Saints fans should be furious for letting Week 1 breakout star walk

The Philadelphia Eagles won a wild game to begin their 2024 season 1-0, knocking off the Green Bay Packers in Brazil. Saquon Barkley's highlight reel-filled debut has been generating most of the headlines, and rightfully so, but he was far from the only Eagle who starred on Friday night.

The best defensive player on the field for Philadelphia by far was Zack Baun, a player who signed a one-year deal to join the Eagles this past offseason.

Not only did Baun rack up an absurd 15 tackles, one of which came for a loss, but he also recorded two sacks. There wasn't much defense played in Philadelphia's 34-29 win, but Baun was all over the place and made a huge impact overall. An argument can easily be made that the Eagles don't win this game without him.

Baun's emergence came out of nowhere and should be something that his former team, the New Orleans Saints, feel furious about.

Saints fans can't be thrilled after watching Zack Baun break out in the spotlight

The Saints selected Zack Baun in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft out of Wisconsin and then proceeded to rarely use him. The 27-year-old played in 62 games for New Orleans but started a total of 14 games, never playing more than 27 percent of the team's defensive snaps in a single season.

He finally got some playing time toward the end of last season and he played pretty well, recording the first two sacks of his career and setting career-highs with four tackles for loss and four QB hits. Baun clearly didn't play well enough in the eyes of the Saints, though, as they let the 27-year-old walk to Philadelphia.

In their defense, the Saints have been set at one of their linebacker spots with Demario Davis still being a star, but Davis isn't the reason why one year after drafting Baun, the team traded up to select Pete Werner, another linebacker.

Baun never got much of a chance to prove himself and in his first real opportunity, playing for a legitimate contender, Baun put on a show. Yes, it's only Week 1, but you'd think that'd be the week Baun shows some holes in his game. Instead, he looked like the best defensive player on the field.

Isn't Dennis Allen supposed to be an elite defensive mind? He didn't give Baun much of a look as a defensive coordinator or as his head coach.

Things look extremely bleak for the Saints now and in the future with a brutal cap situation, no long-term answer at quarterback, and just an overall boring roster. It would've been nice to have a cheap 27-year-old linebacker balling out alongside Davis. Instead, they'll have to hope to contain him when they host the Eagles for Week 3 of the season.