

"We've gotten it right before," Loomis said Monday, in his news conference that addressed myriad topics following the Saints' fourth consecutive season without a playoff berth, which led to an in-season coaching change.

Dennis Allen was relieved of head coaching duties following a loss that dropped the Saints to 2-7 on Nov. 3; Darren Rizzi was named interim head coach to finish out the season Nov. 4.

Loomis said the Saints still are relatively early in the coaching search, given that some candidates are with playoff teams and NFL rules stipulate when those candidates can be interviewed.

And he said New Orleans remains a premier destination for a head coach.

"We've got the best professional sports league in the world, and there's 32 jobs, and a lot of guys want to be head coach, so every job is attractive," Loomis said. "They just are, including ours.

"We have a lot of things to offer – a great city, great fan base, we have great ownership, we have had great stability in our building for a long, long time. And I think we're viewed that way."

Loomis, who was general manager from 2002-12 before adding the title of executive vice president in 2013, is the most successful general manager in franchise history, having been at the helm for 208 regular-season victories and a 9-8 playoff record.

Along with Loomis, vice president/assistant general manager/director of college scouting Jeff Ireland, assistant general manager/vice president of football operations Khai Harley, pro personnel director Michael Parenton, senior personnel advisor Randy Mueller and personnel advisor Dave Ziegler form the Saints' coaching search panel.

"I think one of the things that's really important is to be able to have a collective vision and be on the same page organizationally – ownership, GM, coach, coaches, personnel department," Loomis said. "We have to have the same collective vision, and we'll get to that.

"All of these candidates are going to have strengths and weaknesses, and we've got our strengths and weaknesses and blind spots and so, we just have to go through that and figure out – and we will – who the best fit is for us."

Even during a 5-12 season, Loomis said he saw positives for the Saints.

"I'm positive, I'm glass-half-full at all times," he said. "I see a lot of things – even in a 5-12 season – I see a lot of things that were positive, that we can build on. So I'm on the side of, man, this thing can go the other direction pretty quickly.

"I think I'm still pretty patient. I understand that the results are the results, and you can't ignore the results. But you also have to look beyond the results sometimes and understand the reasons behind the symptoms. And some are in our control, some aren't.

"We have to do the best job we can with the things that are in our control, and we have to understand the things that aren't. Nobody wants to hear this, but this injury thing was a big deal this year. A really big deal. Prevented us from winning games, prevented us from being competitive in games, and so we have to get a handle on that, I think, more than anything else."

The new coach will choose his own staff; the Saints have confirmed interviews with Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. Rizzi, who interviewed for the head coaching job in 2022 when Allen was named, said he expected to be interviewed this week.

Loomis said the team also must complete its internal player evaluations.

"Obviously this was a tough season, not what we expected," he said. "What jumps out is the amount of injuries; we've got to do a deep dive into that. Are there things that are preventable? Are there things that we missed in the evaluation process, for example. All that is work that needs to be done.

"I think that you can rebuild – it means different things to different people. I think you can turn around a season pretty quickly in the NFL. We've seen it with other teams. And there's a lot of good things on our roster and there's some things that we need to adjust and fill in. Part of that is going to be the viewpoint, the vision that the new coach has."