Ian Rapoport: Saints Not Planning to Rebuild (3 Viewers)

[mccombmike]

You can call it mass layoffs. You can call it corporate restructuring.

It’s the same thing. If you don’t do it, you fail.

 

[Mitchall]

Actually Dennis Lauscha, Greg Bensel and then Loomis. In other words, highly unlikely that will ever happen that it gets to Loomis. And, fwiw, none of the 3 would inherit anything, they're the executors of the succession plan when Gayle passes. And basically it's sell the team to someone who will keep the team in New Orleans and the proceeds from the sale would be donated to various charities. And the executors of the plan can be modified by Gayle, so in theory, if there's a falling out, Gayle could remove Loomis from the plan.

All that said, I suspect Gayle would just move him to an executive position away from football operations and hire a new GM.

Thanks for the Clarification and I agree completely.

 

[jasonsw]

Oh, it's definitely a league wide trend, but I don't think there an offense in the league who has been hit harder than the Saints.

I think our group WR is in worse shape than the 2021 one. Saints have got to find a way to get more WR talent on the team this offseason.

 

[St. Widge]

If we end up keeping Loomis, then hopefully we keep Jeff Ireland. As he gained more of his scouts and became more into the selection process and the drafting did improve. Don't get me wrong I don't think Loomis is the answer but we got to look at it from every angle. The management system has a lot of moving pieces. If the team continues to lose out the rest of the season with Loomis as GM and its not changed then it time to get out the Copium.

I think it's more important to move on from Ireland than Loomis. Ireland is really the one most involved in player evaluation and really runs the draft. The drafts have been okay, but not near good enough. They have been mediocre which has led to mediocre results. I really think we need an upgrade in scouting and talent evaluation more than we need a new GM. I'd be fine with doing both, but I think Ireland too often gets a pass in all of this. 2017 was a long time ago and it's the only really good draft that he has had and some of them were down right terrible.

 

[St. Widge]

I think our group WR is in worse shape than the 2021 one. Saints have got to find a way to get more WR talent on the team this offseason.

It depends. If Olave and Sheed come back healthy, we really just need to add a big WR and depth and we are good. In 2021 we essentially had no WRs. But given the question marks around Olave, we do need to do a lot of work at the position.

 

[jasonsw]

It depends. If Olave and Sheed come back healthy, we really just need to add a big WR and depth and we are good. In 2021 we essentially had no WRs. But given the question marks around Olave, we do need to do a lot of work at the position.

I don't think we can count on Olave. I think he is done as far being a healthy effective player. If not concussion, then it seems likely he suffers another injury.

Shaheed to me is a nice number 3, his career catch percentage isn't good for a number 2 WR.

 

[Mitchall]

I think it's more important to move on from Ireland than Loomis. Ireland is really the one most involved in player evaluation and really runs the draft. The drafts have been okay, but not near good enough. They have been mediocre which has led to mediocre results. I really think we need an upgrade in scouting and talent evaluation more than we need a new GM. I'd be fine with doing both, but I think Ireland too often gets a pass in all of this. 2017 was a long time ago and it's the only really good draft that he has had and some of them were down right terrible.

I just don't know if Loomis, if kept in his current position, will make that change given his reluctance to pull the trigger on Allen. I would prefer them move on from Loomis if no improvements are made this season. I really wouldn't cry if they lost Ireland but it seemed like he was the only one somewhat hitting on anything mostly. So maybe its more of him being the the sharpest piece o bread in da shed. /wink

 

[SonOfNOLA]

Call it whatever you want, but we aren't going to attract (or be able to afford) much in FA. We are stuck with a bunch of aging vets do to restructuring. We need at least 2-3 really impactful draft classes and to reset the cap. Hopefully we can still find a good/young offensive minded HC and make some changes at the top of the FO. We'll get outta the woods eventually, but it's gonna take some patience.

Not attracting FAs is probably extremely overstated. Saints signed a double digit APY FA every offseason since 2022 plus other quality FAs each year. Most contending teams aren’t making splash signings that often. When they do, they’re extremely empty at the position (Atl-QB, Hou/Minn-EDGE, GB/Minn-RB) and can’t get the same immediate value in that year’s draft to win games. They’re offering the most to fill a comically huge hole more than the team itself attracting the FA. Draft is always the #1 way to get better for every team. Saints have to get back to the scouting that brought them Kamara, Lattimore, McCoy, Thomas, Hendrickson and others from the ‘16, ‘17, ‘19 and ‘21 classes.

 

[St. Widge]

I don't think we can count on Olave. I think he is done as far being a healthy effective player. If not concussion, then it seems likely he suffers another injury.

Shaheed to me is a nice number 3, his career catch percentage isn't good for a number 2 WR.

I'm a bit more optimistic about Olave's future and I think Shaheed is still very young and can develop into a #2 WR. He's already one of the best deep ball guys in the league. And I think even with that, we are better than in 2021.

Anyway, no doubt they need to find a lot of help at WR. I really wish we could see more of Means who I thought was really developing before the high ankle sprain so hopefully he will be back. I also think that the way college offenses play these days WR is one of the easier positions to find in the draft so it certainly can be done. My bigger concern for this team overall is finding a franchise QB and some pass rushers.

 

[DaveXA]

I think our group WR is in worse shape than the 2021 one. Saints have got to find a way to get more WR talent on the team this offseason.

No doubt.

 

[St. Widge]

I just don't know if Loomis, if kept in his current position, will make that change given his reluctance to pull the trigger on Allen. I would prefer them move on from Loomis if no improvements are made this season. I really wouldn't cry if they lost Ireland but it seemed like he was the only one somewhat hitting on anything mostly. So maybe its more of him being the the sharpest piece o bread in da shed. /wink

That's a fair point. Loomis may not be willing to move on from Ireland. So, yeah, I'm fine with both Loomis and Ireland going.

I think/hope that there will be lots of conversations going on soon between Benson, Lauscha, and Loomis about what the future of the organization is going to look like. I doubt Mrs. Benson fires Loomis, but I could see him being moved to some kind of Executive VP position.

 

[Madmarsha]

Rebuild reschmild

 

[DaveXA]

Not attracting FAs is probably extremely overstated. Saints signed a double digit APY FA every offseason since 2022 plus other quality FAs each year. Most teams with consistent winning records aren’t making splash signings that often. When they do, they’re extremely empty at the position (Atl-QB, Hou/Minn-EDGE, GB/Minn-RB) and can’t get the same immediate value in the draft to win games. They’re offering the most to fill a huge hole more than the team itself attracting the FA. Draft is always the #1 way to get better for every team. Saints have to get back to the scouting that brought them Kamara, Lattimore, McCoy, Thomas, Hendrickson and others from the ‘16, ‘17, ‘19 and ‘21 classes.

It's never been for lack of trying in terms of free agency. Gayle has always been willing to pay for top shelf talent to keep the team competitive, we've been snake bit by some of the free agents we've acquired.

 

[jasonsw]

It's never been for lack of trying in terms of free agency. Gayle has always been willing to pay for top shelf talent to keep the team competitive, we've been snake bit by some of the free agents we've acquired.

Like Wilson at WR

 

[Rouxble]

Like Wilson at WR

Correct, we’ve done nothing to really address WR in free agency. The most guaranteed money we’ve offered a FA receiver in the last three years is $3m, and that was Jarvis Landry. That would rank 34th 31st on FA WR contracts signed over that period.