It sort of seemed like depth chart prison for Baun. He was buried behind 3 starting LBs for 3 years.
Kwon and Anzalone were LB2 and LB3 in 2020.
Then Kwon and Werner in 2021. Elliss emerged as a starting LB in 2022. But Baun was training for 3 years to become the good offball LB that he is now. He apparently wasn’t at his 2024 version’s level in ‘20-‘22.
Baun didn’t emerge when the Saints needed a young long term LB2 in 2021-2022. Werner did.
Werner locked up LB2 by Baun’s contract year in ‘23.
If Payton didn’t draft Werner in 2021, Baun could’ve been starting next to Davis by 2022. Nothing can be done about it now. There’s early round starting LB prospects to scout every year.