Could we the best landing spot for UDFAs again? Should we covet late round picks? (4 Viewers)

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Elvis

Elvis

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Now that the head coaching search is about to wrap up, one way or another, I've started thinking about the draft and free agency and it made me remember when we were once THE BEST team to go to to have a chance to actually make a roster and play as a UDFA or late round pick. When the whole "it doesn't matter how you got here, it matters what you do once you're here" was really a thing. I realize that was many years ago and under Sean Payton, but the circumstances to then are similar now. We have a roster with not much depth and not much money to fix it.

ElliasJWilliams posted in the Senior Bowl thread that Payton had changed out nearly 40 players when he got here. I know a bunch of UDFAs came in during those early years and a lot of late round picks got playing time as well. Could we use a similar approach to quickly turn over this roster in 2025 and 2026? Lots of clever cap maneuvering would need to happen up top still, but if there was the will to getting the roster turned over quickly I believe this could be part of the strategy.

This article from 2020 goes over a lot of the names we've developed out of UDFAs. We didn't do them all at once, but there was a LOT of them over the years. Do you think the team can / will try to replicate that this year for the new coach? And would making it known that there was going to be an effort to recruit and play UDFAs this season give us an advantage after the draft is over? Is this the year to let the scouts earn their keep while getting a lot of good football players and building the team around them instead of drafting for fit?
 
Guys will go where there is an opportunity. If we have a huge roster turnover and limited picks, it makes sense that we could be a landing spot for UDFAs again. One of the big things is having a coaching staff willing to give anyone a chance no matter where they come from. That was a Parcels mindset that SP brought here.
 
Snakehead said:
Guys will go where there is an opportunity. If we have a huge roster turnover and limited picks, it makes sense that we could be a landing spot for UDFAs again. One of the big things is having a coaching staff willing to give anyone a chance no matter where they come from. That was a Parcels mindset that SP brought here.
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Right. Do we think that are front office is going to encourage that mindset with the new staff? Will we give the scouts a bigger voice on draft day when it comes to getting good football players at any position as long as they could at least be depth and play special teams?

The way I'm seeing some of this work out is that if we were moving off of Carr and Ram with a June 1st designation, we could cut a lot of the bottom of the roster, agree to terms with new players (or recently cut players) after the draft, but not officially sign them to the roster until after June 1st. Allowing us to get under the cap by the beginning of the league year and still achieving some roster turnover. Making it apparent to agents that we were going to do that in advance would likely give us the best of those players.
 
The Saints have remained pretty committed to shelling out guaranteed money to priority UDFA. Typically well above average. Just this past year Holker, Trajan Jeffcoat and Millard Bradford were all at or near the top of the highest rated UDFA'a at their positions. Obviously, Rizzi convincing them to spend big on Shaheed has paid huge dividends.

I see no reason that would stop. One of the biggest spenders year after year on UDFA's is the Cowboys and Moore obviously has a long history with them. It probably doesn't hurt that Moore was a UDFA as well.
 
It makes too much sense to do that given previous success and practically speaking, the cheapest option to go out and flip this roster.

I had given up hope that we would trade back and get some more picks over the years but with a new coach coming in Iā€™m hoping we will.

Usually when we get extra picks we treat it like money burning a hole in our pocket and use it to trade up, but we need as many shots at the board as possible.
 
blackjack said:
It makes too much sense to do that given previous success and practically speaking, the cheapest option to go out and flip this roster.

I had given up hope that we would trade back and get some more picks over the years but with a new coach coming in Iā€™m hoping we will.

Usually when we get extra picks we treat it like money burning a hole in our pocket and use it to trade up, but we need as many shots at the board as possible.
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That is 100% what I'm thinking too. We need a LOT of new blood on this team. I want to be the team that trades back for more picks and sees the bottom of the current roster as interchangeable with new, low risk, young players. And while it sounds crazy, gutting the bottom of the roster in March could give us the temporary room we need to use those June 1 designations on Carr and Ramczyk. Then fill it all out in June when that $31 million becomes available. Those players are not make or break for your teams success, but collectively their contracts are preventing the team from getting out from under those bad contracts.

This is extreme team makeover stuff I'm talking about. There is a near zero chance the team would do this. But if Moore wanted to take a year to tear down to build back up the following year this could be the way.
 
Elvis said:
Now that the head coaching search is about to wrap up, one way or another, I've started thinking about the draft and free agency and it made me remember when we were once THE BEST team to go to to have a chance to actually make a roster and play as a UDFA or late round pick. When the whole "it doesn't matter how you got here, it matters what you do once you're here" was really a thing. I realize that was many years ago and under Sean Payton, but the circumstances to then are similar now. We have a roster with not much depth and not much money to fix it.

ElliasJWilliams posted in the Senior Bowl thread that Payton had changed out nearly 40 players when he got here. I know a bunch of UDFAs came in during those early years and a lot of late round picks got playing time as well. Could we use a similar approach to quickly turn over this roster in 2025 and 2026? Lots of clever cap maneuvering would need to happen up top still, but if there was the will to getting the roster turned over quickly I believe this could be part of the strategy.

This article from 2020 goes over a lot of the names we've developed out of UDFAs. We didn't do them all at once, but there was a LOT of them over the years. Do you think the team can / will try to replicate that this year for the new coach? And would making it known that there was going to be an effort to recruit and play UDFAs this season give us an advantage after the draft is over? Is this the year to let the scouts earn their keep while getting a lot of good football players and building the team around them instead of drafting for fit?
Click to expand...
Why donā€™t you ask them?
 
Snakehead said:
Guys will go where there is an opportunity. If we have a huge roster turnover and limited picks, it makes sense that we could be a landing spot for UDFAs again. One of the big things is having a coaching staff willing to give anyone a chance no matter where they come from. That was a Parcels mindset that SP brought here.
Click to expand...
I agree to a certain extent Snakehead. Guys will also go where they can make the most money as UDFAs as well. Yes, opportunity/playing time is important but SP was also willing to get ML to sign these guys and many times outbid other teams for their services. We shall see, one thing is for sure. We are gonna need a handful of UDFAs to break into the starting lineup and consistently make plays. We havenā€™t had that in a while.
 
All picks are important.

It comes down to the quality of your scouting and personnel staff to be able to find valuable players who can contribute in later rounds.

Which is something the Saints haven't done much of lately.
 
RJS said:
  • Round 1, Pick 9
  • Round 2, Pick 40
  • Round 3, Pick 71
  • Round 3, Pick 93 (via Washington)
  • Round 4, Pick 110
  • Round 4, Pick 129 (via Washington)
  • Round 6, Pick 185
  • Round 7, Pick 253 (projected compensatory)
Click to expand...

In my fantasy land, Loomis turns pick 9 into a pick in the late teens/early twenties and picks up an additional 2025 2nd. Depending on how far back, they could even pickup an additional third or fourth. Easiest way to bring down the cap and stock up on talent is get as many picks as possible and take BPA across the board.
 

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