Where there's smoke there's fire.

St. Widge said
Yeah, but if your plan is to move up for a rookie QB in the top 5 why give that money to Winston when you can sign a vet like Dalton or Mariota for much less money and use that money to sign Armstead to protect your rookie QB and/or to get your rookie QB a reliable WR opposite of Michael Thomas?

I just think everything about the way they are going about this offseason points to building the team to the point that either Winston can succeed with this team, or your team is ready for a rookie QB to come in next year or for a lower round pick to have a couple years to develop. But, sure, I could be wrong.

Because the best case scenario is Winston holding the rookie on the sideline for a year and playing out of the cap you've set for him. The money given to Winston is still low end starter money. Andy Dalton or Bortes aren't close to that and now that Taysom is no longer an option there's nothign eles there if Winston goes down. You don't have a 1B on the roster anymore...gotta go get one.

DavidM said
I think it's just as likely that Allen sees a defense that is built to win now and an offense that is missing some key pieces. Fill those this season with rookies ready to start and this team can catapult into a serious NFC contender.

Very likely they can fill LT and WR in round 1 and still come away with a viable developmental QB in rounds 2 or 3 without much drop-off.

If Allen is positioning to make a move up for a first round QB, Pickett is widely considered the most ready. With the likely capital it will take to move ahead of other QB needy teams, going to lose a lot of value in the sort term as well as the opportunity costs of getting better at OL and WR with 1st round talent. Not saying it can't or won't work, but it doesn't look as favorable as other options, to me.

Look at it from this way. Last year the Saints brass felt most comfortable w/ having Taysom compete with Winston for 1A. Well even though Jameis won he only played 6 games. There isn't enough proof there that he shouldn't compete again if you can help it. Now that you've moved Taysom to TE full time you need another 1B to compete with Winston or be a high end #2.