Zack Baun: Top Graded LB / DPOTW [Why Baun Isn’t Still a Saint Thread]
The mistake was not managing the cap in a way that allows rebuilding and going young/cheap. Both guys are 35yo which is the wall for any position besides QB and K/P. Jordan will cost 20M in dead money while Davis will likely be 13M. We have to restructure to get under the cap every year and tie ourselves to players at prices that don't match. Jordan is not a 13M/yr DE this year or last year. Davis has a cap number of 12.5M next year because we added a 12M extension for 2025 when he is 36yo. These are overpriced contracts by a GM who dug himself in a hole. I'm not sure Pete Warner even lives up to his 7.5M/yr contract based on his play.
Bad contracts, poor talent evaluation, reluctance to either draft to scheme or scheme to players.......these are whole organization problems.
If DA is "keep chopping wood", then Loomis should be "keep digging the hole".
Agreed with bad draft picks and bad talent evaluation on some players. The cap and certain contracts aren’t stopping the Saints from being a good team though. Cam has the worst contract on the team but his contract and others hasn’t prevented the team from adding 10M-30M per year FAs. Although Demario and Cam are the same age, Demario’s production matches every bit of his salary. Defense would be an even bigger mess without him. Saints were a winning team because of the draft and having an elite QB. Cap space was never the driving force behind the Saints’ success.
When teams are sitting on cap space, they’ll eventually have to use it up to extend their draft picks if they’re good players. Teams usually have a ton of cap room because they aren’t rostering many talented players that are performing at a high salary range level. Or their best players are still playing on their rookie deals.
Look at the Lions for example. They got better by swapping Stafford for a younger good QB in Goff, hiring a significantly better offensive coaching staff, and drafting Hutchinson, Sewell, Gibbs, St. Brown, J. Williams, Branch, and LaPorta. They weren’t keeping cap room available for splash FAs. They hit on their draft picks really well and will have to use their cap up on extending Goff and over 7 great young players from their drafts.
The same happened with the Saints past draft success. Saints cap is in the circumstances it’s in by extending 10 top market valued draft picks from the ‘16, ‘17, ‘19, and ‘20 classes, along with repeatedly extending elite greats Brees and Cam all at the same time. Their solution is primarily getting back to the same scouting that brought them the 2016-2017 draft classes.