Dome Team = Offensive Team

I don’t think winning a Super Bowl should be the metric for determining a “winning” team. There is only one per year and we know that it is usually won by the best QB (QB playing the best at the time), plain and simple.

So, if we take this year’s playoff teams, and remove the 3 teams with generational QB’s (Mahommes, Allen, Jackson) because getting one of those isn’t a simple process, what commonalities are we left with?

8 of the 11 playoff teams have an Oline ranked in top 12 in the league by PFF. (The Cardinals were 7th and missed the playoffs). This doesn’t mean you have to have 1st round draft picks or high $ free agents on your team to win, but you darn sure better have the right players for your system.

There does seem to be a small numerical advantage to having an offensive minded head coach, but I don’t think it is across the board. What I do see is that if you have a “limited” QB, you are better off with an offensive minded head coach. If you have a #1 or #2 overall pick playing QB, a defensive minded head coach seems to work. This makes sense when you look at the Brady/Belicheck & Manning/Dungy models. If your QB is good, help him out. If he is great, leave him the heck alone and focus on stopping the other team.

Your QB needs to have enough pocket presence and escapability to pick up a first down on a busted 3rd & 6 play. Only 3 of the playoff QBs are not at least somewhat mobile.

You have to have a reasonable performer at all of the offensive skill positions. You can’t have a gaping hole somewhere or it allows the defense to gain a little too much advantage over the offense. Trautman in Denver was really the only “hole” for any of the playoff teams at WR1, TE, or RB1.

So where does this leave the Saints? I’d say the Saints best bet is getting an offensive minded head coach to install his scheme (that fits our Oline) for Rattler to take over in 2026. At best, this solves the QB issue and at worst it saves money to continue building the team. High value resources should be spent on defensive players, with the exception of adding 1 top-tier offensive weapon so that the resulting “trickle down” makes the team better at all the skill positions.