Building Blocks in Place

By Jim Gazzolo

The Saints’ season ended on a disappointing note last Sunday, as they fell to the Atlanta Falcons 19-17.

That means they fell short of winning their last five games, which would have been a strong sendoff for what needs to be a productive offseason for head coach Kellen Moore and the front office.

Still, the 6-11 season wasn’t a total loss if you put it into the proper perspective. At 2-10, things could have looked a lot worse.

Instead, the 4-1 finishing kick gives Saints fans hopes of brighter days ahead, especially when you consider the three other teams in the division all finished below .500 as well at 8-9. 

So the road back to the playoffs doesn’t look so long for New Orleans. More importantly, they may have found their quarterback in Tyler Shough.

The second-round pick had a solid rookie season after becoming the starter, finishing with 2,384 passing yards, 10 passing touchdowns, and six interceptions while connecting on 66.7 percent of his attempts.

While you won’t yet say he’s a franchise quarterback, he did earn a second year and longer look. And if he plays against this way, then that’s one less area of concern for the Saints’ brass.

He won over the locker room for sure.

“Yeah, Tyler’s a dawg, man,” running back Audric Estime told LouisianaSportsNet. “I’m just excited to play with him, hopefully for the rest of my career. Seeing what he did as a rookie, jumping in the season mid-year, and carrying it. What we did is exciting for the future.”

That’s the best Saints fans could hope for this season. Now the club has to put better pieces around their young QB to find out what they really have.

But by winning those four games at the end, and Shough’s play, free agents will give New Orleans a longer look than before. They like going to places that seem to be on the right track.

The Saints became that this season.

They also have a draft that will give them three of the top 73 picks, including the No. 8 selection, which should allow the team to upgrade roster talent. There are still plenty of holes to fill, especially at wide receiver. 

Still, given where the season started and how little was expected, the Saints are in a much better position to build for next season than was expected.

That alone made this year a success, or at least a starting point.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers sports in Southwest Louisiana. He is also the host of Poke Nation, which airs weekly on CBS-Lake Charles.