A week ago, Darren Rizzi was just a special teams coordinator for the New Orleans Saints, more or less indistinguishable from other NFL assistant coaches to the league’s millions of fans.
Now the 54-year-old is the team’s interim coach following the firing of Dennis Allen, meaning he’s in charge of turning around a 2-7 team that hasn’t won a game since Week 2.
So who is Rizzi and how does his resume stack up to the challenge ahead?
Born in Oradell, New Jersey and attending Bergen Catholic High School – the same institution that produced legendary Washington Redskins executive Charley Casserly – Rizzi has spent the past fourteen years in the NFL.
He started coaching as an assistant at Colgate in 1993 before joining Division II New Haven in 1994.
New Orleans Saints Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi reacts during a 2023 game
The Saints ranked second and fourth in net point average over Rizzi’s first two seasons
It was in New Haven where Rizzi worked with head coach Tony Sparano, a respected offensive mind who would soon transition to the NFL. Sparano and Rizzi would even reunite when the former hired the latter from the Miami Dolphins in 2008.
But before that happened, Rizzi took a job at Northeastern before returning to New Haven to serve as the team’s head coach from 1999 to 2001. Later, in 2008, Rizzi accepted the head coaching position at his alma mater, Rhode Island, even though the Rams struggled en route to a 3-8 record.
But Rizzi’s football career was just beginning.
After a year away from the game, Rizzi starred as the Dolphins special teams coordinator from 2010 to 2018, during which time the Dolphins ranked first in the NFL with 11 blocked kicks and second with 22 total blocked kicks .
Rizzi managed to survive several regime changes in Miami during that time, but was ultimately let go when Brian Flores replaced Adam Gase as head coach in 2019.
Regardless, Rizzi got off to a similarly good start in New Orleans after being hired by then-Saints coach Sean Payton.
The Saints ranked second and fourth in net point average during Rizzi’s first two seasons, although the team has fluctuated in that area since then.
The New Orleans Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen after a seven-game losing streak
Still, first-year Saints punter Matthew Hayball ranks fifth in the NFL with 21 attempts to land inside the 20-yard line. And on top of that, the Saints rank sixth in the NFL over the past five seasons, with an average of 10.1 yards.
Meanwhile, Saints coverage units have allowed the third-lowest punt return average (7.0) from 2019 to 2023.
Interestingly, Rizzi’s first game will come Sunday in New Orleans against the rival Atlanta Falcons.
The Saints defeated the Falcons 48-17 in their final game of last season, which ended with an on-field altercation between Rizzi Atlanta head coach Arthur Smith.
Smith was fired after the game and the exact cause of the trade was never made public.