The NFL trade deadline is fast approaching and the Saints, just like the rest of the league's teams mired with losing records, can be sure of one thing: The phones will be ringing.
Opposing GMs will be kicking the tires frequently to assess who might be available in a trade ahead of the Nov. 5 deadline, and what that might cost. The Saints' best possible record by the deadline will be 3-6, and Saints GM Mickey Loomis shared the team's philosophy on WWL Radio this week heading into Week 9 and beyond in that regard.
"When you’re in a losing streak, you’re calling those teams looking to see if they’re sellers, right, and so we’ll get a number of calls and we’ll respond accordingly," Loomis said. "I’m not really one who thinks that trading away half your roster makes a lot of sense at this point for, generally, what I think are undervalued offers.”
So will the Saints be buyers or sellers?
“I’m saying neither, really," Loomis continued. "I mean, we’re gonna do what we think is best for our team for right now and going forward, and yea, and so look, I would never say never about trading somebody, but I think generally at this time of the year the offers don’t necessarily match the talent that you’re giving up.”
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints GM Mickey Loomis in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
It's an answer that shouldn't really surprise anyone who has been watching the team for any extended period of time. No GM will invite lowball offers, and the Saints certainly don't make a habit of shipping off proven players for meager returns. They've consistently been a team that would prefer to double-down on their own players as opposed to turning them into Day 3 draft picks, the latest example being veteran RB Alvin Kamara who was signed to a two-year extension last week.
Kamara is a player who had been seeking a contract throughout the offseason but ultimately had to wait 7 weeks to get it. He's also a player that would've likely drawn interest on the trade market -- not anymore. But more importantly the Saints are staying committed to winning, a goal that's becoming more and more grating as the losses pile up. Still, the team will point to an "avalanche" of injuries, as Loomis puts it, topped off by three games without its starting quarterback as a mitigating factor that can't be overlooked.
"Whenever you have results that don’t match your expectations you have to look at the underlying reasons why, right, and look, we have answers for lots of things," Loomis said. "We have answers when we have players get hurt. We have answers when you lose your quarterback for a couple games. I don’t know if you have answers when you have an avalanche of injuries and you lose your quarterback for that period of time. That’s just difficult and we haven’t been able to overcome that."
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The Saints GM has always been one to present a stable image, even if some machinations behind the scenes are that of a team working hard to find answers amid the chaos. Loomis did indicate that those things are going on, even if they're not being seen, and this is a franchise looking for the answers to get things turned around. As always, Loomis did not present the tone of a GM on the verge of making sweeping changes, even as the team is mired in its worst losing streak since 2005 and the final year of the Jim Haslett era. If the Saints drop another game, this one to the lowly Panthers, they'd plumb losing streak depths not seen since the Mike Ditka era of the late '90s.
"I think our players have played really hard. I think they’re accountable. I don’t see a lack of effort. I don’t see a lack of want to. I don’t see a lack of accountability," Loomis continued, "and I think we all recognize that, look, in the circumstance we have to coach better, we have to play better. We have to do our jobs better, in terms of the front office, you know, the training room, the strength and conditioning. All of us we have to buckle up and we have to do better, and that’s not anything – look, I’m not talking about this specifically but there are specific things inside our building that we’re doing to try to overcome this losing streak.”
MORE FROM SAINTS GM MICKEY LOOMIS
On potentially getting Derek Carr back from injury
“That’s huge when you have a veteran quarterback that has played well for us versus, you know, young rookies and look, I’m really bullish on Spencer and Jake both. I think they did some really good things, but, you know, they’re rookie players and they’re gonna – things got to, they don’t have to be perfect, but things kind of have to fit into place for them whereas a veteran quarterback can solve some problems that occur on the fly more readily than a rookie player can do.”
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On Gayle Benson's role in the process
“Look, you know, Mrs. Benson is awesome as an owner, she really is, and I think the perception sometimes is that she’s not involved. Well, she is, you know, I speak with her almost every day. She’s obviously concerned about this losing streak and how it’s affecting not just the people in the building but how it affects our fans and look, she feels bad about that and she wants to know, you know, how are we working towards a solution and so we talk about that on a daily basis. Look, she’s fantastic as an owner. She is in the locker room after the game, win or lose, and so these last six weeks have been tough, and yet she’s there every week and concerned and, you know, listen, it makes all of us, you know, we want to do right by her and so it makes all of us even more conscientious and more determined about flipping this thing around.”
Do the Saints have enough elite, young players?
“We’ve got a ton of players that are 4 years or less that I think can get to that level [of a Cam Jordan or Demario Davis] in the next 4 or 5 years, you know, Paulson Adebo and Bryan Bresee and Tali Fuaga, and, you know, Kool-Aid McKinstry, Chris Olave is on that path. You know, we’re high on Spencer Rattler, both these quarterbacks, like I’ve told you, Cesar Ruiz, Rashid Shaheed, Alontae Taylor, Pete Werner, Chase Young, so there’s lots of guys that are candidates to become those type of players. Will they all do that? No, that would be unrealistic to expect that, but certainly we have a lot of guys and there’s others as well that have that opportunity.”