When the New Orleans Saints cut 2023 second-round pick Isaiah Foskey, a defensive lineman who had zero sacks in two seasons, it wasn’t great. But teams cut high draft picks, even after two seasons.
The bad part was it’s a trend of mismanagement for New Orleans. A constant stream of salary-cap mismanagement, bad signings, regrettable picks and lopsided trades have put the Saints in a miserable situation.
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A team’s 2023 NFL Draft class should be a big part of the nucleus of its team in 2025. For the Saints, first-round pick defensive tackle Bryan Bresee is the only player from that class expected to have a significant role this season. Maybe two if running back Kendre Miller, who did have a promising preseason after two disappointing seasons, finally pays off. The 2024 class might be a little better but it’s also fairly thin because, due to impulsive trades, the Saints had just two picks inside of the top 149 that year. And it’s not like 2025 second-round pick Tyler Shough is off to a great start after failing to win the starting quarterback job out of preseason.
That’s why, when the Saints traded a fourth-round pick to the Denver Broncos for 2024 seventh-round pick receiver Devaughn Vele, it was almost comical. Broncos coach Sean Payton, a Saints legend, knew which team would overpay for a 2024 late-round pick with 475 yards last season.
The Saints have gotten themselves into quite a mess. It might be a while before they’re out of it.
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Saints’ QB situation illustrates issue
For some teams in the 2025 NFL Draft, Shough would have made sense. He was old for a rookie as he’s entering an age-26 season, after playing college football for parts of seven seasons. His tape was good though. For a team that needed a quarterback right away, sure. For the rebuilding Saints? It didn’t really fit, though perhaps it would have looked better if Shough looked like a hit right away.
Shough couldn’t beat out 2024 fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler for the starting job in preseason. If any quarterback needed to be ready to go right away, it was Shough. He’s not a developmental project. If you want to be overly optimistic, then Rattler winning the job is good news that some recent pick has worked out well for the Saints, but at the moment it just looks like a badly conceived idea for a team that might be among the NFL’s worst to take Shough in the second round. There’s plenty of time for Shough to get starts this season and show that he was a good pick for the team there, but it’s hard to believe a quarterback who is a month younger than Trevor Lawrence has the ability to level up far beyond what he is already. We’ll see.
But if the Saints are as bad as people believe they might be, they will be in the market for a quarterback at the top of the 2026 NFL Draft anyway. Really, the Saints should have been self aware enough to know that when they used the 40th overall pick on a quarterback who probably isn’t their future.
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Saints don’t have much young talent
Rebuilds in the NFL can happen fast. The Houston Texans were the laughingstock of the NFL, and that changed nearly the moment coach DeMeco Ryans and quarterback C.J. Stroud showed up. The Washington Commanders left decades of humiliation in the past when new coach Dan Quinn and rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels led them to the playoffs last season.
Maybe that applies to the Saints too, but this situation looks worse than some others before it. Their rebuild looks like it could take many years.
It’s very early to project cap space for 2026, but as of now the Saints have the worst cap situation in the NFL. They’re $29.2 million over the projected cap, according to Spotrac. The good news in that regard is the Saints don’t have many good young players who will command big extensions. Among the Saints’ players under 28 years old, the only proven blue-chip player is receiver Chris Olave and he hasn’t played a full season yet mostly due to four documented concussions.
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Perhaps Bresee will reach that level, someone like cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry emerges or offensive linemen Kelvin Banks Jr. and Taliese Fuaga become stars, but given the Saints’ recent draft history it’s hard to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it’s a good thing the Saints are down to five picks in the 2026 draft after trading away their fourth and seventh rounders already.
In betting markets, the Saints and Browns are considered the co-favorites to have the worst record in the NFL this season. It is going to be a long season in New Orleans. It might be a long season in 2026 too. And the season after that. And maybe the season after that.