It’ll take some time to find the New Orleans Saints in USA TODAY’s final NFL power rankings: they’re ranked fifth-worst in the league after rallying to a 7-10 finish in 2022, and Nate Davis isn’t high on their prospects moving forward. The Saints are ranked at No. 27 out of 32 teams, just to spell that out with a little more clarity. If you’re curious, the NFC South-rival Falcons and Panthers both rank ahead of New Orleans, with the basement-dwelling Buccaneers beneath them.
That’s quite a tumble seeing as the Saints were listed at No. 18 in the last edition of these power rankings. From Davis: “They recouped a (low) first-round pick by letting Payton go. But running up that cap credit card once again could make it hard to find a quarterback without completely crippling the roster.”
Jameis Winston is likely on his way out the door in New Orleans, but even if he stays another season he won’t have a great resume backing him up. He’s missed most of the last two seasons with injuries and the coaching staff didn’t trust him to lead the offense even after he left the injury report in 2022. That bridge is all-but-burnt.
And while the Saints do have the means to sign a new starting quarterback, Davis points out that the ambitious salary cap accounting they complete every year has a real cost. New Orleans has lost a lot of depth over the years because of cap constraints, which have narrowed their margin for error. They can’t afford to miss on big bets like letting Trey Hendrickson walk away so they can gamble on Marcus Davenport being an able replacement and the money saved going towards Marcus Williams, only for neither of those plans to work out. But that’s what’s happened here.
Hopefully the next Saints quarterback doesn’t completely break the bank. New Orleans has too many problems in too many different areas to assume a new passer is going to fix everything. Like it or not, they’ve earned this lowly perception around the league. It’s on Dennis Allen and his team to pull them out of it.