Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine placed the New Orleans Saints into the bucket of teams who are messing up their rebuild. There’s only one problem with that: the Saints aren’t rebuilding.
Ballentine was well aware of this point and even made that distinction for New Orleans in comparison to other teams on the list, claiming the Saints “aren’t the typical rebuilding team because they refuse to acknowledge that they should be rebuilding in the first place.” That alone makes the Saints’ inclusion here questionable.
The Saints have not embarked on a youth movement up and down the roster. They have instead opted to keep their veterans with some younger players making an impact largely on offense. Defensively, Tyrann Mathieu and Demario Davis have played well enough to earn contracts in spite of age.
Criteria aside, Ballentine did pose a good point. Goals have to extend beyond winning the NFC South. The addition of Klint Kubiak is supposed to fix an ailing offense. The Saints could be a true playoff contender if Kubiak can get the best out of Derek Carr. If quarterback play is good in New Orleans, the talk around the team would be more than just potential success in a weak division.
