Rebuild or Reload (1 Viewer)

[RJ in Lafayette]

Rebuild or reload. This is the heading for a new Underhill article. For the Saints going forward, there is no bigger question.

I do not have access to NOF. My sense from reading the comments is that Underhill, along with many others, believes the approach will be to reload and that he may be generally supportive of that approach. (In the past, Underhill has favored the reload approach. I have not read his article. In fairness, it is quite possible that in this article his recommendations are different or more nuanced.)

Given that people like Underhill and Duncan are not even debating whether Loomis should be replaced, the likelihood seems high that the Saints will opt for a reload approach. Loomis has been the architect and proponent of reload over the last three seasons.

My own belief is that we should rebuild and should have begun that process earlier. I would like to see different and younger people in charge--what Brad Holmes in Detroit and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah in Minnesota have done has been amazing. I do not see a talented roster or a substantial core of talented young players. And we need to turn salary-cap hell into salary-cap purgatory with a end to our misery in sight.

My fear: We are having this debate in January 2026 and January 2027.

 

[Saints 318]

Time to rebuild. We been reloading for so long and it hasn’t worked

 

[TruSaint]

Rebuild everything.

 

[MarylandWHODAT]

Yes

 

[whodatbe]

Hopefully we can find a coach who can help players elevate their game. Meanwhile, eat as much cap as we can, and shoot for '26 as the beginning of the come back. Just my thoughts.

 

[Super Hooper]

If the Saints don’t rebuild we will see more of what we have seen the last couple of years. As long as ML is making the decisions we will continue to flounder.

 

[Slidell Mike]

Yes, I agree with you. The Loomis reload strategy has failed us in combination with the DA hire. We are an older, injured team with a bad salary cap situation. The past few drafts have been less than stellar and some of our personnel decisions have been questionable (e.g. Baun). Further, Loomis' penchant for trading away picks to move up in the draft has produced poor results and robbed the team of young, cheap depth this team needs badly.

There needs to be a major shift in the approach going forward, but with Loomis remaining in charge which is likely, I don't think that happens. Not sure how the Saints will spin things to keep fans engaged and season ticket renewals from tanking (the only thing that might, finally, force real change). Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Wisco Steve]

Reload what, exactly?
It's time to take our medicine, or we will be out in the wilderness for a very long time.

 

[EvilMike]

Rebuild. Clean house

 

[fishing4food]

IMO, a reload is just adding certain personnel to shore up an already capable and contending team. That is not the Saints. Almost every position on the team needs to be fully replaced or having a severe upgrade. We're in a rebuild situation.

 

[SWJJ]

I dont mind doing a "reload" as long as we FIX THE CAP.

 

[Rouxble]

We've been doing a quiet rebuild the last few years, particularly when you look at non-QB contracts. Looking at contracts with an AAV of at least $2m/yr from 2021-2024, the Saints signed $70.6m worth of free agents while letting $120.3m of free agents walk out the door.

Year	Signed by Saints	Signed by Other	Net
2021	$7.2m	$40.7m	($33.5m)
2022	$25.3m	$29.0m	($3.7m)
2023	$17.2m	$43.1m	($25.9m)
2024	$20.9m	$7.5m	+$12.6m

Contracts don't always equal performance, but on net we have been losing talent based on market value. We added Carr while letting the rest of the talent around him walk out the door.

We did add on net in 2024, but since we didn't re-sign anyone to a $2m/yr+ contract, it doesn't look like we had much talent left to lose with only $7.5m in new contracts for Saints that had expiring contracts in 2023.

 

[faceman]

Hopefully we can find a coach who can help players elevate their game. Meanwhile, eat as much cap as we can, and shoot for '26 as the beginning of the come back. Just my thoughts.

The rebuild has already started. Loomis only extended the contracts he needed to get under the cap. 25 will be
the same and I agree. 2026 will be the year

 

[WhoDat6278]

Just using the word “reload” in the context of a 5-12 team that hasn’t made the playoffs in 4 years is plain stupid. Really is something that Loomis continues to get carte blanche to do as he pleases, despite proving how incompetent he is without Payton. Gayle Benson really should get a grip and move him to a different position.

The reason Underhill and Duncan don’t talk about whether Loomis should be replaced is because, for the most part, they regurgitate the company line and don’t want to lose access. Our media as a whole is very subservient and weak when it comes to asking the right questions. To be fair to Underhill, a lot of his analysis is good and informative whereas Duncan is just a clown.

 

[Domeination]

We don't have enough to reload with. Time to rebuild.