Saints interested in Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini, according to report

After a terribly unsuccessful defensive campaign in 2012, the New Orleans Saints fired coordinator Steve Spagnoulo. This obviously left a need at the coordinator position, though recently reinstated head coach Sean Payton said he's in "no hurry" to bring in a replacement.

On Friday, the rumor mill churned out another interesting bit of information -- that the Saints may be interested in Romeo Crennel and/or Eric Mangini for the defensive coordinator position.

This tidbit was courtesy of NFL insider Adam Schefter, via his WhoSay account:

Two defensive coaching candidates the Saints will consider adding to staff include Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel, per league sources. It's even possible the two could go together to New Orleans with one serving as defensive coordinator, sources said. When reached Friday about this possibility, Mangini said he has not been contacted by anybody from the Saints about any position. Mangini and Crennel worked on the same Patriots coaching staff that won three Super Bowls in New England. Saints have told people they plan to proceed with their defensive coordinator search slowly and there's no rush to fill the position.

This was a pretty unique development.

The Saints could actually consider a tandem of defensive minds to serve as one coordinator. It's untraditional but not unthinkable. But the question is what can't one do that the other can? Both men are former NFL head coaches that have had success as coordinators.

They have been on the same staff twice before; once with New England and again in Cleveland. During their time with the Patriots, they were apart of three Super Bowl championships. Though, they have had significantly less success away from Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.

This development does not mean the Saints' coaching search has come to a screeching halt. If anything, it means they are open to new opportunities and are dead set on fixing this 3-4 defense.