5 Takeaways from Mickey Loomis at the Senior Bowl

By Ross Jackson

MOBILE, Ala. – New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis spoke with local media that were in attendance at this week’s Panini Senior Bowl. He shared several insights about the all-star game’s value, the impact of having seven members on the coaching staff and how the team is approaching some important roster decisions.

Here are five of the most important takeaways from Loomis’s press conference.

• The involvement of coaches in this year’s all-star games have positives and negatives for the Saints.

When the Senior Bowl concludes, the Saints will have had nine coaching staff members represented on coaching staffs for the offseason’s two biggest showcase events. The team has five members on the Senior Bowl’s American Team coaching staff and four with the Shrine Bowl’s West Team. There are also two more staff members working with American Team operations this offseason.

The inclusion of so many coaches comes with many benefits.

“It is a good advantage for us,” Loomis said. “We get a lot of good information on the players that are here that they coach and it’s a good experience for our staff and good for our personnel department.”

But the process also pushes some timelines as the team goes through its end-of-year process. Per Loomis, the team is “delayed” by about a week on its review process. Of course, that week’s delay is well worth the insight and experience being gained with so many members on each game’s coaching staff.

• Delayed conversations include Taysom Hill’s future, but those talks were going to be given space anyway.

Without being in a rush to make big decisions, Loomis and the Saints are attempting to make sure that discussions around players’ futures get the space they need.

“I’ve given him some space,” Loomis said when asked if he and Hill have communicated about the quarterback’s NFL future. “We’ll touch base with him soon. It’s hard to have these conversations right after the end of the season. You want that emotion to go out of it and give guys some time and space and not feel like they’re pressured to make decisions. And we’ve got time.”

The same logic is likely being applied to other big offseason decisions like wide receiver Chris Olave’s extension, defensive tackle Bryan Bresee’s fifth-year option and the futures of defensive end Cameron Jordan and linebacker Demario Davis.

• The door appears open for a Demario Davis return.

While the NFL world was on fire with Davis acknowledging that he will “return to the NFL” without specifically saying that he would be returning to New Orleans, the Saints sound to be open to his return.

“We love Demario,” Loomis said. “Want him to be back and hope he’s back. But we’ll get through that.”

It’s clear that there’s interest from both sides in a return for the age 37 linebacker, but also an understanding that desire isn’t the only factor at play. A return would have to make sense for both the team and Davis. It appears both sides are taking a pragmatic and reasonable approach to contract talks.

• Saints looking to surround quarterback Tyler Shough with talent.

New Orleans is doing what every smart NFL franchise does when it has a young quarterback at the helm. They are going to try to build around the second-year passer.

“We’ve got a young quarterback and you want to have a good defense,” Loomis said. “You want to have great protection up front. You want to give him playmakers to get the ball to. I mean, you’d want to do that for any quarterback. Yes, that’s the goal. Absolutely it’s the goal, but it’s a goal for every team with every quarterback.”

• Saints like the talent and depth of this year’s class.

Loomis called this year’s Senior Bowl event a “confirmation” of his comments during his and head coach Kellen Moore’s end-of-year press conference. During that media availability, Loomis credited the depth of the 2026 draft class. This year’s all-star games have affirmed that belief.

“I think that uh there’s a really talented group here, just like last year,” he said. “I think the last couple years in particular, it feels like–I don’t know this for a fact, but it feels like  we’re getting a lot more really good players. That’s a good thing. It’s more information for us and we get to do interviews and get to talk to these guys. It’s been a really good thing.”