This is the year to rebuild (2 Viewers)

[nosaint]

We have some good young players. I know this will not be a popular decision but I think we should gut the team. Carr, Jordan, Hill, Davis, Mathieu, Shepard, Jawhan Johnson, Moreau and Sanders. Trade down in the draft for more 2nd and 3rd rounders and build this team back up with younger players. We have been painfully watching these old guys play average ball. I know we will never do it but I would love to see it. Yes we will suck for a year but the new kids will get some valuable experience and we will be better next year.

 

[St. Geezy]

We have some good young players. I know this will not be a popular decision but I think we should gut the team. Carr, Jordan, Hill, Davis, Mathieu, Shepard, Jawhan Johnson, Moreau and Sanders. Trade down in the draft for more 2nd and 3rd rounders and build this team back up with younger players. We have been painfully watching these old guys play average ball. I know we will never do it but I would love to see it. Yes we will suck for a year but the new kids will get some valuable experience and we will be better next year.

The math doesn’t work for this. Can’t completely gut the team in one year, and quite honestly, it isn’t really necessary.

 

[SystemShock]

 

[Trey W.]

The cap ramifications of cutting all of those contracts is we would not get under the cap and wouldn’t be able to sign/pay all of those rookies or FA’s

 

[3ParStillDriver]

We have some good young players. I know this will not be a popular decision but I think we should gut the team. Carr, Jordan, Hill, Davis, Mathieu, Shepard, Jawhan Johnson, Moreau and Sanders. Trade down in the draft for more 2nd and 3rd rounders and build this team back up with younger players. We have been painfully watching these old guys play average ball. I know we will never do it but I would love to see it. Yes we will suck for a year but the new kids will get some valuable experience and we will be better next year.

Moreau was one of the best pass catching TE's in the NFL last year. He had the highest rate of success in terms of catch rate when thrown to over any other TE in the NFL. Even Brock Bowers.

Despite what people think, that guy took that dropped end zone pass in 2023 very personally and said "never again", put in work and was extremely good at TE this year. No one talked about it but he was quite literally one of the best all around TE's in the NFL for 2024, but it didn't show well on simple statistics (catches/yards/tds) due to our terrible coaching, play calling, and QB circus.

 

[Merl]

We have some good young players. I know this will not be a popular decision but I think we should gut the team. Carr, Jordan, Hill, Davis, Mathieu, Shepard, Jawhan Johnson, Moreau and Sanders. Trade down in the draft for more 2nd and 3rd rounders and build this team back up with younger players. We have been painfully watching these old guys play average ball. I know we will never do it but I would love to see it. Yes we will suck for a year but the new kids will get some valuable experience and we will be better next year.

You’ve been on this board since 2005 and still have no concept of cap compliance? Your plan isn’t even remotely possible. Even if it was possible it would mean an 0-17 season which means an entirely new coaching staff. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

 

[Ti Rider]

The cap ramifications of cutting all of those contracts is we would not get under the cap and wouldn’t be able to sign/pay all of those rookies or FA’s

The results of kicking the can down the road. Big backloaded contracts become dead money when those players are released. You are paying players and they are counting against the cap that are not on your roster. The Saints are going to have to release a few guys and will just have to eat the dead money. Unfortunately getting the Saints under the cap is going to take several seasons and this if Loomis doesn’t restructure/convert bonuses to salaries of a bunch of players to get under the cap this year. So the Saints only hope of improving is through the draft and signing UDFA’s. They will have little to no money to sign free agents.

 

[StudioSaint]

So the Saints only hope of improving is through the draft and signing UDFA’s. They will have little to no money to sign free agents.

This guy has been screaming that every off season for years and he should change his last name from Wright to Wrong.

 

[saintfan-n-alexla]

Moreau was one of the best pass catching TE's in the NFL last year. He had the highest rate of success in terms of catch rate when thrown to over any other TE in the NFL. Even Brock Bowers.

Despite what people think, that guy took that dropped end zone pass in 2023 very personally and said "never again", put in work and was extremely good at TE this year. No one talked about it but he was quite literally one of the best all around TE's in the NFL for 2024, but it didn't show well on simple statistics (catches/yards/tds) due to our terrible coaching, play calling, and QB circus.

has there been any updates on his injury? he may not be a factor either way

 

[dutar76]

The way I see it, we won't know the overall plan until we know the plan at QB. A lot hinges on that decision. If we play it back with Carr, we're probably going to try and win now. If we cut-bait with Carr and go with Rattler or a draft pick, I think it's fair to say we'd be using 2025 as a reset year for the roster and cap strategy.
That's probably simplifying it a little too much, but that's how I'm looking at it.

Lots of questions... Carr is a good QB and gives us our best chance to win games, but do you really want to try and re-build the team with him as the center-piece?
If we keep him, is it because the cap hit forced us to? If we let him go, is THAT because the cap hit forced us to? If we go with Rattler, is it because he's all we could afford and didn't get our guy in the draft? Or... if we go with Rattler, is it because KM really believes he could be our franchise QB?

And regardless of what we do, it's all gonna be wrapped up in coach speak. Whoever the QB is, Moore is going to talk them up as being THE guy, whether that's the case or not. We fans will debate this all year regardless what we do.

If I'm KM, I either draft a guy or go with Rattler and do a lot of the painful things we need to do to eventually get out from under the heavy dead cap and big "end of career" cap hits. I acquire as many draft picks in the first 4 rounds as I can and hope we pick winners. 2026 can be phase 2 where we add the pieces to make this a complete roster and we can start judging the new staff with W's and L's at that point. If we go 4-13 in 2025, I will not look at that as a reflection of KM. As long as there's an obvious and real effort ongoing to right the ship.

 

[3ParStillDriver]

has there been any updates on his injury? he may not be a factor either way

I..... completely forgot about that. Yikes. I know he had surgery but there's been no word I can find on how severe the injury was. We know it was bad enough to require surgery. It may be ACL or multiple ligaments for all we know at this point. I can't imagine a surgery immediately required within weeks where its not an ACL or torn ligaments in some fashion.

 

[nosaint]

You’ve been on this board since 2005 and still have no concept of cap compliance? Your plan isn’t even remotely possible. Even if it was possible it would mean an 0-17 season which means an entirely new coaching staff. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

So you would rather have a bunch of middle aged men instead of young and hungry players? I never said anything about cap compliance I was simply stating that we need to get rid of the old players. None of us on this board no anything about the cap. Mickey does his magic every year and we all say yeah thats what I would have done. Give me a break. And maybe just maybe Kellen already told MIckey to figure out a way to cut the old people. Trade back get a whole bunch of pics and rebuild. This year will suck. Agreed. But the future would be a hell of a lot brighter if we do!

 

[meily]

The math doesn’t work for this. Can’t completely gut the team in one year, and quite honestly, it isn’t really necessary.

We just need to add talent, which may mean taking on younger contracts and depending on young players at key positions.

 

[wnelson]

Carr and taysom sure but that's probably it.

 

[sinnersandsaints]

Aaron Schatz today in his 'bold moves' column:

Don't restructure Derek Carr's contract

The Saints are in big trouble. They are currently a league-leading $54 million over the cap. They also have very few players they can cut to get actual salary cap relief. According to OverTheCap.com, there is no cut the Saints could make before March 12 that would save them more than $4 million in cap space. They're going to have to get below the cap by restructuring contracts, which just moves more dead money down the line and makes it harder to get a clean slate and rebuild the roster.

The Saints need to take their medicine as soon as possible, and one way to do that is to avoid restructuring Carr's contract. That's going to be very hard to do, because a Carr restructure would save the Saints $30 million on the cap. But it would also tie New Orleans to him for a couple of more seasons and push more money down the line, which makes it harder to split from Carr anytime soon. Yes, Carr had a 63.4 QBR in 2024, but hanging on to a 34-year-old quarterback widely seen as mediocre is emblematic of the Saints' problems. They need to resist a Carr restructure so they can finally move on from him after the 2025 season.