There's no easy way out of this
I agree. I don't think Loomis is very good at talent evaluation, but what it comes down to is that Loomis isn't a personnel guy, he's a business guy. So how much talent this team will have and how well they draft is totally dependent on having a head coach that is good at evaluating talent and good in the draft. Along with having good scouting and a good head of college scouting. And frankly, I think that's pretty much so true for most NFL teams with the possible exception of the Ravens.
I think these days most head coaches run the draft and pick the talent and DA is no exception to that. Payton certainly wasn't an exception and the way we handle the cap and the position we are in are all directly related to giving Payton the team he wanted. That's why we added void years and why we singed older players. It's why we always traded picks to get guys that we targeted. It's how Payton wanted it done and it continued with DA. Loomis is good at doing whatever is needed to give the head coach the team he wants, but it went on 3 or 4 years too long and it needs to stop now. Although to be fair, Loomis started the process of getting the cap back to the mean a few years ago. Although it was slowed up when Carr became available and they went after him.
But, it's time to stop doing those things and bring in a head coach that is a good talent evaluator. They need to build through the draft and add a bunch of young talent while they get the cap back to the mean. I don't really care if Loomis stays or goes but he needs to bring in a new coach that can evaluate talent, lead a team, and is good with Xs and Os. If he won't or can't do that then Loomis needs to go too.
However, for those wishing for a total tear down, it's not going to happen. First, this organization clearly does not believe in that approach. Second, they probably can't afford to do it because they would lose ticket sales over the long term and there is no guarantee that you will come back from a tear down. By the time they did, it may be too late the save the franchise in New Orleans. Many franchises take 8 or 10 years, or more to rebuild after total tear down. This team can't afford to take that chance. So, you are going to continue to see a soft rebuild and trying to put a competitive team on the field while they reset the roster and the cap.
Killing it with the common sense, you are.Sean Payton is a great coach and a good talent evaluator. His teams play better than the talent they have and that's about the best thing you can say about a coach. And frankly, that last 9-8 year may have been his best coaching job given the roster and all the injuries they had.
But, it's also true that he left her leaving the team with no QB, no WRs, no cap space, and a large number of older players because he went all in every year trying to get another Super Bowl and traded away draft picks to get guys he thought were the last piece to win it all. The result is an aging roster, with little depth, and no cap space. I don't blame him for those things and we had a lot of success as a result, but it also resulted in him leaving when he realized the situation we were in.
It was a mistake to hire DA to replace him. I was a mistake to go full force into the rebuild the year after Payton left. And it was a mistake to tell the fanbase that DA was a continuation of the success that Payton had. But, it would also be a mistake to not realize that Payton is part of the reason we are in the position we are in.