Analyst Projects Doomsday Season For Saints

The New Orleans Saints are a tough team to project right now.

Last year, New Orleans won just five games in the regular season and finished in last place in the NFC South. This resulted in New Orleans landing the No. 9 pick in the 2025 National Football League Draft. The Saints used this pick to bring in offensive tackler Kelvin Banks Jr. out of Texas.

If you look at the roster, it really isn't too different on paper. The biggest loss surely was quarterback Derek Carr. New Orleans also lost cornerback Paulson Adebo, but a good chunk of the roster remains. New Orleans made a change at head coach and brought Kellen Moore to town fresh off his run to the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles as the team's offensive coordinator.

Now, he will attempt to find a way to turn around this mainly veteran roster quickly in 2025. The team's biggest question is at quarterback. New Orleans drafted Tyler Shough and he's competing with Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener for the starting job. This uncertainly has led to an underdog status for the franchise already even before training camp.

For example, FanSided's Lou Scataglia projected the Saints as one of the top three options to land the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft along with the Cleveland Browns and the New York Giants.

"New Orleans Saints," Scataglia said. "Taking Tyler Shough in the second round, the New Orleans Saints did at least take a chance on this QB class. It wasn't a great one, but the Saints did hire a new head coach and could have a path toward a much-needed rebuild in 2025. The roster itself is bad, and the QB situation is just not good.

"This could easily be a team that struggles to win more than a few games in 2025. A bad GM, bad roster, no franchise QB, and a first-year head coach is a formula for disaster in today's NFL. No one would be shocked if the Saints picked first overall in the 2026 NFL Draft."

Personally, I think this is an aggressive take. New Orleans has talent on both sides of the ball and plays in a division in which only one team finished above .500 last year. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the top team in the division at 10-7 followed by the Atlanta Falcons at 8-9 and the Carolina Panthers at 5-12.

Sure, there are questions at quarterback. But, Moore has proven to be an offensive whiz so whoever is under center at least should be put in a good position to succeed. There are weapons around with Alvin Kamara, Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, Juwan Johnson, and Brandin Cooks so there is at least a safety blanket there.

The biggest reason for the Saints' downfall last year was bad health, not a lack of talent. If the team can have more luck injury-wise, there's no reason why they should be bad enough for the No. 1 pick.

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