New Orleans Saints Hidden Gems: 3 Secret Superstars on the 2025 roster

The 2025 Saints are trying once again to fix their post-Drew Brees QB situation, which means that Secret Superstars at every other position will have to step up. Here are three capable Hidden Gems.

That old football saying, “When you have two starting quarterbacks, you really have NO starting quarterbacks” would seem to apply to the 2025 New Orleans Saints. Bollixed as they were to a greater or lesser degree by Derek Carr’s retirement in May, this franchise that was a paragon of quarterback consistency with Drew Brees for eons has been trying to spackle over the crater left by Brees’ retirement after the 2020 season, with less than stellar results.

Jameis Winston gave way to Andy Dalton, who gave way to Carr in 2023 on a four-year, $150 million contract with $60 million guaranteed. The problem with Carr was that he wasn’t the kind of player who would lift you out of Quarterback Purgatory without a lot of help, and it seemed that help never came. Carr was pretty good in 2023, suffered though the injuries that predicated his NFL end in 2024, and the only good thing about it was that at least the team got half a look at rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler, whose YOLO style from his college days was very much in evidence… in ways both good and bad.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, per se — the Saints got Rattler with the 151st overall pick in the fifth round of the 2024 draft. He did what he was expected to do. The best way to handle the Carr transition would have been to sign another veteran to replace Carr, hope that new head coach and offensive mastermind Kellen Moore could help Rattler fill in the gaps, and see what was in store for 2025 and beyond.

The Saints were unable to do that, so instead, they now have Rattler and 2025 second-round pick Tyler Shough from Louisville as the main men in their quarterback room. If you’re wondering whether Shough can fulfill that level of draft capital… well, you’re not the only one. I’m no Bill Walsh when it comes to quarterbacks, but I had a mid third-round grade on Shough, and while draft position is ultimately meaningless when it comes to NFL success, you’d be right in expecting a lot from a quarterback selected that highly into a situation that is far from certain.

Shough’s issues when throwing outside of structure should be of particular concern.

“I think that’s our big emphasis — we just keep building all summer long,” Moore said in mid-June of Shough and Rattler, and the process therein once minicamps closed down. “Even when they leave here, now it’s on their own time, but they’re still continuing to build, and we just roll right into training camp, and I think that’s the big thing.”

Well, maybe the idea is to get everybody through the season, take a look at who’s available at the top of the 2026 draft, and make the call from there. Perhaps LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier would like to play for dad Doug, the Saints’ offensive coordinator. Or could it be that Arch Manning will fulfill the prophecy by becoming the team’s highest-drafted quarterback since grandfather Archie was the NFL’s second overall pick in 1971?

In any event, for the Saints to crawl out of the 5-12 malaise they had last season, and the lack of postseason appearances since Brees’ retirement, that puts even more on the rest of the roster.

In the continuation of our “Hidden Gems” series, we look at three Saints Secret Superstars who will need to step up as well — one underrated veteran, one underrated (and very recent) free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick.

Underrated Veteran: NT Khalen Saunders

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As a charter member of the BIG MAN WITH FOOTBALL Fan Club, I always love it when dudes pushing the right side of 300 pounds on the scale have their moments in the sun. One dude who had such a moment in the 2024 season was Khalen Saunders, the 6’0, 324-pound rolling ball of butcher knives selected in the third round of the 2019 draft out of Western Illinois (Go Leathernecks!), and signed by the Saints in 2023 to a three-year, $12.3 million deal with $4.6 million guaranteed.

In the Saints’ 26-13 Week 5 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Saunders did his level best to transcend the muck around him. First, with 2:30 left in the third quarter, he stoned Travis Kelce on a shovel pass from Patrick Mahomes for a three-yard gain from the New Orleans five-yard line. Then, because the Chiefs had the temerity to run another play despite Saunders’ obvious dominance, the big man intercepted a pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster off a Paulson Adebo deflection, and that was the end of THAT.

Not that this was Saunders’ only star turn. In 2024, he totaled two sacks, 14 pressures, 27 solo tackles, 16 stops, and TWO OTHER pass deflections — both against Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers in Week 16, and one of those was nearly his second interception of the season!

Saunders agreed.

Saunders only other regret of the 2024 season was that he couldn’t house that Mahomes pick. 37 return yards would have to do.

“Trying to get it home, take it home,” the big guy said of his ultimate intent. “Them running back days flashed in my head, and I was like that’s 101 [yards] though, that’s a little ways to go. I was just trying to give us some good field position. Once I came out, I’m like, ‘Alright, I got to get past the 25 now.’ But yeah, It was a good return, and I wish I could have took it all the way, though.”

Well, maybe 2025 will see Saunders with his first #THICCSIX.

Underrated Free-Agent Signing: Safety Julian Blackmon

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Life didn’t just come at the Saints quickly at the quarterback position this offseason — there was also the matter of Tyrann Mathieu’s surprise retirement on July 22. In whipsaw fashion, the organization signed former Indianapolis Colts safety Julian Blackmon to replace Mathieu with a one-year deal worth up to $5.5 million.

Last season, in a Gus Bradley defense that didn’t give the defensive backs a ton of help schematically, Blackmon allowed 15 catches on 23 targets for 252 yards, 97 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, three interceptions, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 91.5. Blackmon also had 70 solo tackles, 12 stops, and one sack as an edge blitzer.

This signing is a good retrofit, as both Mathieu and Blackmon played more deep safety than anything else in 2024 — 85% for Mathieu, and 86% for Blackmon. The Colts asked their 2020 third-round draft pick out of Utah to cover a ton of ground as a single-high safety on 43% of his snaps; not too dissimilar from Mathieu’s 51% as the last line of defense.

The “when healthy” proviso has been a severe one for Blackmon throughout his career. One reason he was pushed to the 85th pick in the third round was the torn ACL he suffered in Dec. 2019 that prevented him from seeing the field until Week 2 of his rookie season. There was also the torn Achilles tendon in 2021, and the ankle injury in 2022, but over the last two seasons, Blackmon has been relatively in phase, and it’s shown on the field. This was especially true in 2023, when he gave up 31 catches on 44 targets as a box/slot/free defender for 365 yards, 207 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, four interceptions, two pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 57.5.

The Saints already have enough turnover on their defense with several new starters in the secondary — cornerback Isaac Yiadom and safety Justin Reid also look to help to that degree in their new uniforms — and a new guy up top in defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, whose philosophies don’t exactly equivocate with Dennis Allen’s hyper-aggressiveness. So having a potential like-as-like replacement for the legendary Honey Badger could be crucial.

Underrated Draft Pick: RB Devin Neal

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When the 2024 Saints ran the ball, they did it pretty well. 4.4 yards per carry, 114.9 yards per game, and 15 rushing touchdowns? Fairly decent numbers, though nobody would confuse this offense with the Commanders, Bills, Eagles, or Ravens. But with Alvin Kamara as the primary back, and two quarterbacks (Taysom Hill, Spencer Rattler) among the team leaders in rushing, it was time to add to the picture.

Which is what the Saints did estimably with the selection of Kansas running back Devin Neal with the 186th overall pick in the sixth round of the draft. In four seasons with the Jayhawks, Neal totaled 4,340 rushing yards and 49 rushing touchdowns on 759 carries, with 172 forced missed tackles, and 61 carries of 15 or more yards. Neal also bagged 79 catches in that four-year stretch for 723 yards and five touchdowns, so he’s far from a one-trick pony.

“I think I’m a patient runner that has great vision and great feel for different run schemes.,” Neal said after he was drafted. “I’m a make-you-miss guy, but I can also use my power as well. I just believe, for myself, that I’m an every-down type of back, and I can play all downs, and do well in the passing game.”

All you need to watch from Neal’s 2024 season to prove the theory is what he did to Colorado’s defense in a 37-21 Week 11 win. In that game, he pelted the Buffaloes for 287 total yards and four touchdowns on 41 touches. He also had more than credible games against Illinois, West Virginia, Iowa State, and Baylor, so this wasn’t a guy just beating up on inferior opponents.

Neal isn’t credited with third-level burner speed, and the 4.59-second 40-yard dash with a 1.59-second 10-yard split he ran at the scouting combine didn’t help his case there, but based on his tape, workload (three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons from 2022-2024), and versatility, I think a sixth-round pick for his talent makes Neal a steal for Kellen Moore.

And with all the lack of definition at the quarterback position, that’s going to help a lot.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).