By Ross Jackson
At 3-7 the New Orleans Saints have made it clear that they intend to compete through the rest of the 2024 season. Despite suffering a seven-game losing streak, firing their head coach and defensive play caller, losing at least a pair of their top starters for the season and trading away one of their best defenders, New Orleans has shown no signs that they intend to phone it in for their remaining seven games.
While the temptation of a higher 2025 NFL Draft selection may entice some outside of the building, the potential for a highly selected prospect is not even on the minds of the Saints. And in my opinion, that’s the right call.
There is a roster of talented players ready to take the field each weekend who have spent their entire lives working to earn even just a shot in the league. The coaching staff has done the same led by an interim head coach that fought tooth and nail to make it from walk-on college player to head coach. Those players and coaches should take the field every game day with an expressed intent on competing and winning, not tanking or playing for draft positioning.
Tanking is far more a public sentiment than it is one inside of NFL facilities. The lack of control over the return on tanking makes it a fruitless venture. Just because a team has a top draft pick in each round doesn’t mean they’ll walk away with a perennial Pro Bowl caliber player. It doesn’t even guarantee that they get a starter.
In fact, in most cases, it doesn’t even mean that those players out-live their rookie contracts.
More than half (18) of the first-round prospects selected in the 2020 NFL Draft are not currently on the roster of their selecting team. Each of those rookies began with a four-year deal, and their drafting teams had the option to pick up a fifth year should they have chosen to do so. Many did not, and the majority of those selected players were either with a new team or not playing in the NFL at the start of the 2024 year.
No player, regardless of how high a draft selection, is a guarantee.
Teams tend not to fret over what they cannot control. The draft is undoubtedly one of those uncontrollables. Even if a team does end up with an early selection, who trades ahead of them? Which players decide not to declare for the draft? Which players tank their stock by season’s end? Which players raise their stock? Which players will actually make it through their final collegiate season healthy? Which get injured during the draft process?
These are all things NFL teams cannot anticipate. That is why they are not interested in wasting time losing games in the interest of what’s unknown.
Even a team that does end up with the earliest pick possible. Round 1, pick 1 is always the coveted position. But once attained, even then there is no guarantee that a team makes the right selection there. That very conversation is already being had about the most recent No. 1 overall selections.
Players want to compete for the teammates they have now, not the ones they may have next year. Coaches want to coach the players they have now, not the ones they might still be around to coach next year. That’s the right way to compete.
New Orleans could go out there the rest of their season, play the best football they have and still finish just 1-6 over the last seven games. But you might as well go out there and put your stuff on the field. Because there is always the chance you surprise and perform much better than that. Not to mention that no player or coach is guaranteed their 2025 roster spot right now.
When a regime changes, so too does its army. The Saints should be focused on earning their ranks amongst the upcoming changes or running out their best stuff on tape for one of the other 31 teams that may be looking for new talent over the offseason. No player or coach can do that while tanking.
The Saints want to compete. And that’s exactly what they should do.
