It's the offseason, and it's arrived a bit earlier for the Saints than we'd hoped it would.
But all that means is it's a headstart on the biggest changes needed to make sure football is still happening in this city a year from today. So what are those changes?
Here are the top five questions I'm looking for answer for heading into the 2024 season.
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1. CAN YOU FIX THE CULTURE?
One of the most valid criticisms of the Dennis Allen tenure is that the main reason the Saints kicked it off in the first place seems to have disappeared.
In the aftermath of Sean Payton's abrupt departure, the idea was clear: The culture has been established. We don't need to rebuild it, we need to further it. Well, fast-forward to the end of the 2023 season and it's clear that the foundation of that culture is showing cracks. That's the kindest way to put it.
If you have to start fresh and rebuild that culture, the next question is more than fair: Is Dennis Allen the right man to build it? It appears the Saints have landed on the affirmative side of that question for now, but the leash is as short as ever. You can look at a 9-8 finish in a few ways, one being that it's a step forward from Year 1 of his tenure, and it featured a final stretch with wins in 4 of the final 5 games and a winning margin of 71-30 in a pair of divisional games to blow out the season. There's no denying that.
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But there's also no denying how weak this year's schedule was on the whole, and that you didn't do enough to take advantage of it. There were also some high-profile cracks and issues that either leaked out of the locker room or were laid bare to see on television. It's not the first time a group has shown some cracks under pressure, but it can't continue.
So can those fixes be made and can the culture of this locker room continue to be carried by veteran leadership. I have a suspicion there will be some changes and some of those veteran leaders won't be returning as DA remakes this roster a bit more in his image. The success or failure in that process will probably be the biggest thing in determining the success or failure of the 2024 season.
It's a pass/fail class going forward. The schedule will be more difficult. The results have to be there.
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2. WHAT'S THE REAL DEREK CARR?
Dennis Allen has said multiple times this season that he feels the criticism of Derek Carr has been a bit overblown. Personally I think he's hurting the situation moreso than he's helping it. Derek can fight his own battles, and he's certainly had them.
The most notable came in Week 14 when he got into a screaming match on the field with teammate Erik McCoy. It was fair to wonder at that point what might happen the rest of the way. Well, what happened is that Carr completed 76% of his passes and threw 14 touchdowns against just one interception. The Saints won four of their final five games, and the QB Saints fans were probably expecting when he was signed this past offseason finally seemed to be showing up.
But how real was that finish, and should it be expected to carry over? There are some reasons to think it could, the biggest being that he did it while featuring a young cast of playmakers that will certainly be here going forward. Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed looks like the type of duo you can build with for a long time, and rookie A.T. Perry became the red zone and contested catch weapon you were searching for to close out the season.
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DA and others will also point to health, which was a battle for Carr most of the year dating back to a big hit that knocked him out of a game in Green Bay and resulted in an AC joint sprain. Now, I'm not going to sit here and accept that excuse for poor play, because if that was the issue the more prudent decision would've been to sit and heal. But it's probably fair to think there's some truth to that. Healthy players should be expected to play better, and Carr got healthier as the season went on. But I think the bigger point of discomfort that was alleviated was within the offense. Protection was better as the season went on, the schemes seemed to get a bit more intentional, play action rates climbed. It just looked like an offense with a heading, rather than one adrift at sea searching for something, anything that might work consistently.
Carr's finish might've saved the DA/DC tandem for another season, and it'll be on him to show that it wasn't fool's gold to spur another frustrating season in New Orleans.
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3. CAN YOU FIND A ROAD FOR TREVOR PENNING?
There were a lot of reasons to be frustrated by the balance of the Saints' 2023 season, but for my money, nothing is more frustrating than Trevor Penning disappearing in plain sight.
Think about this: Your 2022 first round pick was active for all 17 games. In Week 18, Andrus Peat -- who switched positions to take over for Penning earlier this year -- went down with an injury. Instead of putting Trevor into a game that was basically over, you shifted James Hurst outside and played Max Garcia. You changed two positions rather than playing a second-year pro who started Week 1 at his natural position. Tommy Kraemer got into the game before Trevor Penning.
Give me a break. That absolutely can't be the approach.
Now, I'm not hear to tell you that Penning is the best option in that scenario. But if he's not, shame on everybody. That includes the player, but you can't change the player. You have to develop the player. And if that development isn't happening and/or he's not ready to play, that's got to be on the coaching.
There will be a lot of questions regarding the coaching staff this offseason and where some important tweaks and adjustments can make an impact. I don't see a more obvious place for that than the OL staff. Doug Marrone has a lot of respect around this organization, and to his, Kevin Carberry and Jahri Evans' credit, the group as a whole did see improvement and played its best football down the stretch of the year. But I need to get something out of my first round pick. If the current group in there can't get through to him, it's on the Saints to find a combination that can.
There's also a guy named Nick Saldiveri that the Saints traded up for in the draft and we haven't really heard a peep from, either. I think his rookie season was always planned to be a bit of a redshirt, but he's another guy I'll need to see something from going forward.
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4. TIME FOR A YOUTH MOVEMENT?
We talked about this above, but I think it's time to embrace the change in the Saints' locker room. That isn't to say move on from all the veterans. Guys like Demario Davis, Tyrann Mathieu, Cam Jordan, their leadership in the room is worth its weight in gold.
But it feels like we're long past time for a youth movement, and nowhere was that clearer than in Week 18. The Saints' first five touchdowns -- you know, the ones that didn't come out of the victory formation -- were accounted for by four different players. They have something in common: None is over the age of 25.
That group consists of Rashid Shaheed (25), A.T. Perry (24), Chris Olave (23) and Kendre Miller (21). That's the future on offense, in my humble opinion. There's obviously questions about Mike Thomas' future, but I think the smart thing for everyone will be to part ways and figure out the finances in the cleanest way possible. This season, for a lot of reasons, simply wasn't the answer anyone was looking for.
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And that's OK. There's a point where you have to reset the deck, particularly at the skill positions, and the Saints have arrived there. It gets a bit more confusing at the RB position, because I don't think you're moving on from Alvin Kamara, at least not without a massive dead cap hit that I just can't see the Saints accepting. That said, I want to see this backfield shift to a Kamara-Miller committee. Now, that'll require Kendre to stay healthy, but what we saw in Week 18 was a level of burst that everyone should be excited to get more of. There are only two 30-plus-yard plays by Saints RBs this season, the rookie accounted for both of them.
The biggest question will come on the defensive side of the ball. Is it time to truly open up a path to a starting job as an outside corner for Alontae Taylor? That'd be my vote. I think Taylor and Paulson Adebo is a tandem you can build on, and you'll have to figure something out in the slot. That's not an indictment on Lattimore, who I still see as a top 10 corner in the league. But his health the past two seasons has forced the Saints to see what they'd look like without him, and I think you can certainly make the case that the group is up to the task. Lattimore is also probably the best option in terms of the return you'd get via trade, if you did choose to go that route.
You're also looking at players like Bryan Bresee, Isaiah Foskey, Payton Turner (those last two need to stay healthy) and Jordan Howden on defense. You'll have several options to add more pieces in the draft. I just think you saw the future building to close this season, and it's time to push there.
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5. CAN YOU GET THE FANS ONBOARD?
It can be tough to gauge fan sentiment in the NFL. It's squeaky wheels that make the most noise, but they also can't speak for the entire operation. That said, there seem to be a lot more of them these days than I can recall.
Part of that, certainly, has to do with results. But it's not ONLY about results, either. The Saints went 9-8 in 2021. It was a battle the entire way. I don't remember there being this level of discontentment.
Maybe it was because the first year post-Brees was always going to be difficult and a majority accepted that. Maybe it was because by the end of the year you talking about whether Taysom Hill could throw with a mallet finger. It was a weird season. That season you won 4 of the final 5 games, the last of which was an impressive win over Atlanta, to finish 9-8 and narrowly miss the playoffs, it was extremely disappointing.
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This year you did the same thing and it's been treated, at least by many outside of the building, as an unmitigated disaster. So what's changed?
The obvious answer is the head coach and quarterback. Dennis Allen and Derek Carr certainly haven't been viewed as the hard-luck heroes that DA and Taysom were in the 2021 game that Sean Payton couldn't attend. Every comment either either make on basically any subject seems to be dissected and used against them. Every mistake on the field, missed read, slow start, unsuccessful drive is magnified. I've only been following the Saints professionally closely since 2016, but I've never heard the type of boo birds in that building as I have this year.
This all is to say that my challenge for DA and DC is simple: Try to understand this fanbase a little better. For DA, nowhere is better to look than the much maligned rogue TD against the Falcons. My issue isn't so much that the players freelanced, it's that they had to. You're at the 1 yard line and your players are asking to do something for a teammate. Your options are to help build the community and brotherhood within your team at the expense of the Falcons, or put your foot down and try to be a "unwritten rules" hardass at the expense of a great moment. So what if the Falcons get mad? They're the Falcons. We hate them. That's the deal. Value your players and your fans over perception. It's OK to be the villain. Saints fans love a good villain, heck, Sean was ALWAYS the villain.
There are subtleties to succeeding in this town that I don't think DA understands. I need that to change.
For Carr, there's an idea that he doesn't take accountability. I don't know how true that is, but he's got to be aware of that when he speaks. I also need him to be more of a presence in the community this offseason. That's not a criticism, as the blur that was 2023 obviously didn't allow for much time in that regard, but I think that's the fairest thing I've heard about Carr from people I've spoken with. It feels like he's a kickstand, not a pillar. In the end the only way to make sure that changes is to win games, but in the meantime, I don't know, maybe go ride a Mardi Gras float somewhere and pelt a 12-year-old with some beads, heck, maybe even a plush football. Find a way.