Saints and Senior Bowl Chatter, Notes and News
The Senior Bowl brought us tons of Saints information. Here's some of the biggest things we learned and we discuss recent topics.
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00:00 What's happening everybody? John Hendricks here with Saints News Network alongside Ross
00:05 Jackson. Always the very, very smiley Ross Jackson and he is just, we're all operating
00:13 off of coffee. It's been a long week, but a good week that we've had at the Senior Bowl.
00:17 Ross, you're still over in Mobile and on this fine Friday, but how's things going over there?
00:22 Yeah, great. This is mostly the festivities day and stuff like that. So it's a good time
00:26 to hang around, maybe get to chat up with some of the prospects and stuff while they're
00:29 out at the parades and all that. So always a lot of fun to kind of be here through the
00:33 end of it. I'm never staying for the game, however, so I'll be out tomorrow morning.
00:37 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, it's kind of a limited type seating. I think we got
00:41 everything that you need during the week here. It's a great process. It's ran by Jim Nagini
00:46 in this company, his crew and such that they do here. And just an interesting perspective.
00:51 And I guess for those who don't know, you know, we're going to get into plenty of Saints
00:55 talk. We're going to talk about all the fun stuff. But, you know, this is over 100 college
01:00 prospects. Right. And last year they only had what, two first rounders. And this year
01:05 they have over 10 first rounders, first round potential picks that are in this. Tons of
01:10 names on here, tons of big top tier talent. I love the fact that they went to the new
01:16 format where they have coaches from everywhere, not just one particular team that's doing
01:21 it, but, you know, just kind of maybe give your thoughts on the senior bowl process.
01:25 I mean, you've been doing this for a long time now too. And it's a long time, meaning
01:30 over five years. Right. So this is kind of a thing that I think gets better with every
01:34 year that passes. Yeah. I think that the couple of changes that they've made recently that
01:39 I really like, I love the change, the coaching staff, as you mentioned, we're not watching
01:42 like two of the bottom coaching staffs that finish, finish towards the bottom in the NFL.
01:46 I mean, you know, come out here and work with these guys. We're actually now watching coaching
01:50 staff members who were nominated by other coaching staff members to represent. And even
01:55 oftentimes and most of the time actually kind of operate at a promoted level here at the
02:01 senior bowl. So for instance, for, for some saints examples last year, office of his assistant
02:06 DJ Williams, who works with the quarterbacks, but isn't a quarterback coach in the NFL was
02:10 the quarterback coach for the senior bowl. And for one of the teams, Ronald Curry, who's
02:14 the quarterback coach passing and coordinator for the new Orleans saints. He was offensive
02:17 coordinator last year, this year, assistant special teams coach Phil Galeano out here
02:21 as the special teams coach for one of these teams. So everybody kind of gets to operate
02:24 as like a promoted, uh, you know, kind of in a promoted role, which is really cool to
02:28 see. It just gives people a little bit more exposure, a little bit more opportunity, all
02:32 that as well. The other thing that I really liked this year, and I think it only happened
02:35 to about the tune of maybe 11 or so players, but they started allowing underclassmen in
02:40 this year's class as well. So it's not just the senior bowl for seniors. It's the senior
02:44 bowl for draft draft prospects. And I think that was a really wise move by Jim Nagy and
02:50 the senior bowl as they continue to expand, uh, their sort of player pool. This is the,
02:55 the all-star game effectively that you want to be a part of if you're a college player,
02:59 because the, the percentages of folks that come from here to the being drafted in the
03:06 NFL draft is astronomical. And this is a weekend that everybody coaches, players, prospects,
03:12 everybody wants to be a part of. Yeah. You got like the shrine bowl. You've got the collegiate
03:16 bowl, the Hula bowl. You got the HBCU legacy bowl. This company, you got all these, but
03:21 like, I think this is probably the premier event. Not that saying that they won't get
03:24 out from everyone, but you know, again, you talk about the saints, they had a heavy presence
03:29 here, right? Everybody, but Dennis Allen was practically in the building. So I have to
03:32 see all the position coaches. Mickey Loomis is here. Now, DA was obviously not in attendance
03:37 for good reason. Cause they were doing the offensive coordinator search. He's doing the
03:40 interviews and such, but you know, I say that because everybody says, well, yeah, it makes
03:45 sense proximity, but there were some teams out there that weren't represented or they
03:49 have minimal representation. I mean, I don't know how you do that, but you know, again,
03:54 and it's, what's interesting about it is that, you know, for those who again, don't understand
03:59 this is the coaching staff's first look at all of these prospects, right? It's not like
04:04 they've been researching these guys or talking about it. That's the scouting department's
04:09 job, Jeff Ireland, and that a team that does all that work, but for really these coaches,
04:14 this is the first time they meet these players and, and look, you know, in talking to some
04:18 of these coaches, right. They look at film, obviously they're not going to sit here and
04:22 say, Oh, well, let me just take down everything in a moment. They're going to interview prospects
04:26 too, but it's interesting. And some of the nuances you pick up where if you make a bad
04:31 play, they're going to notice and they're going to stick out and they're going to put
04:33 a little mark on their thing. Right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, it's a fine
04:37 tooth comb, even if it's not happening in the moment, I think it's kind of one of those
04:41 things that becomes like the big difference between sort of the draft evaluating crowd
04:45 and then the, the NFL crowd, right. Coaches and things like that. There's always eventually
04:50 a certain point to where coaches are looking at the draft one way media and everybody's
04:54 looking at the draft the other way. And then eventually media catches up. Well, a big part
04:58 of the reason why the media eventually has to catch up is because of the years of advanced
05:02 work that have already been happening on the, on these prospects, what it's from the scouts.
05:07 As you mentioned, the coaches pick it up very quickly, but then they go back and they study
05:11 and study and study the tape. And then of course, like people aren't, people can effectively
05:16 make a little bit of money here at the senior bowl. They can lose a little bit of money
05:19 here at the senior bowl in terms of like what their draft stock is and things like that.
05:23 But ultimately the decision is going to be made based upon what their tape in college
05:27 says. These three days though, you also get to learn a little bit about the makeup of
05:31 the player. There's a guy, a edge rusher, a layout to a lot to out of UCLA who received
05:36 a bunch of praise from a bunch of scouts and coaches that I talked to because he was literally
05:40 going to anybody that was a former player and asking, uh, Hey, what's your, what advice
05:45 do you have for me? What can I do this week? That'd be good. He was asking media guys that
05:50 were former players, like give me a little bit of advice here. Like that kind of thing
05:55 stands out. So you get to see the makeup of that player. You get to see how they take
05:58 to coaching, how they work with unfamiliar players. Cause when you're a rookie drafted
06:03 into the NFL, you gotta be able to do that. You're about to work with a bunch of guys
06:06 you've never worked with before. Can you turn that page quickly? Those are some of the things
06:10 you get to learn here at the senior bowl that almost become more important than what you
06:13 do in terms of a production and your one on ones and things like that.
06:18 Yeah. And it's a certain level of humbleness, right? Because you can come in here and have
06:22 a big chip on your shoulder and be like, I know I'm going to go with top 10, top 15 or
06:26 everything, but to be able to pick these guys minds, that's, I mean, that's a huge thing,
06:30 right? And people that have walked it and done it, you know, bought the t-shirt. I mean,
06:35 you're talking about coaches that have over 30 years of experience, you know, some 10
06:39 years plus as a player. I mean, this is just, it's limitless. The amount of talent that's
06:44 around this, this event. And I don't want to say little old mobile, but like, I mean,
06:49 mobile, you just look at everything and it's just like, it's not a Las Vegas. It's not
06:53 a Texas. It's not all those types of things, but it is a, it makes sense. And it's a great
06:58 exposure. It's a great time for all of these college prospects. And, you know, look again,
07:03 you look at it, you're going to get all the stuff that, you know, Hey, so-and-so look
07:06 good in this, the one-on-ones, all this type of stuff, which is, which, which makes sense.
07:10 Right. In a sense, it's kind of like what we see at training camp, these guys stick
07:14 out all the type of stuff. That's the type of thing that we look at. And again, there's
07:18 a hundred and plus college prospects. I think it was one 20 is on the roster is what I remember.
07:23 And obviously some can't aren't, aren't participating. Some aren't doing everything that they should.
07:28 Some get hurt. We saw plenty of that, but you know, again, for the saints, they have
07:33 a heavy presence here. They are, you know, not some that are just new to this equation.
07:39 They just come in here, they learn as much as they can. And then really they're going
07:43 to lean more on the combine for a lot more valuations. But again, saints, offensive coordinator,
07:49 I think that's the hottest topic right now. We'll get into some of the other stuff, but
07:53 offensive coordinator search, you know, again, everything that I understood and was told
07:57 that they were getting close to hiring a offensive coordinator, pretty close. And I know a lot
08:01 of people are, are antsy about not making hires. You got Gerard Johnson that steps back,
08:07 you know, Ben Johnson staying with the lions, all these types of different things. It seems
08:11 like they're honing in on their guys. The hottest name that I keep hearing is Clint
08:15 Kubiak. What do you think is the saints best course here? And do they even look at a guy
08:20 like Ronald Curry and say, okay, maybe this is what we feel like this should be all along.
08:25 And he's maybe the rest of these candidates are kind of having to stack up to him.
08:28 Yeah, I definitely wouldn't rule out Ronald Curry at all. I think that that's a fine plan
08:33 for the new Roland saints. You kind of wonder why they didn't make that change in season,
08:37 but look, they were very clear that they weren't going to be making any type of coaching changes
08:40 or making any kind of drastic moves in season. So going to a guy like Ronald Curry could
08:44 make sense, but I do think that it's the external hire and I'm with you right there, John, everybody
08:48 that I talked to has talked about Clint Kubiak, Clint Kubiak, Clint Kubiak, Clint Kubiak.
08:51 That's the name that continuously comes up when it comes to the new Orleans saints. I've
08:54 heard some folks. Yeah. I still hear the name, John Gruden pop up and stuff like that, but
08:58 I don't, you know, he hasn't really been linked to this office of coordinator role. He's been
09:01 linked to maybe another role on offense, something like a senior offensive assistant or something
09:06 like that. If that even were to come to fruition, uh, that report was from, you know, months
09:10 ago now, but when it comes down to where the saints seem to be, when it comes to office
09:14 coordinator, it feels very much like Clint could be asked to target, which would explain
09:17 the timeline. Like they didn't offer. My understanding is that they didn't offer the job to Gerard
09:21 Johnson. They didn't offer the job necessarily at any of these other candidates that they've,
09:25 that they've talked to. And so this kind of gives you a little bit more clarity about
09:29 why the saints are taking the time that they're taking, because maybe their top candidate
09:33 and the guy that they either hope to land or expect to land is going to be busy coaching
09:37 in the super bowl, uh, you know, on February 11th. And so they don't want to create the,
09:41 you know, I'm sure Kubiak and the San Francisco 49ers wouldn't want to create the distraction
09:45 for their team and their roster, getting ready to play the biggest game of their careers,
09:48 biggest game of their lives. You don't want to create any distraction in which you're
09:52 kind of going, Oh, well, our guys leaving us, you know what I mean? And so instead you
09:56 wait until that game is over. And then probably February 12th, the day after the super bowl
10:00 might be when that news could break. Uh, but that's kind of the way that I would see that
10:05 planning out. If Clint Kubiak is indeed the guy for the new Orleans saints, if he's not,
10:11 then you're waiting to kind of see maybe like what some of those other possibilities are
10:14 between him and let's say Brian greasy, who of course came in and interviewed as well.
10:18 Um, but yeah, everything that I've heard so far has been at least that Clint Kubiak is
10:23 the candidate, the guy that they're, that they're gunning for.
10:26 Yeah. That honing in. And of course we'll see how it obviously plays out, but you know,
10:30 Ronald Curry to his, his credit. I mean, he's been with his team for a long time. He played,
10:34 he actually calls plays in preseason a lot of times too. I mean, I think that's another
10:38 thing that it's not like he's just vanilla to it. Drew Brees, uh, opening his, his small
10:42 sliders or, you know, sliders business, uh, yesterday talking about Curry. I mean, he
10:48 has glowing praise and again, but like you said, if that was the guy, then why hadn't
10:53 it been done, you know, sooner and all that, that's the kind of the biggest thing.
10:57 And it seems like, well, you did all this research, you did all these interviews. I
11:01 mean, they were up over well over 10, I mean, almost to 15 candidates, right. That are linked
11:05 to this job. And there's a ton of them that are open, you know, 13, 14 were open, uh,
11:10 you know, what, as many as 15. I mean, that's a lot of guys to fill up and they have to
11:15 get it right because this is for all intents and purposes. I think this is DA's last chance
11:19 to really get this roster where it needs to. I know that they've kind of put some lines
11:23 in the sands as far as what they've constructed in the locker room and some different things
11:28 that they've kind of echoed in and talked in on and, you know, in talking about that,
11:33 I think some of these players futures are really in question. I think Michael Thomas,
11:37 the thing that happened with him doing his ran on, on, on X or Twitter now, I think he's,
11:43 he's gone. I think the best course of action for them. And again, everything that I hear
11:48 and have heard is that I think that they're going to be heading, I don't want to say divorce,
11:52 but it's time to move on. It's time for something fresh, but I don't think it stops there because
11:56 I think Marshall Latimer is another one that you look at. I think that's another one that
12:01 it wouldn't surprise me if they move on from Marshall on line more, but what are your thoughts
12:05 and kind of what are some of the things that you've been hearing?
12:08 Yeah, I've been hearing the same things. Michael Thomas in particular, like that's one to be
12:12 fair. That's one that we all kind of understood. Okay. The Swan song is the 2023 season. They
12:18 brought him in, they did the incentive, heavy contract, all that. He got through 10 games,
12:22 didn't hit a single one of those incentives. Wasn't able to finish the year on the field.
12:26 But it's unfortunate because he worked very hard to get back. You know what I mean? Like
12:29 I want to be careful about how I talk about this because I don't think necessarily that
12:33 Michael Thomas did anything wrong. I think that he's just in a situation to where like
12:37 his body is not doing the thing that his mind wants his body to do. And unfortunately that's
12:42 just the case of times when it comes to the game of football and maybe he lands somewhere
12:46 else and there's a different system that works out well for him. And then he's able to stay
12:50 healthy. That doesn't mean that he would have stayed healthy here in new Orleans. So I think
12:53 at this point you're operating to try to be as early on this as possible because you might
12:57 already be too late. If you're the new Orleans saints, uh, it's been four seasons now of
13:01 him either not being on the field or not being able to finish on the field. I understand
13:05 the frustration there. I understand the frustration from Michael Thomas there too, but it just
13:09 doesn't seem like these two, the new Orleans saints and Michael Thomas, it doesn't feel
13:13 like it's in the stars for them to give this another run.
13:16 Feels like it's an opportunity for Michael Thomas to start fresh and the saints to continue
13:20 to build on a really talented young core of wide receivers that they have in Chris Olave,
13:24 AT Perry, and then we'll have Rashid Shahid back in 2024 as well. He's an exclusive rights
13:30 free agent, which means the two don't even have to look at each other. Like Rashid, the
13:33 saints don't even have to talk to one another. They have to look at each other and he will
13:36 be back in 2024. So it's a super easy situation to navigate. So you got a lot of talent there.
13:42 Add more young talent to it. See if maybe you land a big fish in free agency like a
13:46 T Higgins or something like that to give you that X receiver presence and then move on.
13:50 And I think that that's the right way to go here. The Marshall and Lattimore one's a little
13:53 bit more complicated just because it requires, it would probably be a, it would be a trade
13:58 situation. They've already kind of redid his contract, which will allow them to carry him
14:02 all the way down to after June 1st, which will give them the opportunity to defer some
14:06 of that salary cap payment. So it makes it a little bit more manageable, but it's still
14:09 over $30 million in total in terms of dead money. You know what I mean? It doesn't, yeah,
14:14 it's still a lot to take on. So I don't know that I would say that trading away Marshall
14:19 Lattimore is the right choice, but I do think that like, if you look at the talent that
14:23 they have on the team, the success that they've had without him on the field and all that,
14:27 that like, I could understand why this team would have the confidence to say, Hey, we
14:31 can get this done and get some assets for, you know, a star corner in the NFL and we've
14:37 got other star corners. So let's get it done. I could see the logic in that, but I don't
14:42 know if it's the right choice.
14:43 Yeah. And, and look, here's the reality of it. And I get it. So people have talked about
14:48 it and said injury prone, all this stuff. Again, I've said it, it's not his fault. He's
14:51 missed half the games right now. As far as the rehab stuff. I mean like this last year
14:57 he had friendly fire, got rolled up in Indy. I understand that. And in the year before
15:01 that he was playing out of position and trying to make a play compensate for somebody who
15:05 wasn't doing their job and got hurt in the end zone. I mean, those are types of things
15:08 that, you know, I don't think it's fair to say this guy's injury prone just because now
15:13 the way back to him, way back getting to the field and all that, maybe you say, okay, well
15:18 maybe he could have been available sooner. And I think DA kind of alluded to some of
15:22 that possibly having these guys a little bit earlier than they expected you know, for the
15:27 rehab process and such, but you know, look, it's, it's an interesting dilemma that they
15:31 have, but I think they have some capable corners on a roster.
15:36 They have some capable talent. Now of course, free agency is obviously a big one. Isaac
15:40 Yadim, look, this is a guy who worked with Joe Woods who'd been in Denver. So he's gotten
15:45 the max return from a guy like Joe Woods. And so I think it makes sense. And I've wrote
15:50 about it plenty is that that could be a thought process. Now again, dead money. I remember
15:55 the days when the Saints just had piles and piles of dead money when they got rid of Jerry's
15:59 bird, when they got rid of junior. I don't think the dead money is as big of a problem.
16:04 They don't have a lot to deal with this year. I just Bradley Robey and I forgot one other
16:08 player that they're having to deal with in the dead money, but you know, it wouldn't
16:11 shock me at that, at that point. And they're going to have to do some things to, to navigate
16:16 it. And then you mentioned the wide receiver front. They still got to find a wide receivers
16:19 coach, which I think, I don't want to say pairing with them and the offensive coordinator,
16:23 but I think that's something that you've got to look at Rashid Shaheed.
16:26 I know people are talking about the exclusive rights. What I had wrote about him is that
16:29 they just need to do right by him. They don't, it's, it's a take it or leave it type approach,
16:33 but the right move would be saying, okay, Rashid, you made the pro ball, you've done
16:37 all this stuff. We're going to give you a lot more than just some basic bare minimum
16:40 type thing, give them some extra incentive, something. I think that's an organization
16:44 is going to do that, but you know, there's just too much, there's too many moving parts
16:49 and pieces. And obviously they've already worked on starting to get under the salary
16:52 cap, Jamis Winston, Marshawn Latimore, but you know, again, Derek Carr is the hot name.
16:58 I think it's something that when you looked at the salary cap and way that they can restructure
17:03 Derek Carr was the top target. I mean, it's, it's been floated that that's where they're
17:07 going to go. I don't think I, I treat that as new news that just made sense from a financial
17:12 perspective that if you're going to clear 80 plus million dollars, Derek Carr is probably
17:17 your top target to do that.
17:18 Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, you're going to save over $21 million over $20 million
17:24 by restructuring them. Then if you add another void year to the contract to like spread everything
17:28 out, if you convert it to a salary or to a signing bonus, you'll save a little bit more
17:32 as well. That helps you get from 83, $84 million to 20 or to 60, $62 million over the salary
17:39 cap. That's a big leap. And you're right. This contract was always built specifically
17:45 with the idea of restructuring Derek Carr. There, there was really no mystery about this
17:51 and that they were going to be tied to Derek Carr for 2024, tied to Derek Carr for 2025.
17:55 And then they can make a decision after that about how they want to handle it or make a
17:59 decision before 2025, depending upon what they plan to do with the money in that year's
18:04 contract, which also carries, I believe a roster bonus and things like that, which means
18:06 already guaranteed money effectively that you're just restructuring and turning into
18:10 guaranteed money at a payout basis, as opposed to in a full lump sum basis.
18:15 So this isn't really super surprising, but it was a decision that the Saints did need
18:21 to make. There was a path to restructuring and there is a path to restructuring enough
18:26 around Derek Carr without touching his contract to get under the salary cap. But if you want
18:30 to add more talent, $21 million moves the needle for you, man, in terms of like how
18:35 you want to do that and add that talent. So I do think that that goes a really long way.
18:40 And to your point about Rashid Jaheed too, about the exclusive rights situation, Carl
18:45 Granderson and Jawan Johnson were both examples of the Saints who had the ability to just
18:50 give them the exclusive rights tender, move on, but instead gave them each, I believe
18:55 it was two year deals, both of them, the opportunity to stick around longer. And then of course,
18:59 Carl Granderson turned that into a much larger deal. So I wouldn't be surprised to see them
19:02 take the same approach there with Rashid Jaheed. But you're right, the Derek Carr thing was
19:07 expected all along, but good to know now that you can start to plan for it.
19:12 Absolutely. And something else you talked about when it comes to wide receivers is you
19:16 mentioned T Higgins, which I love that one. I don't know that they'll make the big splash
19:21 when it comes to a free agent and wide receiver. They have so many pressing needs, right? But
19:26 one obviously I think that would make the most sense is Hunter Renfroe. He's going to
19:29 get cut by the Raiders. He's somebody that the Saints tried to at least make some calls
19:36 on when it was a trade deadline and get some interest there. That wouldn't be a surprise
19:40 to reunite with Derek Carr. That would give him a wide receiver for somebody who can do
19:43 a little bit of everything. I think that would be a smart move for them to look at, obviously.
19:47 But I think their tension has to go on the offensive line. I would love for him to swing
19:52 for the fences and somebody on the defensive line. I would love for them to come away with
19:56 a Danil Hunter. I don't know if it's going to happen. I never say never, but I think
20:00 they need a game changer there. But when you look at the offensive line, they got to figure
20:03 out what to do with Andres Pete, Trevor pinning, obviously. I thought it was interesting to
20:07 hear Jeff Ireland talk about pinning and just everybody talk about pinning is that they
20:11 haven't given up.
20:12 That's something that Ireland has said. Mickey said, DA has talked about, but the other part
20:18 of it is he could change positions. Obviously, it's going to be up to Doug Morone, Kevin
20:23 Carver to try to get the most from him. Does Trevor pinning work at guard is my first question.
20:29 And what do you think is going to end up happening, I guess, on the offensive line?
20:32 Yeah, I'm a very staunch, like let tackles play tackle kind of guy. He's got no experience
20:39 on the interior. So this would be akin to Alante Taylor moving to the slot on one off
20:46 season of that decision, right? And so if you're moving Trevor pinning to guard, are
20:52 you moving him to guard in one off season? Or are you creating him? Are you like moving
20:58 him to that position, but not starting him? And in which case you're still kind of coming
21:03 up short in terms of what the expectation should be for a top 20 offensive tackle in
21:09 the NFL. And so I don't know, I, I get the idea and I, I see where people say because
21:15 of his physicality, because he's a run blocker and things like that, that maybe he can work
21:19 on the inside. It's also just a thing that people say when tackle struggle, it's always
21:23 the first thing that comes up. Oh, moving side, you know what I mean? But he's never
21:26 done it before. I don't have that, the kind of faith that says, oh yeah, that, that would
21:32 happen or that would work out. I think that you, you work on him at tackle. He's had one
21:36 off season so far. Give him another one at tackle. Don't waste an off season of him,
21:41 especially if he can stay healthy throughout it.
21:44 Splitting focus between two different spots, get them trained up at tackle and then see
21:47 what you're able to turn them into. Can he be the guy that you went out there and drafted
21:51 him to be? I think that's the question you have to answer first. I don't think they have
21:55 that answer. Then after you get that answer, yes or no. If it's no, then talk about moving
21:59 him inside. Yeah. And I mean, he's, he knows the shortcomings. I mean, he always talked
22:03 about it in the locker room. Footwork is one of those things, just being able quicker to
22:07 diagnose and stuff. I mean, they could look at right tackle. I know that they feel good
22:10 about Ryan Ramchick coming back and Ramchick feels good about coming back as well. And
22:15 so I think it's a dilemma, but that offensive line, I mean, you know, I think he didn't
22:20 get as much as you needed from Ruiz and McCoy this year, but again, I think Pete was your
22:24 best offensive lineman.
22:26 And so they need proper attention to make this all work on offense. But again, I look
22:30 at the defensive side of the ball. You look at most of this roster's coming back, you
22:34 know, again, there's question marks. There could be some surprise candidates. I think
22:38 the defensive line, you know, you got to figure out somebody, you got to get a game changer.
22:42 I really love what they did with Brian Brzee. I think he was, you know, for as much flack
22:46 as they take for a first rounder and not hitting on them. They, they absolutely nailed their
22:50 evaluation on him and Jordan Howden for sure. And so you want to see more from Isaiah Foskey
22:56 and obviously they're not giving up on him, but you know, the pro game is obviously a
23:00 lot different.
23:01 And I've said this too, is, you know, you've got two picks within the top 50 that you're
23:05 not going to draft again until day three, presumably with the fifth round, unless you
23:11 move some players. And so you can't go with the project that has the best RAS score from
23:17 the small school. You have to go with somebody, trust your gut, get trust your evaluation
23:22 process and get the guy who's going to fit your mold of what you need, because I think
23:26 they're in the compete now. I don't want to say when now mode, because I don't think this
23:30 team is primed or ready anywhere for a super bowl yet.
23:33 You got to get the playoffs first, but you got to get those pieces around you. I think
23:37 they love the young core that they have and they can build on it, but you know, they got
23:41 a lot of older guys on this roster and they're going to have to make some decisions. I think
23:45 defensively, I think there's some surprise cuts coming. You know, I think offensively
23:49 there might be some things that you have to deal with and figure out, you know, do they
23:54 move a taste some Hill? You know, I don't know if that's the question. Um, I think they
23:58 got to get more from Alvin Camara. I think that starts with getting a better offensive
24:01 line. I like what they had with Kinzer Miller, Jamal Williams didn't have the best year.
24:05 So that's why I say, I think the offensive line is probably the most important position,
24:09 but it doesn't stop there.
24:10 Yeah, no, not at all. There's spots that you're looking at. Where can you get faster? Where
24:14 can you get younger? Where can you develop more talent? All that? One of the spots that
24:18 I'm going to be watching over the course of the off season is safety, right? You've got
24:22 Marcus may getting into his thirties. You got Tyra Matthew into his thirties. Tyra Matthew
24:26 played a fantastic season last year. Not a lot you have to worry about when it comes
24:29 to him. I thought he was like the defensive MVP this past season. And in fact, Bob, Bob
24:35 Rose, one of our writers here, he's working on this, uh, superlatives piece where he talked
24:39 about, you know, offensive MVP, defensive MVP. But one of the things that he asked was
24:42 biggest disappointment. My biggest disappointment this year was Marcus may at that safety spot.
24:47 Yeah. And really, if you look over the course of the past couple of years where they signed
24:51 him, he just has not been the guy that they expected him to be. So I had trouble staying
24:56 on the field. Of course he had the suspension as a part of that this season, but even still,
24:59 you know, struggled with injury, had a couple of splash moments, couple of nice plays, things
25:03 like that. I don't want to take anything away from him, but I don't know if the saints are
25:06 really getting. And, uh, you know, I'm not alone in this, but I don't really know that
25:10 the saints are getting what they wanted out of Marcus may that when you see the investment
25:16 of a Jordan Howden pay off his rookie year as a fifth round draft pick, even though he
25:20 was kind of playing a position that he'd not really played before.
25:23 He's a little bit more of a post free safety kind of guy. He was playing that sort of strong
25:27 safety box role, but then you saw the last two games with Jonathan Abram and the way
25:31 that he went out there and just brought so much energy to that defense, all that. I think
25:36 when you have guys that you really like at the position, like Jonathan Abram, like Lonnie
25:39 Johnson as well, and you have a guy that's not really living up to his contract number
25:44 and his, uh, and his pay, and you have the opportunity to maybe save a little bit by
25:48 moving on from, I think they would save just under $2 million by moving on from them.
25:52 Not a lot, but still something to consider if you're not getting the play level that
25:56 you want out of them anyway, might be time to move on there and look to see if maybe
26:00 a guy like Jonathan Abram slides into that starting role, or if you can get Jordan Howden
26:04 trained up at that different position over the course of the off season.
26:07 Yeah. And again, you know, you don't have to talk to any coach, but the best ability
26:12 is your availability. Right. And so we're talking about guys, Thomas, Lattimore may
26:17 just haven't been available for this team. Right. And so again, you got to have some
26:22 type of plan in place to be able to do that. And so it's going to be fascinating. I think
26:26 it's going to, you know, obviously once we get down from the senior bowl, it's going
26:30 to be a little bit of a low, if you will, until we get to the combine. But I, obviously
26:35 some big things going to happen. We'll get the OC. Obviously you're going to have some
26:39 more restructures done and then kind of heat up as, as we get into the new league year,
26:43 but there's still a long ways to go.