Dennis Allen hasn’t had many positive updates to give the New Orleans Saints fandom in a while now, and those don’t appear to be coming anytime soon. This Saints team has lost six straight games, sitting at 2-6 on the season with a very low ceiling attached to their current roster and staff. However, despite the trade deadline rapidly approaching and many hoping to see some moves made for the future, Allen says that his team is not in “sell mode”.
The Situation Is BAD In New Orleans
As a small overview, the Saints are in a terrible roster situation at the moment. They are continuously over the salary cap and are expected to be in this situation for years to come. They are flush with veteran players that either won’t fetch high trade value or will retire any season now. Those players include Cameron Jordan, Tyrann Mathieu, and Demario Davis. Then, to make things extremely bad, this is a franchise that doesn’t have much draft capital, nor do they have extreme young talent to build upon given how much they’ve used to keep this competitive window open. Truly, the only way for this team to get back into Super Bowl contention is to blow the majority of the roster up and get fresh talent and a new staff.
Dennis Allen Should At Least Answer The Phone
I highly expect a plethora of other NFL teams to call the Saints any day now to try and strike a deal. The hottest name is likely to be Marshon Lattimore, as he was floating around the trade block a lot throughout the offseason. However, none of these rumors matter when Allen openly states that his team isn’t looking to part ways with players at the deadline, apparently still believing that this championship window is open in 2024. I find it very hard to imagine that this is a team that is capable of finding high-value talent that would be enough to change their fortunes this season. New Orleans looks defeated, they look like a team that has quit, they don’t have any joy on the sidelines, it is a miserable sight. The last thing that fans want to hear right now is that the team is thinking about parting ways with more draft capital to try and win now with the current group. That day might have already passed.
Veterans Could Retire
There are a few certainties that you can expect with the Saints in the coming years though. The first is that Alvin Kamara should remain a Saint for the rest of his playing career. That feels like a guarantee given the new contract he just signed. I would also beg to guess that Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis end their careers in the black and gold. Mathieu is a bit of a toss-up, though he’s floated around the possibility of retirement in the past, so he could step away as a Saint also. That leaves the team with a few other pieces that they would need to part ways with. We are likely to see Derek Carr get traded, as his contract is ridiculously large and the team needs a youthful option back there anyway. I would also anticipate Lattimore (as previously mentioned), Juwan Johnson, Willie Gay, and possibly even Pete Werner off the team if they head towards a rebuild. This is a very interesting situation to keep an eye on for the rest of the season in New Orleans.