NFL Executives Crush Saints’ Draft, Vegas Agrees With Low Super Odds
By Matt De Saro
The 2022 NFL Draft is well in our rearview, but opinions are still rolling in from voices across the league. While I thought that the New Orleans Saints had a decent draft, the opinions of NFL executives differ from mine as a recent article from The Athletic points out.
According to their sources, the rest of the league was left scratching their heads after the results of the Saints’ draft came in. This is a team that is still dealing with the loss of franchise QB Drew Brees after the 2020-21 season.
Now, they are entering uncertain waters after long-time coach Sean Payton announced his retirement after last season. As far as I am concerned, it felt like an ideal time to blow up this roster and rebuild from scratch.
The Saints chose otherwise.
New Orleans chose to ignore their need for a quarterback and will put the ball in Jameis Winston’s hands again to start the 2022 season. Instead, they traded up to land receiver Chris Olave and OT Trevor Penning. Two solid picks to be sure.
But, two picks that could have better been used elsewhere. To draft those two, the Saints gave up their 18th, 98th, 101st, 120th and 237ths picks, plus a 2023 first-rounder and 2024 second-rounder. That is seven picks gone that could have gone a long way to rebuilding this team to compete at a high level down the road a little.
In response to this, one exec said it was “mind-boggling, how much value they destroyed by trading up.” Another agreed who said despite getting solid year-one starters, “it’s just not worth what they gave up.”
I am not sold on Winston as a starter in the NFL and think the Saints made a mistake re-signing him. Yes, he did lead the Saints to a 5-2 record before his ill-timed injury. But, they didn’t exactly have the stiffest competition with games against the Carolina Panthers, New York Giants, Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks in those seven weeks.
New Orleans did beat the Green Bay Packers in Week 1 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 7 before Winston went down. The Saints are putting all of their eggs in the Winston basket heading into 2022. It seems the execs are on the same page as me in thinking that Winston is a bad bet.
Vegas is on the same page as well as WynnBET's odds for New Orleans to win the Super Bowl are not good. At +3000, oddsmakers think they have about the same chance as the Philadelphia Eagles to win it all this coming season.