Saints expected to interview former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel

He's a Patriots lock.

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The Saints job is unlikely to be at the top of anyone's wish list. In fact, it may be at the bottom

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I really dont understand this sentiment if you look at it from a coaching perspective. Bears and Jets have horrible ownership, which is huge for a HC.

Saints
-proven loyalty to head coaches
-proven to give HC independence
-low expectations year 1
-top 10 draft pick
-salary cap can be fixed this year, if not after year 1
-bad division

The Saints are more attractive than people think.

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proven to give HC independence

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Keeping Loomis around instantly undercuts this pitch

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low expectations year 1

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Low bar to set. Every team has low expectations year 1

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top 10 draft pick

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Quite literally every open job right now has this and all have a better pick than the Saints outside of Chicago

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salary cap can be fixed this year, if not after year 1

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I’d love to hear your plan to fix it in 1 year, but the issue is none of the other open jobs have that same issue

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bad division

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Sure I guess

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The Saints are more attractive than people think.

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It’s 1/32 open NFL jobs so it’s going to be attractive at some level but you aren’t the only job on the market and it’s pretty hard to argue it isn’t the worst situation open right now given the cap, roster, and asset situation, along with an entrenched front office currently working off their payday loans. Jets possibly, but easier to paint your own picture there than in Nola the first couple seasons

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Payton had almost full contro

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The other jobs open besides Jax don’t have a numbers vampire GM that can never be fired. Saying a coach a half decade ago had almost full control after winning a Super Bowl isn’t a great pitch

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bears and jets will both be expecting playoffs. Patriots just fired Mayo after year 1. more established franchises DO have high expectations.

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Mayo was not fired for not meeting on field expectations. He had 100 other things that lead to that. Pats aren’t firing the next guy after a year.

And the reason those jobs have higher expectations, are because they are better jobs with better resources and assets, which is my point

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I said after year 1. We are projected to be $50M under.

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Hate to burst your bubble there but you currently have -80 mil to resolve for this season. That project is based on the current contracts, which the saints will have to adjust to get under the cap, which will inevitably push a lot of not all of that money over to the next season or the next couple of seasons


and yes while the saints have been in this position before, the dynamics are a lot different between kicking the can to go all in on a companionship level roster vs kicking the can because you have to in order to be cap compliant with a roster not really built to compete at the top level of the sport anymore. They’re a limit to how much of that cap accounting you can do for each player, and when you do that you are extending that term another year for footing that bill

And again sure you can usually reset the board pretty quickly in the NFL, the Saints are just the only real job that you HAVE to reset those numbers first to even have a chance

Browns will be in the same boat as they deal with the Watson can kicking

The way out is to either hit on a QB in the draft or wait out the cap issues. Neither is an appealing option

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You lose your mind over this cap situation. It's one fricking year. oh no, tank again, get another top 10 pick and be setup to do pretty much whatever you want by year 2 with cap space and 2 top 10 picks in your first years. If you don't see it, you just want to be stubborn.

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Look man, if the saints offered me the job I’d take it. But if I had choices like the other top candidates do, then it would be at the bottom of the list, and I think everyone including most Saints fans would understand why that is.

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where are you getting that? OTC shows $67M

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I looked at Sport track. I think the difference is the main cap number on OTC does not include the holds for your draft class, but instead have “effective cap space” to track it. OTC is typically more accurate so let’s say it’s 67m

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again, you can make cuts or extend the younger players

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this doesn’t really solve the issue at hand

Younger players are typically the cheap end of your roster. They get expensive when you extend them. Now typically of course extensions will provide immediate cap relief because you prorate the bonus and make the first year salary next to nothing. But in the saints case, not many young players that would provide a ton of financial relief to the Saints

And if the head coach, I’d prefer to pay young players that are going to be worth it vs just paying them to try to get out of the cap hell situation. Now I’ve taken what could’ve been a year long clean slate and extended the overall issue even further by committing even deeper to players that don’t get you to the next level

And Cutting only helps if the player has a lot of unmet and unguarenteed money that provide cap relief. The saints issue is the vets that would normally be candidates for this, have already had a ton of dummy years and previous cap hits extended, that the relief provided is not a ton.

Here’s a breakdown of the amount of money teams could potentially restructure.

LINK

Currently the Saints best possible cap space (with all possible restructures in place) would be around 40 mil, which continues to extend all of your vets like Carr (assuming you can get them to sign one) further down the road. 40 mil would currently rank 15th before any teams made any moves to make more space for themselves and before you’ve made any additions to the roster. That cap space btw doesn’t just disappear. If you make these restructures that means that cap hit just gets moved over to future years.

The saints are going to have to be very strategic on which players they extend and balance how long they are extending them or else it just becomes a constant issue because you’re always trying to catch up. It’s a lot like financing a car you cant afford so you keep just refinancing out the term over and over.

It’s almost certainly going to take multiple years to get that to normal, and that could accelerate with hitting in the draft.but again even in the best case where it’s still only 1 year to reset it, that right there is why it is a worse job that the other jobs you are competing for candidates for


Current 2025 cap space and assets for the other teams in the running

- Pats - Already have a QB on a rookie deal. Almost zero long term money tied to. Most cap space in the league at 127 mil. Top 4 pick

- Giants - Top 2 pick in the draft. No long term deal committed to a QB outside of DJ dead money. 54 mil in cap space before any adjustments

- Jax - top 5 pick. Already have a QB but he’s pricy. 34 mil in cap space before any adjustments

- Bears - Top 10 pick. Already have a QB on rookie contact and 80 mil in cap space before any adjustments


- Vegas - top 6 pick. 107 mil in cap space before any adjustments

Now compare that to the situation you just outlined as the best case get out of jail free card of the saints situation and it’s pretty clear which will be more appealing to most candidates

You’re taking this way too personally. My argument isn’t that the saints have no chance to compete ever again. Just that it’s objectively a worse set up than the other available openings.

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For a HC, ownership and freedom mean way more than cap space.

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Short term of the teams WTC listed, we might have the best QB situation… Derek Carr can keep you competitive for the next two years

Now long term it’s not the best because those teams have QBs who have more potential, and we’ll have to bite a bullet and move on from Carr eventually while you have Lawrence, Maye, and Caleb Williams on the other teams