NFL offseason power rankings: No. 24 New Orleans Saints seemingly found a coach and QB last offseason
Other NFL team previews: 32. Dolphins | 31. Jets | 30. Cardinals | 29. Browns | 28. Titans | 27. Raiders | 26. Falcons | 25. Giants | 24. Saints The New Orleans Saints looked like they might bottom out last season. Even their big moves in the offseason seemed like they were settling for leftovers. The Saints were the last team to fill their coaching vacancy, hiring Kellen Moore. Part of that was waiting until Moore guided the Eagles' offense through the Super Bowl, but other candidates like Joe Brady, Kliff Kingsbury, Aaron Glenn and Mike McCarthy had already backed out . There were many bad situations among the coaching vacancies last offseason, and the Saints' situation was arguably the worst. They had a roster with practically no young blue-chip talent other than receiver Chris Olave , no quarterback and the salary cap was a mess. Some analysts really liked quarterback Tyler Shough before the 2025 NFL Draft, but if he was that clean of a prospect he wouldn't have been available to the Saints at 40th overall. And if the Saints truly thought he was a franchise quarterback, they would have drafted him at ninth overall instead of offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. Other teams with a dire need at quarterback passed on Shough. Injuries, age (Shough was 26 years old as a rookie) and only one full season of college starts pushed him down. The Saints took a shot in the second round, even though most quarterbacks picked outside the second round don't work out. In the 10 drafts before Shough was picked, there was only one second-round QB success story ( Jalen Hurts ) and the rest were busts ( Christian Hackenberg , DeShone Kizer , Drew Lock , Kyle Trask , Will Levis ). And the 2025 Saints season started predictably bad. Shough couldn't beat Spencer Rattler in the preseason and the Saints didn't make a QB change until November even though they lost seven of Rattler's eight starts. Shough lost his first start too, and New Orleans was 1-8. At that point, five of their previous six losses were by double digits. We don't remember that about the Saints as they head into this season. That's because the Saints had an out-of-nowhere turnaround in the second half that changed the franchise's entire outlook. Coaches of 1-8 teams can lose the team in the second half , but the Saints continued to play hard for Moore. That was a great sign for a rookie head coach. Shough finished second in NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year voting despite starting just nine games. He was a revelation for most of the second half, allowing the Saints to have no concerns about what to do at quarterback this offseason. Shough proved he should be the quarterback in 2026 and it looks like he could hold the job far beyond this season too. The Saints went 5-3 down the stretch with wins at the Panthers and Buccaneers, who would finish in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC South. The Saints were the only team to not finish 8-9 in the division, but they were the NFC South's best team in the second half of the season. Two good months is all it took for the Saints to go from looking hopeless to envisioning a bright future, behind a coach who was the last pick in that hiring cycle and a quarterback who was drafted at a spot so many others had zero success. "Like so many players on our team, [Shough] just got better each and every week," Moore said after the season, via the team's site . The job isn't done. Moore and Shough will have to show they are capable long-term solutions and didn't just catch a heater for a half season against a soft schedule. The roster still has plenty of issues; it was never going to be a one-offseason rebuild. But the Saints hope they have the two most important pieces in place, and finally have some salary cap flexibility for 2027 as well. At the end of October last season, the Saints being optimistic about the future by this summer seemed like an impossible dream. That changed fast. The Saints finally got their salary cap in order. T [... truncated ...]
