re: The pain we are going to endure this season could have been done 3 years ago.

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In 2022, Saints spent about $275M in actual cash - 5th in the league (link above). It was going to be hard for the FO to shed contracts left and right to soft reset while spending actual cash

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Saints are spending about $279M in cash, which is about 19th in league. It will be hard for any FO to completely reset when they have that much in cash expenditures

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We have so much cash expenditures in large part to restructuring contracts instead of being able to cut players.

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Atlanta faced similar challenges with the cap. They just swallowed it and took the lumps on guys like Matt Ryan and Julio.

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They took the cap hits in 2021-22, but their cash expenditures dropped to 31st and 32nd in the NFL. Basically - they cut salaries to nothing and took cap hits from previous contracts. Not sure the Saints could have or can take the same approach Atl did a few years ago - it would depend on how the guaranteed money was distributed over the life of existing contracts.

This year, Atl has a reasonable cap hit at $253M but has has cash expenditures of $306M. What’s interesting is next year they are bottom 10 in cap space ($251M right now) but only have $185M in cash expenditures. If they feel like spending cash to make a run, they will have it, but they won’t have a ton of salary cap space to do it, at least as it currently stands. They could very easily themselves in the same trap that the Saints have all these years (pushing out cap hits and spending now) if they are not wise. Should be interesting to follow.

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They could very easily themselves in the same trap that the Saints have all these years (pushing out cap hits and spending now) if they are not wise. Should be interesting to follow.

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They pretty much negated the work they did with the Cousins signing. What they do with his deal remains to be seen. They do have Penix so things will likely get hairy there

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The second Brees walked out that door, they really should have done a hard reset, sucked for year, rebuilt the cap situation, gotten younger. Everyone knew it at the time and it was talked about a bunch.

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The roster was way too talented at that point to do a hard reset. You don't go from 4x defending NFC south champs to drafting high enough to get your next franchise QB in one season. Also, like others have stated, the wrong coaching decision was made so it probably wouldn't have mattered anyways.

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The roster was way too talented at that point to do a hard reset. You don't go from 4x defending NFC south champs to drafting high enough to get your next franchise QB in one season. Also, like others have stated, the wrong coaching decision was made so it probably wouldn't have mattered anyways.

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We had the right idea. Just put the wrong pieces in place to execute it. Allen, carmichael, penning, foskey, Davenport, Turner, etc.

You can’t waste that many high draft picks and struggle like we will on the o-line. Carr could have worked if you could protect him, but the talent evaluation has been horrendous.

Wholesale changes will likely have to be made, but I think most are beginning to embrace a “soft reset”

Bruh, Is he really serious about how Winston was the answer at QB after Brees because he had Sean Payton at coach! Yikes!!!!!

Nobody criticized getting Jameis on a bargain deal. Giving it one year post Brees was rational and reasonable

When that did not work out, any logical thinker would have seen the window was shut.

We tripled down on irrationality by signing Carr and that doomed our title chances for a long, long time

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doomed our title chances for a long, long time

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SlowFlowPro

Howden looked to be in every play last year.
Bresee's weakness was run defense, pass rush he was solid. So we can see how that goes this year.

Agree that foskey was a waste. Branch would have been the best option still.

Miller showed flashes, but he really needs to be healthy or it's pointless.

Salvederi was slotted to be our LG.

That being said you can't waste 1-3 rounders like we have been. Every year you should expect 2 guys to contribute time and play. We can't even do that.

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We gave Drew a window and it didn’t work. Now the approach is killing us.

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The problem is we’re addicted to the approach and it’s all we know. Extending aging and low performers like Jordan, Carr, etc has become a death spiral of sorts because you have to borrow from future years to field a team this year. Even if a player has value and is tradable, the contract and accelerated cap hit prevents the move.

I predicted 4-5 years ago the Saints were in the early innings of a lost decade of football.

The primary hope of turning this around is if Rattler somehow develops into a top 10 QB. The narrative can slowly shift if the franchise can get a little juice, so we can attract a decent coach and cheap FAs again.