There will be a lot of important questions for the Saints to answer in the 2025 season, but likely no more important than this one: Can the newly assembled coaching staff develop the young roster?
That goal certainly appeared to be at front of mind when Kellen Moore assembled his staff for his first season as head coach. As Deuce McAllister broke down this week on SportsTalk, that development focus is why you'd bring in so many former players and mine the college ranks.
"That was probably one of the most impressive things that they did was getting a collection of, hey, I’ve got good former players that I’ve either coached with, played with, had some type of connection with, and then it became intriguing to say, man, that’s a lot of college guys," McAllister told Mike Detillier and Bobby Hebert. "Then when you look at this roster overall and you say, yea, I have some veterans sprinkled here, but for this Saints team to be successful it is going to be because we were able to ... develop and we were able to get growth from my second and my third-year players."
Listen to the full interview with Deuce McAllister in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
So who are some of the key players on that list?
- WR Kevin Austin Jr
- WR Bub Means
- WR Mason Tipton
- RB Kendre Miller
- QB Spencer Rattler
- QB Jake Haener
- OT Taliese Fuaga
- G Nick Saldiveri
- DT Khristian Boyd
- DT Bryan Bresee
- DE Isaiah Foskey
- S Jordan Jowden
- CB Kool-Aid McKinstry
- CB Rico Payton
That's not a complete list, and it also goes without saying that there's necessary development for the large rookie class for the 2025 season, but a chunk of those 14 players either developing into star players, quality starters or quality backups will be a major key to finding success early in the Kellen Moore era.
"But that’s what it’s gonna take. You can’t be in a situation where I have a veteran coach and I’m saying … hey, here’s how we do things, I’ll see you on Sunday when we play the game. You don’t have that personnel," Deuce continues. "For this Saints team, they have to be able to develop the players that they have. They have to be able to get guys that are ready to play."
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On the CB Depth
"I wouldn’t be surprised if they did sign a veteran … cornerback or even trade for a veteran cornerback, you know, but right now they’re getting the young guys the reps and if the young guys need the reps and I need to be able to see it, that’s what you obviously go and do, but I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if they go and sign a veteran cornerback and be able to add to that room and just give them that veteran presence that maybe, hey, this is a little different coming from a guy that has played in the NFL 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years and to be able to give them, you know, some of that experience that they lack right now in that cornerback room.”
Can this OL group be great
“I won’t go that far yet. ... The protection will be great, but before I say that yea, they’re gonna go out there and do that, that would be a conversation that we would have to have. … We would need — give me four games, and I’m not talking about preseason games with the three preseason games. I need four regular season games, because right now if you asked me, I could not tell you, hey, this team is better at zone blocking or this team is better at gap scheme, you know, I couldn’t tell you. I can tell you the body types, but I couldn’t tell you hey, this guy gets out in space really well, because you haven’t seen it, you haven’t honestly seen it yet enough to say that they can handle it. Have you seen it on tape? Yea, but have I seen them do it consistently in this system in the NFL? No. So, they have the potential to be a dominant group, but right now for me I need to see it, and I haven’t seen it enough in pads to be able to say, oh, yea, they can handle it."
Potential for Danny Stutsman
“He has done a really good job of being able to get to the football and ... we will need to see him be able to come up and take guys to the ground in the NFL, but I can tell you one thing, he is around the football. I do know that. He is around the football. He’s done a good job of seeing it, reacting, you don’t see a ton of hesitation, you don’t see a ton of bad footwork as far as missteps from him, so so far he’s done a good job of being able to read and react and be able to go to the ball-carrier to be in position to strike the football, I mean, because it’s one thing to make a tackle and it’s for no-gain, 1 yard, 2 yards, but it’s another thing to make a tackle and it’s plus-7, plus-9, plus-8, you’re always making a tackle, well, why were you plus-7, plus-8, plus-9? Were you not able to get off the ball, were you in trail position. Those are things that you kind of have to question but I hope he’s not in that situation.”