Just one New Orleans Saints player was recognized on the preseason All-NFL Team from CBS Sports, as voted on by a panel of staff writers and senior columnist Pete Prisco. And that would be the team’s lone first-team Pro Bowler from the 2022 season: veteran linebacker Demario Davis.
No Saints players on offense even received votes. While Davis did earn the second-most votes at linebacker (eight of the ten voters gave him the nod), a couple of his teammates were included as honorable mentions.
Two voters selected Tyrann Mathieu at safety, who led the team in takeaways last season with 3 interceptions, a forced fumble, and a recovery. Just one voter shouted out star cornerback Marshon Lattimore, whose reputation took a hit to recency bias when he was sidelined for much of the 2022 campaign with an injury. He’s as impactful as ever, but analysts and fans have short memories, and it’s easy to overlook him when other players are active while he is not.
So the Saints clearly have some work to do to in the months ahead. Winning games and playing good football will do a lot to reshape their reputation. But falling back into bad habits and losing matchups against lesser opponents, as was too often the case last year, will just result in even more football fans overlooking them.
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