Ready or not, the New Orleans Saints are transitioning into the offseason. It’s not where they wanted to be right now, but it’s their reality. It means exit interviews, in-house evaluations, and strategizing for the future.
And for head coach Sean Payton, it means meeting with his scouts and front office staff to see how the team can improve. He was short on details in his end-of-year press conference on Tuesday, but did give some ideas about where the franchise is headed.
“There’s some ‘musts,’ right now that are, at least in my mind, positions that we’ve gotta solidify to be better,” Payton said. “And I think we’ll try do that in any way, shape, or form.”
Payton said that he’s only had cursory conversations about this year’s draft class, though he likes what he’s heard early on about the prospects at wide receiver when asked about it specifically. He explained that most of New Orleans’ internal discussions have surrounded the team’s restricted and unrestricted free agents, many of whom will test the open market in March.
It’s easy to point to wideout as the Saints’ biggest roster need in 2020; Michael Thomas put on a one-man show in 2019, outpacing the next-best wide receiver by 119 receptions and 1,304 yards through the air. This year’s draft class is being talked about as one of the best in recent memory at the position, which should be music to Saints fans’ ears.
Traditionally, the Saints like to load up on veteran free agents and go into the draft without one significant position still to draft. That’s what Payton referred to by ‘musts’ — his in-house ranking of roster needs designates different groupings as ‘musts,’ ‘needs,’ and ‘wants,’ in order of priority. So if wide receiver is a ‘must-add’ position, linebacker could be a ‘need,’ and so on.
Tight against the salary cap and with so many of their own free agents to consider, it’s possible the Saints flip the script and try to limit their investing to players who have already succeeded in their system. But it’s a long road until March, when free agency opens up, and even further to get to April’s draft. It’ll be fascinating to see how Payton and the Saints get there and what they choose to do when they’re on the clock.
