The New Orleans Saints have dealt with their fair share of obstacles in 2024. They lost Ryan Ramczyk to a potentially career-ending knee issue before the season. Many key contributors have missed time in the first half of the year. Starting QB Derek Carr is currently on the shelf, thrusting rookie Spencer Rattler onto the field.
Saints general manager Mickey Loomis has noticed those factors so far in 2024.
Loomis discusses rough injury luck
"All iniuries are not equal in the sense that, you know, if you have one of your starting players, one of your best players get hurt, that's different than having a rookie undrafted free agent...
It's just different in terms of the impact on your team and part of the unfortunate circumstances for us is that we've got a lot of starters, contributing players, really good players who have missed time, and the good news is a lot of those guys will be back during the course of this season, and so we've got to find ways to be competitive and win games while we're waiting for those reinformements to get back."
-- Saints GM Mickey Loomis
In essence, the Saints GM is accommodating head coach Dennis Allen in another instance. Over the past two weeks, Loomis has gotten some attention from fans due to his comments regarding record and results.
Loomis asked for everyone to look past results of a season. He called that viewpoint lazy, in regards to blaming a coach.
How exactly do you judge a coach then, though? Injuries happen to every team around the NFL. You have to find ways to get wins in winnable situations or close games, and Allen has never proven to do that since 2022.
The accountability has seen rise from Allen over the past two years, but Loomis continues to create a narrative where he does not deserve blame for playoff-less seasons in New Orleans.
Loomis wants everyone to look at particular hurdles that Allen has dealt with during his tenure. Many of those obstacles have been created due to the salary cap situation, as well as decision-making inside games from Allen. Loomis did not admit anything of that sort, though. No one would expect any front office member to do that.
This week, Loomis also pointed out that the organization must improve their ability to avoid such widespread injury problems. The Saints have been one of the most injured teams in football over the past two seasons.
"I think the volume and the position specific nature of a lot of these injuries is what's disturbing. We've got to find ways to avoid that circumstance. ... So we're looking at everything."
-- Loomis
