The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

For some reason lately, my mind keeps going back to Halloween of 2021. The game where the Bucs LB horse-collar tackled Jameis and blew out his knee.


I think there's a solid chance IF that injury does not occur that Jameis (who had 13 TD and 3 INT at the time through 6 games and then another TD before the injury occurred) continued to flourish as our QB. I'd say we go onto finish something like 11-6 and make the playoffs, rather than lose our next 5 after beating Tampa. Jameis' presence would've stabilized what was a nutty 2021, and I believe CSP stays on board rather than walking away.


Just imagine - today we'd still have CSP and Winston as a reasonable successor to Brees. Instead now we are saddled with whizbang Dennis Allen as our head coach and our horrible panic signing of Derek Carr. I think that one injury derailed our franchise, and it could take a long, long time to pull out of it.

Re: The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

I heard Underhill say on his podcast today that he was literally shocked the Saints didn't have one transaction (player moves). Not one.

Are we becoming that complacent?

That's all on Dennis Allen.

Re: The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

We saw the writing on the wall when Drew was in decline. What our Front Office did (or did not) do, is mind boggling. This is bad. Go ahead, call me chicken little, but the sky fell guys.

Re: The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

I think the loss of Sean Payton re-stunted the growth of Jameis Winston. Winston is the most talented QB on this roster. Winston has the most arm talent of any QB in our division. It’s his decision making that keeps him in trouble. Payton seemed to be helping him work through things.

Re: The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

CSP GTFOH ... Jameis had learned enough even from his short time with CSP to emerge. Our seeing the results of the DC4 move just shows how far off our HC is in leading this franchise. It's really ultimately on Loomie's and Mrs. Benson's doorstep.

Re: The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

That team was kind of doomed by lack of receivers. It was Winston throwing to #1 wideouts Marquez Calloway and Deonte Hardy. Now if Winston does not get hurt do we win a couple more games and make the playoffs? Probably.

But what happens in the playoffs? Winning the Super Bowl with Marquez Calloway as your #1 receiver seems unlikely. Two reasonable scenarios are that we get blown out in the first round, or its a close game and we get screwed by the refs bc as much as they hate the Saints, they hate Payton + Saints even more. So in those scenarios does Payton stick around to build around Jameis with improved receivers? Maybe? Maybe not.

Winning a few extra games, we fall a few spots back in the draft. Do we still trade up for the Eagles #18 pick and trade that up further for Olave when all our picks in every round to use as currency are a few picks later? Do we still end up with Shaheed as an UDFA? Maybe we end up with Treylon Burks, Jahan Dotson, or Christian Watson. Maybe instead of signing Jarvis Landry we go all in on trading for AJ Brown, Davante Adams, or Tyreek Hill and bust the salary cap and draft picks. Or maybe we do like 2021 and just assume Michael Thomas will be back 100% in 2022 and have a repeat of 2021, perhaps with Romeo Dobbs or Skyy Moore as 'insurance' and counting on a big boost from Taysom Hill at TE.

Regardless, we still probably lack the draft and salary cap ammo to properly address both WR and OL in the 21-22 offseason for Winston. Payton probably sees WR as the main problem but may not be able to address it as well with a lower pick. He probably counts on Thomas coming back at full strength in 2022. I think one possibility is that we break the bank to keep Terron Armstead and we trade up for a player like Burks or Dotson at WR and don't draft Penning. It doesn't make a ton of sense to let Armstead walk, trade for AJ Brown, and draft an oline, when we could just resign Armstead and draft a WR. So we go into 2022 with Michael Thomas who does not last, Burks and Landry are our top receivers. Armstead misses 4 games as usual, maybe Winston gets hurt one of those games. We pay Winston more money. Perhaps we go 10-7 again and again get blown out or jobbed by the refs in the first round of the playoffs. Then maybe Payton quits after 2022. And without Payton, Winston falls apart this year. We don't owe Carr a bunch of money, but we owe Winston a good chunk, and we owe a bunch to Armstead, we have Burks instead of Olave, and DA is on the first year of his contract here and has a longer prove it period to stick around and can go give Cousins $200 million in the 23-24 offseason after blaming 23 on Winston underperforming or getting hurt.

One big benefit if Winston had not got hurt though is maybe we don't sign Taysom Hill for $10 million a year. Sorry, a guy who shows up big randomly in a few games against weak defenses and lacks a true position and is old is not worth that.

I think a stronger argument could be made that Michael Thomas' injury set us on a really bad path. If he does not get injured many things could be different. Maybe even Brees plays a year longer and sets more records. Maybe we win the 2020 Super Bowl after knocking out Tampa. Maybe Brees announces 2021 will be his farewell tour and after a modest season 11-6 2021 season with Brees and Thomas, we trade up from 26 to 19 in the 2022 NFL draft and take Kenny Pickett. Maybe Payton has success with Pickett and maybe not, but if not, he is cheap and we can try again without cap hell.

Re: The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

Winston was running like a purebred racehorse before he got hurt. Then DA took the blinders off him and the rest is history. Sean Payton held him in rein with a tight fist and he ran hard. We had an ex-racehorse who was skittish coming out of the gate. She was fast as Hell but she knocked all the other horses around coming out of the gate.

On the bright side, we had the fastest horse at the county fair!!!

Re: The franchise-altering injury that sent the Saints into a downward spiral
 

It went off the cliff in the first half of the playoff game against the Bucs. Brees was horrible in the first half and if that STUPID TIGHT END hadn't fumbled, it may have been enough to allow him to come back for the second half. That being said, he should have been benched. Winston should have started the second half. I guess Payton wanted to give him his "Gold Watch" as a retirement gift.