JACKSON: Saints mustn’t mistake progress for a finished product

By Ross Jackson

It has been my long-held belief that success in the New Orleans Saints’ 2025 season will look a lot different than in previous years. Win-loss records and final scores will only be able to tell some of the story for a team that isn’t expected to win much and isn’t expected to score much this year. Such is the nature of a multi-year rebuild.

But there is a trap the Saints must avoid along the way. One of complacency and a premature acceptance of the encouraging signs that have been seen weekly as more than what they are: progress.

Progress is good, but it’s far from a finished product. Progress toward becoming a winning team isn’t something that’s weeks away for New Orleans. It will take time.

“We’re close,” Rattler said after Sunday’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers. “These games come down to the wire and (we’ve) got to do what winning teams do. That’s what (head coach Kellen Moore) was telling us. And that’s cleaning up.”

The Difference Between Progress and Promise

Progress isn’t linear. That’s an important factor New Orleans cannot lose sight of as the season rolls along. The team will rightfully point out and put a necessary amount of focus on things that are going well: for instance, late-game tenacity, the growth of quarterback Spencer Rattler and a top-10 success rate in rushing defense.

However exciting those factors may be, each is merely exemplary for steps, not bounds, in the right direction. Overestimating those steps could be a dangerous game for any NFL team seeking incremental improvement. 

The good side of this is that the Saints have already shown an unwillingness to let the good things overshadow the truth.

“We’ve got to do more of what winning football teams do,” Moore said Sunday, setting the scene for Rattler’s quote. “We’ve got to play better in situational football. We’ve got to pounce on opportunities when they’re presented. And we’ve got to give ourselves a better chance. There’s too much good in there to miss these opportunities. And so we’ve got to play better, faster, learn from these things, and go from there.”

The echoed statements from the head coach and quarterback of the need to do “more of what winning football teams do” is a strong indication of their awareness for the team’s current outlook. While acknowledging there are positives, the team has remained realistic about where it is in the NFL life cycle, a positive sign that the Saints won’t fall into a trap of accepting shortcomings in exchange for lesser successes.

Time To See What Young Players Have?

As a team that is retooling its personnel to match its new schemes, one popular question is whether or not the team will be quick to sit veterans that aren’t proving to fit in the new systems in order to get a look at the young players waiting in the wings that could become future contributors.

Some veterans that have been often subject to his conversation through the first two weeks of the season include cornerback Isaac Yiadom and linebacker Pete Werner on defense with offensive lineman Cesar Ruiz being mentioned on offense. Behind them, players like rookie defenders Quincy Riley and Danny Stutsman await opportunity along with rookie offensive lineman Torricelli Simpkins III. Each of them impressed during the preseason and training camp.

New Orleans isn’t likely to be in a hurry to bench the veteran talent that it has in the building. But if the trajectory of the team’s biggest question marks soon begins to reach upward, opportunities may present themselves for the young alternatives to see time later in the year.

This again, would be an example of continuing to gather information rather than forcing an evolving product into a halted state.

What’s Next?

All the Saints have to do now is stay the course and remain unsatisfied. Not to the point to which it becomes a detriment for the players and coaches, but certainly to the point of commanding and demanding continued progress. That appears to be the team’s goal as it is. New Orleans has already made several future investments including trades for potential impact players on rookie contracts, selecting a nine-player draft class and rolling with young quarterbacks rather than bringing in a veteran.

Moore and his staff look poised to continue to navigate a season that may not result in many victories on the scoreboard but could pile up victories when it comes to building toward the team’s future.