The New Orleans Saints are sitting at 1-6 as they near the halfway point of the season, and no one is thrilled about that.
Not the fans, the players, not the coaches, not the front office. But those latter three groups listed knew going in there were going to be challenges, as Saints GM Mickey Loomis detailed on WWL Radio this week.
The Saints are staying the course.
"I would say we didn’t expect to be 1-6, but we also recognize that in a lot of ways this was going to be a development year," Loomis told Voice of the Saints Mike Hoss, "playing a lot of young players, we’ve got a new coaching staff, trying to … identify and develop a quarterback, and so there’s been a lot of good things, but again, it’s hard to look past the results.”
Hear the full, exclusive interview with Saints GM Mickey Loomis in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
That quote above is important, because those details will inform a lot of the decisions the Saints make in the immediate future, and also some long-term. If there were any questions about the status of head coach Kellen Moore and his staff, the GM left little mystery.
"I definitely think the right coach is in the building, absolutely, I love the staff," Loomis said. "I love the things that they do behind the scenes. I love the deep thinking, the intelligence of the group. I love the way that they’re approaching each week. Look, we’re trying to get better incrementally and not take steps back. I like the development of a lot of young players."
Development year, rebuild year, different ways of saying the same thing. Teams will often try to talk around the idea, but the actions ultimately tell the story. The 2025 New Orleans Saints clearly have no aversion to trusting young players in key spots. Every team tries to develop its rookies, of course, but the Saints have typically erred toward higher floor replacements when possible. This year its been players like rookie Jonas Sanker, who took over for injured Julian Blackmon in Week 2, and at cornerback with Quincy Riley, who took over for an injured Isaac Yiadom in Week 5. Outside of veteran Justin Reid, the Saints are giving the vast majority of secondary snaps to players on rookie contracts.
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The Saints also started rookie Kelvin Banks Jr. at left tackle in Week 1 and are gradually incorporating LB Danny Stutsman into live reps. A development year isn't the same as tanking, but it is prioritizing development of young players over what might be the straightest line to the most wins right now.
"Just because someone has been here for a couple years doesn’t mean they’re not a young player. They’re still developing," Loomis continued. "Guys like Chris Olave, who is coming into Year 4. Rashid Shaheed, those guys are still improving every year and both those guys were hurt and missed a large portion of last year, so they were a little behind in that regard, but the young players, the draft picks, I think they are what we expected and even more in a lot of ways, and so I think there are a lot of positive things.”
The developing players are what help provide the light at the end of the tunnel that is a season with a 1-6 start. The only way out is through. But that begs the question: How about the young quarterback?
The Saints have no intention to take the keys from Spencer Rattler after a 1-6 start, and they'll continue to preach patience with their young QBs. Rattler snapped his winless skid as a start against the Giants, but his most recent game featured his first true turnover blowup of the season with three interceptions and a fumble in a loss to the Bears.
Week 7 was the first performance that could have truly tilted the hand of the coaching staff to pull the trigger and see what rookie Tyler Shough had to offer at the position. While maintaining that the team has high hopes for the No. 40 overall pick, the other young QB is going to get a chance to bounce back. Kellen Moore described the situation on Monday as "week to week," while offering strong support for how Rattler has played. Loomis concurred, noting that the team has seen critical letdowns in other phases that cost games to this point.
"I think Spencer has made a lot of progress," Loomis said. "He’s done a lot of really good things and the hardest thing to do in sports is be patient, you know, while your guys are developing, but that’s what we have to do. We don’t have a choice. ... This last week was probably a step backwards, but I’m anxious to see how he bounces back from that and how we bounce back from it as a team and rally around him.”
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Rattler's claim to the job would certainly be strengthened with a strong rebound performance in Week 8 against the Bucs, the Saints first NFC South game of the season. That game kicks off at 3:05 p.m. in the Caesars Superdome. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
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MORE FROM LOOMIS
On season-ending injuries
On Erik McCoy (torn biceps): “Typically you can count on your offensive line remaining pretty intact throughout a season. They become the basis for your entire offense and in a lot of ways, and I don’t know that I’ve experienced this many injuries in the offensive line as we had the last two years, don’t know if there’s a particular reason for it, but it’s happened, and for Erik, I feel really bad for him. He’s one of the top two or three centers in our league. He does everything the right way and so for him to get hurt, that’s difficult — obviously difficult on him, difficult on our team, but I know this, he’ll bounce back from it. He’ll get that repaired and he’ll be as good a player as ever afterwards.”
On Kendre Miller (torn ACL): “Kendre was doing a fantastic job, came into training camp with a little bit different purpose and maturity. I thought he was doing fantastic for us, and we saw on the field a lot of things that we expected when we drafted him, and so it’s difficult to see him have a setback like this and an injury, but again, he’ll bounce back from it and be stronger than ever when he comes back.”
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On the defense's performance
“When you change schemes, when you change the way you’re doing things defensively, every position doesn’t have a perfect fit in terms of players," Loomis said. "We’ve got to develop that. We’ve got to understand that as a personnel department, what our coaches are looking for and then go and get that for them and that’s not something that happens in one year’s time. That’s gonna take a little bit of time, but that being said, I think there’s some really exciting things on defense that are happening. The young players that are developing and making plays, the guys up front in the middle of our defense that are adapting and doing some really good things, so I’m pretty optimistic that the defense is going to be a strength of our team in the future.”
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On philosophy at the trade deadline
“I don’t know that we go in with any particular philosophy about the trade deadline," Loomis said. "Here’s what happens, is that, you know, the teams that aren’t doing well, everybody presumes they’re sellers and the teams that are doing well, everyone presumes that they’re buyers, and so, you know, we obviously have been the subject of a lot of rumors, and I’m assuming and we have gotten a few calls about different guys, and look, we’ll look at each, you know, we’ll look at each thing individually. We’ll discuss it, but I’m not in the — I don’t think we’re in the business of trading away good players unless the deals are just too good to refuse. Yea, I think I’ll just leave it at that.”