Saints Offseason Turning Heads For Wrong Reasons

The New Orleans Saints entered the offseason with the worst cap situation in the National Football League South Division with a 5-12 record.

Rather than rebuilding, the Saints brought in former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and the team has done the opposite. New Orleans has had surprisingly little turnover so far this offseason involving high-priced veterans. The Saints instead restructured deals and have been aggressive in free agency.

There's a real reason for hope around this team heading into 2025. While this is the case, The 33rd Team's Tyler Brooke gave New Orleans an "F" grade for the offseason so far.

"New Orleans Saints - Grade: F," Brooke said. "This grade has nothing to do with the talent that the New Orleans Saints brought in because the free-agent class is actually quite good. Instead, they get an F because they flat-out refuse to take their medicine and embrace a rebuild with their financial situation. Instead of eating their dead cap and setting themselves up for future seasons, they keep tacking on void years to aging veterans and making their cap situation worse down the road.

"One day, the Saints will be in true cap hell, which they'll be unable to get themselves out of. For now, they'll keep fielding a team that might not have the firepower to make a playoff run while kicking the can down the road."

Everything about the cap is perfectly true and understandable. While this is the case, the Saints clearly liked their roster from last year and believe with better health and a few additions they could be in a different position. That's fair too. It has been a somewhat surprising offseason so far, but at the very least they are in a better position right now to compete in the division in 2025 and are loaded with the No. 9 in the upcoming draft as well.

The offseason has been surprising and there will be serious cap issues at one point, but maybe the Saints could at least get back to the playoffs before that.