I can smell what’s coming after the HC hire

rsmith2783 said
I agree, no one knew that Drew would turn into a HOF QB, nor did anyone knew that Payton would turn into a good coach.
A lot of unusual things happened in 2006, which doesn't happen every year.

Having the Heisman player go #2 instead of #1

Finding your starting WR in the 7th round

Piecing together a Top 10 Defense with scraps

Hitting on a few draft day trades

Finding HOF talent in the 2006 draft

All of those things happened and helped the Saints go from 3-13 to 10-6 NFC Championship game. This doesn't happen every year and it's somewhat an anomaly.

So when the 2006 references start to come out, I wouldn't start giving hopes up.

1. I love Reggie Bush. Have a Bush jersey framed on my wall. Did Reggie Bush have made a bigger impact on that 2006 team than Mario Williams, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, AJ Hawk, Vernon Davis, etc? I doubt it. Best college football RB maybe ever. But the team may have thrived with any of those elite prospects at the top of that particular draft.

2. Devaughn Vele was a 7th rounder this year and was a meaningful part of the Broncos passing offense. Marques Colston’s doppelgänger. Offensive minds like CSP find those guys routinely.

3. Don’t agree with the scraps part of that defensive talent assessment, but even if I did - great offensive pacing and efficiency at the pro level typically makes a defense play about their on-paper talent.

4. Our scouting department has had a crazy high success rate on moving up in the top 3-5 rounds. Typically, when they have a vision for a guy - he hits. Saints haven’t had enough of those moments since 2017, which was an even better draft than 2006.

My main point is that a great hire here can completely reignite the team and bad hire is going to be very, very bad for the 2025 optics. And I don’t think Sean Payton is the only great candidate ever.