NEW ORLEANS — Did you forget the NFL offseason started in March and culminates with the draft starting this Thursday? It's ok if you did, the New Orleans Saints didn't do anything worth paying attention to anyway.
The Saints need to inject some excitement and reason to hope in 2024 to the dullest Saints offseason I can ever remember. The Saint's biggest moves were changing offensive coordinators and adding a defensive end, who had neck surgery the day after he signed with the Saints.
The Chase Young pictures with a photoshopped neck brace signing his Saints contract shall live in our hearts forever.
The Saints doing the sensible thing of trying to get their salary cap in a more normal working order and trying to end the cycle of going into every offseason as the NFL team with the most work to do to get under the league-mandated spending limit was the football equivalent of eating your vegetables, working out, and skipping Jazz Fest, all in the hopes of improving your health and making your future life better.
So boring. I don’t follow the Saints to watch them make sensible and responsible decisions. I want action. Spend money, trade picks. Get nuts. Where is the Mickey Loomis I used to know?
This Saints offseason is like watching the movie The Flash. I just kept waiting for something, anything remotely interesting to happen. Oh look, it's Michael Keaton! He was fun as Batman way back when! Maybe he'll do something cool?
Nope.
Same with the Saints this spring. I could pretend the Saints signing a of couple linebackers, or a backup quarterback who is a social media meme for less-than-flattering reasons as interesting, but I won't lie to y'all.
The most important Saints news this offseason, besides the hiring of Klint Kubiak as offensive coordinator, is offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk's career is in jeopardy and the Saints now probably need not 1, but 2 starting offensive tackles.
What will the Saints do? They better fix their offensive line if they want any chance of success in 2024. I don't think it's hyperbolic to say if the Saints don't improve their offensive line, head coach Dennis Allen will be looking for work come January.
The good news is the 2024 draft is deep at offensive tackles! The bad news is the Saints took an offensive tackle in the first round in 2022 when they selected Trevor Penning, so they'll be taking another crack at solving the same problem they've had for the previous two seasons. The Saints trying to solve their problems at offensive tackle is like me trying to buy the right smartphone case to keep from having my phone break because I drop it constantly.
In this analogy, the Saints quarterback is the smartphone and the Saints haven't gone an entire year without it breaking since....2018.
The Saints' run of poor drafts has caught up with them. That magical 2017 draft was a LONG time ago.
Since 2018 the Saints have spent 3 of their 7 first round picks in that time on Marcus ‘Two Firsts’ Davenport, Payton Turner, and Trevor Penning. When more than half of your first round picks in the last 7 years' main contribution isn't on the field but in injury jokes I can make for this column....not great.
The Saints desperately need a good draft, the problem is they only have two selections in the top 100 picks. I'd ask Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis to not trade up, but do you believe Mickey will be able to wait for 105 selections between making a pick between #45 and then when the Saints select again at #150?
The French Quarter closing tonight at 9 pm is more likely.
By the way, the Saints haven’t traded down since George Bush was President, ‘Low’ by Flow Rida and T-Pain was the #1 song, and The Dark Knight was the #1 movie.
That was 2007.
Trade down? You might as well wish for Dennis Allen to stop apologizing to the Falcons for running up the score.
Saints, I’m asking you nicely, do something intriguing, dramatic, or even dangerous Thursday, so we can finally feel a thrill this offseason and have some anticipation for the 2024 season.
A little hope would go a long way right about now.
Ralph Malbrough is the host of the award-winning Saints podcast, Saints Happy Hour Podcast. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at @SaintsForecast.