Article The fastest path for the Saints to clear the decks of their salary cap issues (1 Viewer)

[HouseCall]

If we would have rebuilt and planned for the future when we should have we’d have Lamar Jackson instead of forcing first round picks to get a decent edge rusher as part of our “final piece” mentality, which we still haven’t accomplished.

The thing with rebuilds is they aren’t called rebuilds when they’re successful. Ravens did it, Packers did it, you can argue even the 49ers did it

This is absolutely my view as well!

The fans that want rebuilds are the fans who



The key to success in the NFL, if you don’t have a top-flight, generational QB, is drafting a solid QB and finding success before you have to pay them the big, cap-consuming contract.

If we would have rebuilt and planned for the future when we should have we’d have Lamar Jackson instead of forcing first round picks to get a decent edge rusher as part of our “final piece” mentality, which we still haven’t accomplished.

The thing with rebuilds is they aren’t called rebuilds when they’re successful. Ravens did it, Packers did it, you can argue even the 49ers did it

I agree with your comments 100%. The thing with rebuilds is that fans forget truly how bad things have to get before a rebuild is necessitated and when that happens – you have to be incredibly lucky on the coach and QB you bring in to carry the team forward.

If you aren’t one of the lucky teams to have a
generational QB at the helm, like KC, you essentially have to draft a QB who can come in and immediately succeed on their rookie deal. Because once you drop a massive contract on a QB, a significant portion of the young talent and depth are lost because you can’t pay them.

We are in a frustrating spot now. Three consecutive seasons hovering around .500 and no playoffs. It’s the kind of purgatory we suffered through with Haslett from 2001-2004 and then under Payton from 2014-2017. But I’d honestly rather be there than terrible.

I see all these teams that are just bottom feeding and completely dearth of talent and I’m so grateful that we aren’t one of them because sometimes you get to the bottom and just stay there for years and years until you get lucky.

As it is now – sure we aren’t the top dog or hell…even the second-tier dogs – but we are in an advantageous division and despite being looked at as a 7 or 8 win team, we could certainly sneak a couple of wins we aren’t expecting and end up in a nice playoff spot. I’d rather that every year than knowing we are the bottom of the barrel going in.

It’s really, really hard to succeed in the NFL and I believe it’s better to be closer to the middle when fortune comes calling than a blown-up mess.

 

[RJS]

Just a friendly reminder that the Chiefs and the Bills were playoff teams the year before they traded up for Mahomes and Allen. There is no need to ever let the bottom drop out.

 

[abnrgr]

It mostly comes down to the draft. You can’t win strictly through free agency. Hold onto the picks like this year and build the team on youth and cheap contracts. We will be back in the hunt if we draft well.

 

[St. Geezy]

Draft better, be better at getting great value for your $$$ out of the right free agents, coach better, and you win football games.

We have had far too many strikeouts as of late in all the above areas, and no matter what financial strategy you deploy, you will be screwed.
Football is not played on spreadsheets and accounting ledgers. This is a 20/20 hindsight convenient boogeyman to point the finger at.

And I know many won’t want to hear this…a team whose absolute floor has essentially been being a .500 type team for almost 20 years isn’t the end of the world.

We are a lot closer to being a championship contender than we are to needing to tear it all down in order to get better. There are teams that felt they had to tear it all down a very long time ago, and guess what, they are still tore down to this day.

 

[St. Geezy]

Just a friendly reminder that the Chiefs and the Bills were playoff teams the year before they traded up for Mahomes and Allen. There is no need to ever let the bottom drop out.

Exactly…tread water for as long as you can, until finally you strike gold on a draft pick, a new coordinator, and/or free agent or three, and everything just suddenly clicks.

Reminds me of when people were calling for Sean’s head after the 2007 and 2008 seasons or after that horrible run from 2014-2016.

Being average puts you a lot closer to breaking through than tearing it apart and being absolutely terrible, even if that breakthrough merely relies on pure luck in a small handful of games.

 

[Chopper Man]

rebuilds are a thing of the past. Managing assets and trading away pieces for more assets is not a rebuild.