With the 9th Pick in the 2025 draft, who should the Saints select? (merged)

St. Geezy said

Definitely agree on that. The issue is that what happens is that the team won’t go out of its way to find a better player to trump a player whose salary is that high.

Now, if they happen to stumble upon a cheap free agent that suddenly has a light bulb come on and gets great, or get lucky and strike gold on an immediate Pro Bowl level rookie guard out of Bloomsberg College that you got in the middle of the draft, that’s a different story.

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That's exactly it, the team isn't likely to seek out real competition when they are already paying someone at that position. You might get a late-round rookie or some vet minimum journeyman, but the team isn't investing serious resources into finding someone who can put a high-paid player on the bench.

The result is predictable, any competitions that do take place in camp are likely going to be won by the entrenched veteran, because they'll win any ties and the talent level/developmental level of their replacements isn't likely to be good enough to even achieve a tie.