The temptation to win now (7 Viewers)

[sfidc3]

Dennis Allen is gone, he can’t hurt this team or this fan base anymore, this is the time and opportunity to believe in the new possibilities ahead instead of continuing to judge the team through the DA lens

THIS is what I'm most excited about, 3 years ago when he was punting and playing ultra conservative, I strongly suspected then (I'll stop sure of I knew because life can sometimes be stranger than fiction) he wasn't fit to be a head coach......it felt like Haslett 2002 all over again....

Finally after 3 terrible, underachieving years hope springs anew.....

The goal is always to make the playoffs and it always should be, but in this 1st season what I really want to see is the right culture established, getting younger (and hopefully better) at a number of positions and marked improvement by the end of the year.....

 

[Rexman100]

I can assure you that the team will make moves and position the Saints to be a competitive team this year. As every franchise does every year. It could be on the conservative side with more long term goals in mind, but I guarantee there will be moves made and the narrative framed in a way that gets fans excited about the potential of the team this year. They could be "all in" on Rattler even if they really aren't. No team is ever going to take a season to publicly tank or rebuild. Kellen will have a long leash so what happens next year isn't going to change our direction much, but I expect there to be confidence in this team taking the division by September

I am not advocating that we avoid competing. But I am advocating that we focus on the long-term. The prospect of, say, winning the division 8-9 and losing a playoff game by four touchdowns does not excite me. If it happens, I can take a terrible 2025 season. In fact, I am expecting one. But I cannot take the continued embrace of mediocrity that adversely affects our chances of being a legitimate championship contender in three years or so.

Again, my approach for 2025 would be to begin whatever we need to do to have a favorable salary cap and to field a truly competitive team in 2027.

You know what the best time a sports fan can ever have? It’s when his/her team exceeds expectations. Like 2006 Saints. I literally had one eye closed, my expectations were in the negative range. I was just happy that saints weren’t moving. Purposely losing takes this scenario (although improbable) out of the equation

 

[Bill]

The HC said in his press conference they are not tanking.

I think there is a big difference between deliberately tanking and rebuilding the team. Perhaps Moore feels like we can still win during the rebuild.

 

[Ti Rider]

I agree with the writer this should be a “reset” season. Not necessarily a full on fire sale rebuild but a reset. The team should allow all the current expensive backloaded contracts to reach a point where cutting those vets is possible without restructuring/extending them. It will also mean eating some serious dead money over the next couple of seasons. This will severely limit your ability to sign FAs so Moore will have to build his team through the draft and with UDFAs.

Moore’s job is course to try to win with the roster he’ll help build. Next year may rough trying to win with a mixed roster of old uncuttable players on bad contracts and young inexperienced rookies. Not impossible but still an uphill battle. The following season as they clear even more bad contracts they should start having some cap flexibility to sign a few targeted free agents. But Loomis must absolutely stop writing big backloaded contracts, restructuring and extending old vets, and converting bonuses to salary in an attempt to “win now”.

 

[dvdman]

I say win NOW!

 

[44slayer]

I think in order to make the choice to win now, you have to be able to possibly win now.

Win now is why we are where we are. Win now is why we were 5-12. Win now is why we gave one of the worst HC in the history of sports 2.5 years. Win now is why the roster is old, oft injured and bereft of overall talent and depth. Win now is why we have had far fewer draft picks than we shouldve the last 5 years.

I want to rip the band aid off. Get the cap in order. Purge the roster of old and often injured players. Trade down and pick up more draft picks to build depth. That means probably not winning now. The whole point of this is to rebuild the franchise to the point we are WINNING NOW without making a decision whether we should win now or rebuild. Winning shouldnt be a choice, but a result.

 

[StudioSaint]

THIS is what I'm most excited about, 3 years ago when he was punting and playing ultra conservative, I strongly suspected then (I'll stop sure of I knew because life can sometimes be stranger than fiction) he wasn't fit to be a head coach......it felt like Haslett 2002 all over again....

Finally after 3 terrible, underachieving years hope springs anew.....

The goal is always to make the playoffs and it always should be, but in this 1st season what I really want to see is the right culture established, getting younger (and hopefully better) at a number of positions and marked improvement by the end of the year.....

I don't think Moore will replace an older player with a younger player, unless that younger player is as good right now or better then the older player.

The team doesn't get better this season by replacing older players with younger players who are currently not as good as the older player.

 

[StudioSaint]

I think in order to make the choice to win now, you have to be able to possibly win now.

Win now is why we are where we are. Win now is why we were 5-12. Win now is why we gave one of the worst HC in the history of sports 2.5 years. Win now is why the roster is old, oft injured and bereft of overall talent and depth. Win now is why we have had far fewer draft picks than we shouldve the last 5 years.

I want to rip the band aid off. Get the cap in order. Purge the roster of old and often injured players. Trade down and pick up more draft picks to build depth. That means probably not winning now. The whole point of this is to rebuild the franchise to the point we are WINNING NOW without making a decision whether we should win now or rebuild. Winning shouldnt be a choice, but a result.

If the band aid gets ripped off before the wound is healed, then the wound likely gets infected.

If ripping the band aid off causes the team to have a really bad year, then that losing infects the team with losing. That infection makes it more difficult to get back to regularly winning, it doesn't make it easier.

 

[Elvis]

I think in order to make the choice to win now, you have to be able to possibly win now.

Win now is why we are where we are. Win now is why we were 5-12. Win now is why we gave one of the worst HC in the history of sports 2.5 years. Win now is why the roster is old, oft injured and bereft of overall talent and depth. Win now is why we have had far fewer draft picks than we shouldve the last 5 years.

I want to rip the band aid off. Get the cap in order. Purge the roster of old and often injured players. Trade down and pick up more draft picks to build depth. That means probably not winning now. The whole point of this is to rebuild the franchise to the point we are WINNING NOW without making a decision whether we should win now or rebuild. Winning shouldnt be a choice, but a result.

There is a contingent of fans that think the things that went wrong last year, like injuries and DA, were the only things that went wrong last year. They don't see the QB position as a problem, they don't see our aging players as a problem, they don't see trading away draft picks to move up as a problem and they don't see our incredibly thin roster as a problem. They think it was just bad luck and want to run it back the same way, with added liabilities from kicking the can and signing free agents we can't afford, and deal with the consequences later.

The problem is that we've been doing it that way for a while and still not winning. Even when Drew was in his last couple of seasons we needed a QB, and to get younger, and depth at lot of positions. We were on borrowed time even then and now it's 5 years later and nothing has changed.

I'm giving Loomis some grace for being an optimist and believing the window was still open for the last few years and I won't hold it against him for brushing over our issues when speaking to the media. But I'd like to see a shift in tactics to match the actual reality. This season is the perfect time to pivot with so many other changes coming.

 

[St. Geezy]

I don't care what year it is.... Every year the mindset is.... We are winning the super bowl. Which remains until we are eliminated.

Yep. So many people here have never played a down of ball, and it shows.

The Saints are playing to win the division first and foremost, and come opening week, everyone in that locker room will feel like they’re about to take the league by storm and shock the world by dominating.

To hell with all this doom and gloom, “I don’t want to win the division at 8-9 and lose in round 1” stuff.

Teams can turn it on at any moment. You just never know when suddenly the chemistry will just all click. We saw it for a brief spell to start last season. That team we saw the first two games was not the one we saw at mid-season. We were not capable of blowing anyone out at that point. Those first two weeks were just a small reminder of how sometimes, everyone just gets into the zone together, confidence gets sky high, and you roll.

It’s an aura, and you should always be focused on the idea of capturing that aura and balling out.

Sometimes, winning a crap division and getting that aura at the exact right time down the stretch is all you need. You just never know.

 

[StudioSaint]

There is a contingent of fans that think the things that went wrong last year, like injuries and DA, were the only things that went wrong last year. They don't see the QB position as a problem, they don't see our aging players as a problem, they don't see trading away draft picks to move up as a problem and they don't see our incredibly thin roster as a problem. They think it was just bad luck and want to run it back the same way, with added liabilities from kicking the can and signing free agents we can't afford, and deal with the consequences later.

Some think that all of those things need to be improved in a balanced and moderate way, instead of tearing everything down. A lot of teams that tear everything down get trapped in a never ending cycle of tearing everything down without any improvement to show for it.

 

[St. Geezy]

We had the easiest schedule in 2023 and barely able to squeak out at 9-8.

We immediately jumped up to the 13th hardest schedule in 2024 and got embarrassed.

We already been down this road.

Having one of the worst head coaches in NFL history and one of the worst injury ravaged rosters of all-time had nothing to do with that?

I’m tired of looking back at that embarrassing phase under an embarrassing HC as an indictment on the roster or the program as a whole.

We were set up for failure and had some extreme bad luck in terms of health.