In contrast to the mood in here, is there anything good you have seen with the team in the season so far? Any bright spots on the rise?

Source: https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/VgMoK

Loser: The Saints’ Five-Year Plan

Saints owner Gayle Benson, who took sole control of the team after her husband, Tom Benson, died in 2018, watched head coach Sean Payton and Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees gut out a 1-2 playoff record in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the final act of the 15-year partnership that changed the fate of the franchise. Payton wanted out a year later, and Benson and general manager Mickey Loomis—who has been with the Bensons in the New Orleans front office since 2000—are on their second coach in five years since. They have zero playoff berths to show for it. 

Benson said two weeks ago that the Saints’ standard wasn’t acceptable, and things don’t exactly look better after an ugly 16-10 loss to the zombie Steelers in the NFL’s first game in Paris, the designated territory for Benson’s Saints as the league continues to expand internationally. 

The list of problems is extensive. Head coach Kellen Moore and his staff aren’t maximizing the few bright spots on the team. The defense under Brandon Staley continues to get burned. The bulk of the roster is laughably bad because Loomis has wasted resources by trading up for draft busts and by constricting cap maneuverability with contracts fat on void years. And worst of all, the Saints seem to be in denial about it: Loomis, for instance, is adamant that the lows they’re experiencing are growing pains often associated with young players and coaches.

“We have to make sure that the processes are right and that the development is correct, and then we’ll get the outcomes that we want and expect,” Loomis said last week. “But we’re a young team, a young, developing team, and we have to recognize that. I recognize that. We’ve got a young coach, 23 games into his career, and that’s where we’re at.”

What’s odd is that the Saints have one of the oldest rosters in the league (by snap-weighted age). Second-year quarterback Tyler Shough is going to be 30 on his next NFL contract. And while Moore did enter this week with only 23 games coached in the top job, he’s been a coordinator at the NFL level dating back to 2019. He isn’t that new.  

Benson recently made it known that she isn’t happy with the Saints’ standard of play, and Loomis publicly dealt out blame pie to his coaches and players before the team dropped a dud in Paris. Moore and Staley certainly deserve fault, but they can only coach the players they’re dealt. Loomis is responsible for this staff and roster. If change is going to happen, it has to start with him. 

His job title is offensive coordinator but I know Kellen Moore calls plays and the offense doesn’t really seem to be very coordinated at all especially in the run game. Maybe if Kellen isn’t fired he should bring someone else in?

The last few years, various NFL teams have been running more plays with two and even three TEs at a time. Teams do that to get bulk on the field for run plays, and create explosive pass plays.

Have heard that the Saints are running two and three TE sets at one of the lowest rates in the league. Is Kellen Moore not using multi TE sets because that's not how he runs "his" scheme, or is it because the top 2 are both receiving guys, one a WR convert? Seems like it'd be a great way to jump start the run game.

If so who are some guys yall think we should draft?

During the 2024 Eagles regular season, their total first quarter point differential across all 17 games was -11 (scoring 69 points while allowing 80 points). The team famously struggled to score opening-quarter points, failing to record a single first-quarter point in their first seven games. They also failed to score in weeks 11, 13, and 14.

In the first 7 games of the 2026 season, the New Orleans Saints have a total first-quarter point differential of -21 points. We got a touchdown in week 3 but missed the extra point*

Throwing out the 2025 season because it was the first year of rebuild and we started Rattler. But if you're curious, the total point differential was -93

Kellen Moore needs to figure out how to start games better

Nick said something along the lines that we had a week of practice while the Steelers had a few day. Is that true?

Aside from the Atlanta game, we have been ”in” every game. So if you believe we do not have talent, you must also believe that the coaching staff is doing well enough to keep us in games. And that it is only talent holding us back from making the crucial plays to win.

Personally, I see it as entirely on the coaching staff. We may not have elite talent, but any coach can win with elite talent. And if that’s what you need to succeed, you are a bad coach.

Our team has absolutely no identity. Not on offense, or on defense.

Our offense is ”Let’s hope Shough can make a play, preferably to Olave.” If you are requiring your 2nd year QB who’s never played a full season in the NFL to be perfect in order to even be competitive, you will not have any longstanding success.

Our defense is “I hope Chase Young gets a sack, or we get a lucky turnover”. I’ve said it in here before, but the 3-4 is completely outdated and will not work in today’s NFL.

When’s the last time we schemed a guy to be wide open? Because it happens to us at least once or twice every week. And I dont think our ST’s even need to be brought up. We all know how badly they stink. Although, our punter is Good enough.

There needs to be a big change from top to bottom before we come back from the bye. Moore is not responsible for just the offense. He is the HC. If the guy he hired can’t do the job on defense or ST, that’s on HIM. It is HIS staff. That also applies to the OC and OL coaches. All of it.

That's what our recent losses boil down to on both sides of the ball. There's no real fear of a run, so you know what we're going to do every play. Defensively, we can't stop the run reliably and our backs aren't good enough to stop WR1's with any consistency. I've seen us unable to prevent completions even double covering far too much. As an opposing coach you can essentially walk in to every game knowing you are going to watch the "Tyler Shough plays 7/7" show, and be prepared for exactly that.

Personnel: we lack depth. We have a handful of key pieces to continue building around. I don't buy the argument that we can't still win games despite having guys out though. It should be at least somewhat surmountable, leading me to part the next bit...

Coaching: there's really just no excuse for the coaching staff at this point. We go out there and see the same plays week after week, seemingly start to see play action or 13 personnel runs work, then immediately go back to the stuff that wasn't working. It just seems impossible to me that we waste as many downs as we do trying to run guys up the middle yet can't muster 50 combined rushing yards? That's a gameplan and coaching issue.

In summary: we're in a rebuild, there are for sure personnel issues and injuries plaguing us, but that doesn't explain the whole picture.

I'm looking to see major adjustments after the bye week to renew some faith in the coaching staff in particular. If not, I'm not sure what we can really expect in terms of growth with Moore (and Loomis).

Context: Every year I put out a bowl of candy for my neighbors in my Denver apartment building for all of October. It’s my way of spreading joy and always giving thanks to all the building staff and delivery drivers who pass by.

Last Sunday, I was walking out the door in my Saints gear at the same time as my new next-door neighbor who happened to be head to toe in Panthers gear. We both laughed and I muttered a “oh man, BRUTAL” as we went opposite directions.

Flash Forward to this Sunday at 7:30am: I remembered my candy bowl had been running low so I went to go refill it. To my surprise, my neighbor had refilled the bowl (image was taken later in the day after ppl had taken lots) and left a note saying “Go Panthers”.

How would a Saints fan respond to this kind, but rivalrous act? Hard to chirp when we’re 2-5 and getting beaten by 43-year-old QBs.

Mickey is one of the longest-tenured GMs in the league and has made multiple mistakes that would've gotten most GMs fired years ago. Nobody holds Mickey accountable, so Mickey doesn't hold Kellen accountable, Kellen doesn't hold the players accountable, and the cycle continues. Any serious organization would've cleaned house by now, but instead we're stuck with this "family-run" football team.

The one exception was Gayle stepping in to fire Dennis Allen, proving she's capable of demanding accountability. Yet, for some reason, that accountability never extends to Mickey Loomis, who continues to survive failure after failure.

At this point, I've accepted it. Kellen is probably getting the rest of this season, and even if he only wins 1 or 2 more games, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets another year to try to turn things around. Until Ms. B starts holding everyone accountable, nothing will change. As a fan, it is what it is until the team is sold or transferred ownership.

Considering we lost by only 6 points, we were literally 1 play away from winning (if Shough puts the ball closer to the sideline on that out route - no pic and we end up scoring & winning 17-16)

Also there was another missed Field Goal.

I know we are all appalled by the run game yesterday but all this talk of fire everyone is misplaced.

Hi, french fan here.

I'm obviously disappointed with the result of today's game and I know the decision of having a home game not being played at the Dome is understandably not popular for you local fans, but I can't begin to explain how important was this game for many people here.

Hell, it was even broadcasted for free on our national public TV channel, which is something the Madden 03 playing teenager that I was a long time ago could never have imagined even if I would have been told so.

The NFL in France ? Give me a break. Too foreign, too far, too different from our traditional sports standards. And still, many years later it happened, and I still can't believe it.

To all the Who Dat Nation that crossed the ocean to visit us today, I hope you enjoyed your stay here and felt welcomed. I sure hope to be able one day to come to visit you back, our distant cousins, for a proper home game in NOLA.

At the end of the day it was unfortunately a poor loss, but today definitely felt like a huge win for me and for many football fans in France, and I sure hope you will come back to visit us again.

After all, that's what cousins do :-)

Merci la Nouvelle-Orléans, et à bientôt ! Who Dat !

Kirko chain Aaron Rodgers on the flight back from serving our asses to us IN FKN PARIS like a powdered croissant…

AND WE DESERVE IT.

What’s with the soft serve “pappy politic” Good ole boy 🐃💩.

LEAVE THE ENTIRE STAFF.
IN FCKN PARIS.

The fact that our “offensive genius” head coach is relying on a second-year QB with a broken hand to carry this entire offense is nothing short of a travesty. I have no idea how Shough is supposed to survive the rest of the season with the number of hits he’s taking. At what point does this organization finally make some changes?

Every week, we see a dysfunctional team. This is because of a few different things. Firstly, our run game is nonexistent, which makes us reliant on the passing game to move the chains (RIP Travis Etienne). This restricts the options available to Kellen Moore and makes our offense easy to dissect by opposing linebackers since they don't have to worry about stopping the running backs. Secondly, our offensive line is nonexistent (RIP Kelvin Banks). This means that Shough is under pressure almost every play and is tackled/sacked constantly. He's on track to receive more contact than any quarterback in twenty years. Thirdly, the Saints' defensive and special teams units are also terrible (these are whole other issues), which puts even more strain on the quarterback as the Saints end up trailing early, forcing him to almost singlehandedly engineer fourth-quarter comebacks. Fourthly, Kellen Moore's playcalling is predictable and uninspired. We never use play action, always get caught for stupid penalties that stall drives, and we're always trailing at the end of the first quarter and half. All of these issues reinforce each other. The lack of a consistent O-line, the lack of a run game, the slow starts, the penalties, and the bad defenses all heap more and more pressure onto the quarterback position.

All of this brings us to Tyler Shough, who is getting pulverized basically every game at this point. He's currently playing through two broken bones in his left hand and he seemed to hurt his right hand too this game. We've seen so much progress from him in spite of it all. He's managed to string together impressive comebacks, most of our losses this season have been by one score. He's also shown exceptional mental toughness, bouncing back after making egregious mistakes. His insistence on personally taking responsibility for every defeat instead of deflecting the blame, which he could reasonably do, is evidence that he's a good leader and good for the team culture. But he's not Superman. There are limits to what he can do; he's a second-year quarterback playing injured and sometimes he genuinely does screw up, even if his environment makes it more likely. This clearly isn't sustainable. I'm afraid that he's going to get injured, especially considering his injury-prone past in college. All it takes is one catastrophic hit and we're caroming between Spencer Rattler and Zach Wilson for the rest of the season. More broadly, we could chew him up and really hamper his long-term development. He's the cornerstone of our rebuild. If we screw him up, what do we have left?

I'm sure this isn't any groundbreaking analysis, we all watch the games, but I just wanted to compile all of my thoughts in one place and lay out a coherent argument.

Since your speech, this team almost had one of the all time worst collapses & looked horrible in your precious Paris game. Additionally it looked like a Steelers home game. What now?

Oline, scheme, kamara / miller? Which of these is the biggest issue for the run game? I believe its scheme. 13 personal last game we had a solid run game, not the best. This game, 0 of that.