What went wrong- The New Orleans Saints
by JPBeBeast | 7 years ago | 0 Comments
When it came to the playoffs, the Saints never quite marched in. In fact, their best season under this coaching staff was in 2022, at 8-8 that wasn't even close to good enough. What went wrong, and where did it go wrong?
The Saints thought they were setting themselves up for a future of glory in 2018 giving up a luxury of picks to move up into the draft to select QB Tucker Martin. Martin had it all, the arm, the brains, the wheels. Despite the confusion around Drew Brees deciding to play another year, and the Saints giving up a 2nd earlier in the year for CJ Beathard, they pulled the trigger on draft night, assuming he would lead them to the promise land. Coach James Panos has spoken many times on the QB debacle in 2018, stating that the team had spoken to multiple teams towards the top of the draft with no luck, which led to the beathard trade. He also reveals Brees was very quiet about his career decision; "We reached out to Drew a few times during the off season with the intention of finding out how much longer we would have him around for, fully prepared to offer a long term deal. Nothing came of it, he wasn't sure, the team wasn't performing well", Panos says of the HoF QB, "We did not have a back up plan, maybe we acted to harshly on the trade, but we felt like we were getting what we needed". They weren't completely wrong, Tucker Martin has not been a complete disaster, but has failed to lead the team to the playoffs, even in the years where the defense played elite football.
The coaching staff could never figure out how to get the ball moving on the ground, despite having Adrian Peterson and Todd Gurley at some point in the last 8 years, they never had a 1000 yard rusher, not once. The Saints heavily invested in OLine between the 2020-2022 Seasons, developing Ryan Ramczyck, trading for Pat Elfien, signing Taylor Decker, Trading for Vincent Fountain; it did not matter, the running game never improved and they were forced to win games through their defense, and the occasional Tucker Martin miracle play. To make matters worse, it was recently brought to the attention of the Saints coaching staff that the best runner they've had in 8 years, Devyn Payne, is facing a 1 game suspension for conduct detrimental to the league., things cant get much worse for the teams hopes of improving the ground game in the short tenure the office has left. With Martinez Mccullers looking as the lead back for the next season, the arrow is trending downwards.
Did the front office ever care about winning? The front office was absent for 5+ rookie drafts, an unacceptable feat. They had periods of time spending loads of money on Aged veterans and their limited trades in an attempt to make it up, safe to say, it didn't work.
Maybe the coaching was just poor, time and time again the Saints would push down field only to come away with 3 points, or in many cases a turnover, there was no drive by the offense to score, no fire, no pride. Any coach in this league would be disgusted to witness what this staff did week in and week out; not the Saints, they continued to let it happen, time and time again.
Due to the CBA, this coaching staff as 2 years left under contract; 2 years left to give the fans a taste of the playoffs, or at least a taste of winning football, and it doesn't appear it's going to happen. Their division mates are too far ahead, and despite a late season momentum swing, its too little too late. It will be hard for any team concerned with winning to make any offers to this staff when the current CBA cycle ends.