It’s interesting to think about how the COVID situation has impacted the Saints this off season. Maybe this has been brought up and maybe I’m stating the obvious here. But a good portion of the “Salary Cap Hell” the team found itself in was due to the massive cap reduction caused by the pandemic. They would likely have been slightly over either way, but it’s entirely possible Jenkins, Rankins, T Rex or some of the other cap casualties would have been retained without that massive reduction. Heck, it might have indirectly had an impact on Brees retiring. Just thinking out loud.

The pandemic not only reduced the cap by around $16 million, but eliminated the $12-$15 million increase expected in 2022. That is up to a $31 million cap hit. Fortunately, with the new broadcast deals and the ever increasing popularity of the NFL this will be just a blip on the radar. There have been a record number of one year (or two to three year voiding to one) contracts that both the franchises and player/agents have agreed to this season to weather that blip.

And Payton/Loomis playing right up to the cap finally caught up and cost some talent this year; basic money management - leave some on the side for rainy days...

And no local journalist will call Payton on it for fear of retaliation led by the Saints Media Whip...

No matter, it's done, let's see what happens moving forward and if they learn from their mistakes or if that takes a few seasons...

Yeah, I don’t know about saving for a rainy day when it comes to trying to win a Suoerbowl JP. If you think you are one of the handful of teams that have a legit shot of winning it all in any given season I would sure hope you press the cap restraints in an effort to win it all. Otherwise you are striving to “not suck”.

Lets be honest division titles are nice and all and show a team is consistently good. But if i offered anyone what would you take of the two options below i'd be surprised if anyone took option A

Option A
49-15
4 Division Titles
One loss in the NFC Championship game


Or

28-36
0 Division Titles
1 Playoff Apperance
1 Superbowl


Nobody remembers division winners long term
The team has consistantly found a way to beat itself this past 4 years, barring the one loss to the Vikings in the playoffs where they beat the Saints line up all night they have pretty much blown every game they have lost in the playoffs. They kept pilling up the chips year after year and going for broke and if we like it or not the went bust trying to do it. Know you hope they can retool quickly and get back into contention. The worse possible situation happened in regards to the drop in league finances,but even without that they were still not in credit for cap space and would still have been having to push money down the road. Now that may not have been a issue to get deals done but it also hurts you if you get a player hitting FA. I don't think there is much doubt had the Saints been in a better financial position in regards to the cap they may well have filled in the joles in FA and then really gone after a QB like Wilson as the draft picks wouldn't have been as needed. But now they are at a point that they may be forced to trade up and give up future picks just to fill glaring holes at LB,CB and depth elsewhere. If they get this draft wrong it would be a very long year.

All you have to do is look at the current depth chart

DT which was a massive strong point in the past few years has gone from having Onyemata,Rankins and Brown rotating and Roach and Tuttle for back up to being Onyemata and Tuttle with Roach,Glasgow and Dalton as depth.

CB its Lattimore and Patrick Robinson(missed 22 games in the last 3 years). With Haley and Washington as back up or maybe PJ Williams.

WR, WR2 is Tre'Quan Smith
The career stat line of all our WR outside of Thomas
131 Receptions - 14 TDs.



I don't blame the team for trying to win it all but when you don't and the roster is left with these holes there is legitimate questions to ask. If Brees hadn't been the QB would they have risked everything for one last shot, i don't think so. Its felt like they threw all the eggs in one basket for Drew to get another ring and as much as people love him the team comes first.

But what pick that time frame. Go back to the beginning of Payton’s tenure and make that same comparison and what do you get? Everyone would take the Saints over the Bucs.

But its the past 4 years that they have been going down the path of one last shot and really being aggressive of pushing the money and void years on contracts. And its now that that era of the team is done and the piper has had to be paid until the new deal comes into place.