BakoSaint

Although I would like for the Saints to get a young QB if we don't see Haener or Rattler make a major breakthrough, I disagree on the means to an end.

I think deliberate tanking risks destroying a franchises culture and sets the player who was tanked for up for failure in the NFL. It may work in the NBA where one or two players can make a team but the in the NFL you need 22 players to hate losing and always fight. I am all for rebuilding, which could mean replacing proven aging veterans with unproven young underdogs, but those unproven underdogs must be encouraged to fight tooth and nail for every win.

I think blockbuster trades up for a QB in the draft usually fail and put the QB under too much pressure without enough help. If Manning goes #1 overall and we have the #1 overall pick, so be it, take him. But if we pick #8 and Manning is going to go #1 and it will take the next two years 1st round picks and more to more up, then no. Take an underdog QB at #8. If that QB has a chip on his shoulder from being picked after Manning and outperforms him, he will outperform him even more the next few years with the extra picks saved. If that QB is no Manning, maybe you have the #1 pick the next year and Tom Brady or Drew Brees has a kid who is great, and you can take him without mortaging the future.

When the Chiefs traded up for Mahomes that was ok because it was not blockbuster level. The Chiefs were already a decent team that could protect a young QB. They only traded one future 1st round pick (likely to be later in the 1st round as they were already a playoff caliber team) and the present 1st round pick they traded was also late 1st round, and beyond that there was only a 3rd rounder. Also, their current QB had trade value, eventually making up for the 3rd round pick. So, it Mahomes was not under instant pressure to be extremely great as he did not cost multiple high 1st rounders, he was not expected to start immediately, etc. The trade up for Mahomes was more equivalent to the Saints trades for Mark Ingram and Marcus Davenport, not a blockbuster top 3 pick QB trade.