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

St. Widge said
There is no way you can say that when you don't even know who the HC is and this is a team that is being rebuilt a new coach is not going to base what schemes he wants to use long term on the current players on the team. Maybe a HC would adjust for a year to be a running team, depending on what he thinks of Carr which we don't know, but in the long run he is going to implement his system. And the draft is about the long term, not just what a HC will do in the short term before he has built his roster his way.

Regardless, you can still get a very good RB later than pick #9 in this draft. If Jeanty is BPA at #9, I'd try to trade down. If you can't and he is BPA, draft him. But the best case scenario for this team is for a better player at another position to fall to #9 and then you can take another RB like Judkins or about 5 other guys later in the draft.

Regarding your statement around #9, I agree.

The first part, you're also correct, I don't "know". But I also know that it doesn't matter what he thinks of Carr. He's going to lean on the run game his first year to start. If you truly understood football you would know that. The players will have an entire new offensive scheme to learn and get synced with. Even if every offensive player returns, it will take time for them to learn the scheme and get in sync. Training camp is not enough. Pre-season is not enough. The running game is the quickest and easiest offensive scheme for players to execute successfully. The passing game is not. We will very, very likely be a running team to start.

And drafting for the future still requires us to start looking at RB. Kamara will be 31 after this coming season. Miller can't stay healthy. Clyde misses games and practices due to PTSD. Whether your drafting for some help this season or for the future, we will likely add a RB.

This stuff isn't hard. Any and all sports are swimming with patterns and the NFL is no different. There are patterns that consistently work and patterns that don't. Just like with Dennis Allen, anyone who watched him coach the Raiders for 3 years saw patterns and knew he was very likely going to be bad. Just like with every first year coach, they tend to lean on the running game far more then passing unless you have a Peyton Manning/Tom Brady, prime Aaron Rodgers or prime Drew Brees long after shoulder surgery, which we don't.

The probability of what's going to happen is quite literally right there staring at us.