What about the (other) elephant in the room: Injuries

Julius Jones joined the Saints in October of that season. Led the team in rushing in that Cowboys comeback game. They signed Deshawn Wynn and Joique Bell before the wild card game but neither player recorded a stat in the game.

The bigger issues were Pierre Thomas’ injury during the week 16 Falcons game, a win the Saints needed, and then Chris Ivory suffering an injury before the season finale’s result stopped mattering. That all set the stage for Reggie Bush, back from injury since Thanksgiving, to show that he could be RB1… but God, the universe, and everybody except Reggie Bush-only Saints fans knew he didn’t have that in him by this phase in his career. He had 10 touches for 49 yards and was done for the day after a 3rd-and-10 reception to get the first down with the team clinging to a thread of hope late in the 3rd quarter.
Thomas' injury was actually a re-injury. He had been injured initially in the infamous home loss to the Falcons in week 3. It's how Ivory got to be the RB1 for most of 2010 in the first place. Still love me some Chris Ivory memories, but man, he always ran too hard and got himself injured in the process. But indeed, our lack of health at RB was the main reason we lost to a sub-.500 team in the first round.

Also true is that having a sure-fire Hall of Famer under center will sure mask any other depth-related deficiencies you might have. We don't have that luxury anymore.