After kicking off our series of team years in review on a decidedly low note, we trade in the black and silver for black and gold in this week's deep dive on the state of the New Orleans Saints.
2025 New Orleans Saints
Through Week 16
Record: 5-10
Head Coach: Kellen Moore, first season
Offensive Coordinator: Doug Nussmeier, first season
Total Offense: 27th
Passing: 19th
Rushing: 30th
Scoring: 29th
Defensive Coordinator: Brandon Staley, first season
Total Defense: 9th
Passing: 5th
Rushing: 23rd
Scoring: 14th
Should they fire the coach?: No
Will they fire the coach?: No
Should they fire the GM?: It's complicated
Will they fire the GM?: No
After attempting to somehow cover their eyes and ears to both Drew Brees' retirement and Sean Payton's hightailing, change-averse New Orleans finally admitted to themselves that their run of perpetual contention was long over when they (again, finally) dismissed Dennis Allen 13 months ago. Kellen Moore arrived in The Big Easy as the first real head coaching hire for the organization in 19 years, and his welcome gift was a very rare one these days: Permission to lose.
Entering Year 3 of the post-Payton era, the 2024 Saints attempted to run it straight back with just about the exact seam team as the 2023 model. That team managed just a 9-8 record in a bad NFC South, but they did close out 2023 on a 4-1 run, including the infamous 48-17 season finale flogging of Atlanta that led to some fairly choice words from Arthur Smith in his head coaching farewell. Once again at a crossroads, New Orleans pretty much had two choices: Accept that this iteration of the team had run its course, or quadruple down on the wonky Dennis Allen-Derek Carr union managing to steal them one last division title - and if it meant getting stomped at home in the Wild Card round, so be it.
This 'definition of insanity'-compatible gambit produced an extremely predictable result. With Klint Kubiak in hand as the team's first new offense overseer in 17(!) years, the Saints did jump out to a 2-0 start in a couple of blowouts. But those wins came against what turned out to be very bad Carolina and Dallas teams, and the bottom fell out quick. Having already lost the locker room, Dennis Allen also lost his job after Carolina dropped them to 2-7. Playing out the string under much more popular special teams coach Darren Rizzi, the Saints rebounded with a few extremely pesky wins during a brief post-Allen honeymoon period but still finished with fewer than 7 wins for the first time since all the way back in the Jim Haslett days.
For (very) longtime head Saints executive Mickey Loomis, he was charged with conducting a head coach search for just the second time in 24 offseasons. His first one, way back in 2006, saw him convince one of the league's brightest young offensive minds to come to New Orleans with the understanding that he would defer to Payton on what to do at quarterback. Payton recruited Drew Brees to town, the Saints released incumbent Aaron Brooks, and the franchise embarked on the most fruitful 15 years of its history. So, in hindsight what happened next was fairly predictable: Patiently waiting out Philadelphia's march to greatness, in February Loomis managed to nab the third-most coveted offensive guru of a strong hiring cycle - presumably with a promise that Moore could do what he saw fit at quarterback. That would quickly escalate into a suspiciously timed shoulder injury for Derek Carr, which in turn escalated even more quickly into a negotiated settlement of his considerable remaining contract and retirement (for now, anyway). New Orleans made Tyler Shough the third quarterback off the board a few weeks later, and a truly new-look New Orleans was born.
The Sean Payton instant turnaround lightning didn't strike twice. Up against what turned out to be a brutal opening draw, New Orleans faced teams with 11-plus wins six times across a 1-8 start. After holding off the rookie for the starting job out of the preseason, second-year man Spencer Rattler finally gave way to Shough at halftime of Week 8. The Saints are now 4-3 since Shough took the reins, and figure to be favored in their final two games of 2025. Now on track to win their way from a projected top 3 draft pick at midseason to the verge of picking outside the top 10, it no longer looks like the Saints drafting a quarterback in the first round for the second time in franchise history is a remotely foregone conclusion.
What's Next?
The Saints will have some pretty big decisions to make before they first go on the clock in Pittsburgh. A yearly tradition in New Orleans almost as old as Mardi Gras: How the team mitigates the bill coming due for the sins of salary cap past. Once again set to begin the new league year flush up against the projected 2026 number, New Orleans doesn't have any low-hanging fruit that it can pick for instant cap relief. Taysom Hill's infamous contract is finally up, and carries nearly $14 million in dead 2026 cap out the door with it; that's a $14 million incentive to re-sign him, but surely not even Loomis can justify bringing him back for that kind of money. With two other even more legendary Saints it's the same basic proposition, but far less absurd: Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis are both impending free agents, and both a ripe old 36 years of age. They carry a combined $33 million in void year cap hits just for 2026; that's a lot of incentive for the Saints to re-sign them both, particularly when they're both still somehow playing at high levels. Knowing this front office, re-upping with the both of them is a foregone conclusion. Either way, the New Orleans bean counters will have to once again restructure and push present day money on multiple contracts into 2027 and beyond. Will the organization tire of this perpetual dance of borrowing against the future to pay for today? Not anytime soon, sounds like.
But being functionally precluded from free agency suits New Orleans just fine. Of the Saints' 13 players with the largest 2025 cap numbers, only three started their pro careers elsewhere - and one of those is from New Orleans. They're as determined to build and retain through the draft as any franchise in the sport, the first half of which is a universally accepted best practice. And there's no denying the overall body of work of this scouting department: Preposterously, all but one of the Saints draft classes since 2011 still have major contributors playing somewhere in the league today. After a bit of a cold streak following his magnum opus 2017 haul, Loomis and Co. look to have hit on core contributors with the first two picks of the last two drafts: Taliese Fuaga and Kelvin Banks have soothed the Saints' recent run of bad luck at the tackle position. Kool-Aid McKinstry is now the team's top cornerback, and the Tyler Shough pick looks to have a chance to be an exception to the second round QB rule.
Quarterback
Six months ago, it was just about a foregone conclusion: The 2025 New Orleans Saints are here to lose, lose a lot, and get themselves in position for one of two incoming rookie quarterbacks with obvious ties to the franchise. The simplest scenario was LSU senior Garrett Nussmeier going to the Saints somewhere in the middle of the first round, where he'd be welcomed as a native son of Louisiana and also be paired up with his dad, former NFL quarterback Doug Nussmeier, whom Moore brought along from their Super Bowl run together in Philly. The second, significantly trickier scenario involved Arch Manning, grandson of the only other quarterback taken in the first round in New Orleans Saints' history, shooting the absolute lights out in one season at Texas, declaring for the draft, and New Orleans being bad enough for the No. 1 overall pick. Between those two too-good-to-be-true storylines, certainly one had to materialize.
Both are going bust in a hurry. All indications are that Arch Manning will play another year in college, a dismal season for the Tigers has the junior Nussmeier trending out of the first round of the draft, and the Saints might already have their guy anyway. Tyler Shough, who started his collegiate career on the same team as Justin Herbert, has played just well enough in his seven starts to justify investing a second-round pick in a 26-year-old (fun fact: Shough will almost certainly be the last player drafted in the NFL that was born in the 20th century). Being measured against a ragtag supporting cast, Shough hasn't exactly lit it up (68.2 completion percentage, 6:4 TD-INT ratio), but he's done more with the offense than Rattler could, despite being without Alvin Kamara and Rashid Shaheed, showing plenty of arm talent and some real juice as a runner. He won't have an overwhelming mandate, but Shough looks likely to keep the Saints from taking a Day 1 quarterback for the first time in 55 years.
Running Back
One day, this team may run out of albatross contracts to stretch out Bobby Bonilla-style. However, that day will not be in 2026: Back by contractual demand, the Saints would eat $18 million against the cap to walk away from Kamara in the spring. Going into year 10, the longtime Saint will be coming off of easily his worst NFL season; largely ineffective when healthy, Kamara will very likely wind up missing the team's final 6-plus games with a spurious-sounding knee injury. It's been a down year, but it's not outside the realm of possibilities that a healthy Kamara could come back in the summer with some renewed vigor and a desire to retire in black and gold and turn in quality work in a retooled Kellen Moore offense. After all, Moore got 24 touchdowns out of Zeke Elliott and Tony Pollard a few a years back. But we'll need some of those 'best shape of his life' soundbites before we can think about seeing his ADP as half-full. His steep salary will keep him at the top of the depth chart in 2026; how meaningful that will be is currently a black box.
Not that there's a clear in-house challenger, because there most certainly isn't. Entering his crucial third season with a clean slate, Miller paired another strong preseason with some real flashes in the early part of this season. For a few fleeting moments, the changing of the guard was at hand here. Sadly, the universe had other plans: the injury prone youngster tore his ACL in an October game in Chicago, plenty late enough in the year to compromise his entire offseason. Next man up: rookie Devin Neal, who lived up to his 'jack of all trades, master of none' billing by being thoroughly okay - before joining Miller on injured reserve last week. The Sean Payton-Mickey Loomis talent-sharing pipeline brought former Bronco battering ram Audric Estime ashore earlier this month, but even at 22 he can't be expected to figure into New Orleans' plans beyond this month. With a depth chart both crowded and beset by question marks, the salient thing would likely to be draft another rookie and let the youngsters duke it out to be Kamara's fall committee-mate.
Wide Receiver, Tight End & Offensive Line
Although he still hasn't come close to recapturing the kind of per-target efficiency of his fantastic rookie season, Chris Olave has done the much more important thing: Avoiding concussions. A popular outlet all season long, Olave's really poured it on with Shough: 40-541-5 in the rookie's seven starts, numbers that would project out to 1300 yards and 12 touchdowns. Heading into the fifth and final year of his rookie deal, even with his checkered medical history the Saints figure to do what the Saints do and hand Olave a market rate extension, with the payout dangerously backloaded, and hope for good luck. Risky, but for a Saints franchise hoping to be back in contention sooner rather than later there isn't really an alternative.
No alternative, because the rest of this depth chart is a laugh riot: Another Payton import is Devaughn Vele, a huge body that has flashed a possession receiver skillset that could pair nicely with Olave long-term. Unfortunately the 'long-term' is tricky with Vele, who will already be 29 next season. After that it's all goofballs, from Trey Palmer to Dante Pettis. Yes, that Dante Pettis. Shipping Rashid Shaheed to Seattle for a couple of draft picks may have been for the best, but the Saints will need to throw at least one draft pick and whatever couch change they can scrounge together in free agency at rebuilding some kind of depth at this position.
After years of loitering in the background Juwan Johnson finally broke through in his sixth season, with 80 receptions and 850 yards both within reach with two games to go. He'll be back. Foster Moreau is a free agent, but he's a New Orleans native with a great story and a capable backup - he figures to be back. Up front, the Saints hit a home run in the spring with Kelvin Banks, who has soaked up almost every snap at left tackle as a 21-year-old and more than held his own. Taliese Fuaga has been more of a ground rule double at the other end of the line, but he's young and has plenty of room to grow. Lost to a bicep injury in October, Erik McCoy is still a solid pivot option come next year.
Defense
After taking a gap year in Kyle Shanahan's cabinet, Brandon Staley returned to his first coordinator job since 2020, when he piloted the Rams to a landslide No. 1 finish. Staley's defense quickly conformed to his single high zone ways: The Saints have flipped from 27th against the pass last year to 5th, asphyxiating 11 of their 15 opponents thus far for less than 200 yards passing. With rookies Jonas Sanker and Quincy Riley joining McKinstry, the Saints will have the option of allowing Alontae Taylor to leave in free agency. Considering that he was known to be available at the trade deadline and the Saints can't really afford to pay him, that's looking highly likely.
As teams often do, New Orleans needs to find some defensive line talent in this draft. Timeless wonder Cameron Jordan can still play, but even if/when they bring him and Demario Davis back their current best-case scenario for next season involves a front seven with four starters that will be over 30 - and two that will be 37. Were Father Time to abruptly run Jordan down the ripple effect across the rest of this defensive line would not be pretty. Staley has begun constructing an iron dome over the top of this defense, so if the front office can make some upgrades on the interior of the defensive line this could be an outfit to target in August - or at least stream in September.
The brutal start will mask it in the win column, but Moore has something coming together here: The offense is tracking to close out the year on a run of slightly above average production while fielding some true fringe NFL talent, suggesting the scheme and quarterback play are legitimate. Olave won't come cheap, but there will be potential for significant value in this offense later in drafts - depending on how New Orleans improves at wide receiver and running back.
Organizational Outlook
Roster: C-
Vision: B
Culture: B+
2026 Schedule: B (NFC North, AFC North, Giants OR Commanders, TBD NFC West team, Raiders OR Chiefs)
2026 Outlook: Offense to monitor
Up Next: Arizona Cardinals
—Luke Wilson
Previously: Las Vegas Raiders