Free agency is a little over a week away. The Saints must answer these four questions to determine their offseason approach:
Free agency begins in a little over a week, followed by the draft a month later. As the days count down to the start of the new league year, the New Orleans Saints’ coaches are meeting with scouts and front office personnel to decide which areas they prefer to address in free agency versus the draft. Roster management is an ongoing endeavor.
Some questions will keep coming up. There are clear voids to fill on the team, but the Saints will also need to choose whether to keep some players or let them walk away. These four decisions will shape New Orleans’ overall approach to the offseason:
The future of Dennis Allen will be the biggest ongoing storyline for the Saints in 2024. What other questions are we looking to be answered?
2023 was a frustrating season for the New Orleans Saints. Luckily, it’s over and now focus can be placed on the 2024. This campaign clearly left much more to be desired. There are reasons to be hopeful those desires will be achieved. Will the Saints be able to deliver on some of the promise?
Think of the NFL as a TV show. The end of each season in a series typically builds into the next one. If you’re a fan, you’ll immediately start guessing what will happen with individual characters and the show in general. That’s what we take a look at today. With where the Saints left off in 2023, what are the biggest questions headed into the next season.
For a game that has more questions than known answers, I thought I’d ask a few more questions.
Notre Dame wraps their 2022 football season on Friday as they take on South Carolina in the Gator Bowl. The annual contest, played in Jacksonville, Florida, hasn’t featured the Irish since Tyrone Willingham’s first year concluded with a disappointing loss to North Carolina State.
I’ve decided to try something different in previewing this game. Sure, we have all the stat comparisons available for you at Fighting Irish Wire as Geoffrey Clark does those before each game, and Michael Chen gives his pregame thoughts in a variety of ways, too. FIW’s 2022 Freshman of the Year John Kennedy gave his confidences and concerns for the game, too.
However, the way my mind tends to work is that I find myself asking a bunch of questions before a game. Those lead to other thoughts or more questions. Instead of keeping those to myself I decided to put them into words as we await kickoff for the final time in 2022.
With that in mind, here is my stream of consciousness preview for the Gator Bowl between Notre Dame and South Carolina.
Here is what Niners Wire editor Kyle Mason (@KyleAMadson) had to say about San Francisco ahead of their Monday night tilt against the #Rams
The Monday night matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams is set to be a hotly contested game with huge implications for the NFC West standings. Despite their slight lead, the Rams are far from a lock to run away with the division, and depending on the outcomes of games played on Sunday, could need a win to stay in first place.
We chatted with Niners Wire editor Kyle Madson this week and asked for his assessment of San Francisco’s season at this juncture. Here are the answers he gave us:
11 questions I have about the 2022 Georgia Bulldogs
Georgia is loaded with talent once again this season as the Bulldogs look to repeat as national champions in 2022.
But the Dawgs lost 15 studs from that 2021 championship team to the NFL draft and more to the NCAA transfer portal this offseason.
With that much talent and experience gone, I have some questions for Kirby Smart and UGA that I look forward to having answered on September 3 against Oregon in Atlanta:
Answering some big questions to help preview the Packers’ playoff showdown with the 49ers.
The Green Bay Packers (13-4) will welcome the surging San Francisco 49ers (11-7) to Lambeau Field for the NFC Divisional Round on Saturday night. The Packers cruised to the No. 1 seed in the NFC and earned a first-round bye in the playoffs, and now Matt LaFleur’s team gets to host the 49ers, who have won eight of their last 10 games. The winner will go to the NFC title game.
To help preview the showdown, Packers Wire managing editor Zach Kruse and Niners Wire managing editor Kyle Madson provided answers to 10 big questions.
The four biggest question marks surrounding the 2021 Wisconsin Badgers
The Wisconsin Badgers enter the 2021 college football season with a deep roster that doesn’t warrant many questions.
Most of the defensive production returns including both starting cornerbacks, both starting inside linebackers and both starting outside linebackers and the offense enters the season with health and high expectations.
Nevertheless, there are always question marks surrounding any team entering a season.
The SEC’s 2020 fall football season is fast approaching, with just over three weeks until the opening kickoff despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Southeastern Conference’s 2020 fall football season is fast approaching with just over three weeks until the opening kickoff despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Along with the SEC, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big-12 will also get their seasons underway on a Saturday not too far in the distant future.
As we get closer and closer to that date, questions begin to arise about how the season may look. Pontificators will do as they are wont to and give predictions on how the schedule will play out, as we have seen around the media already. Sports Illustrated took a stab at this inquiry on Tuesday as its staff put together a roundtable assessment of each school’s team.
Will Florida be able to replicate its pass-game success from a year ago, as Kyle Trask enters a season as a starting quarterback for the first time since his freshman year of high school?
Stepping in for the injured Feleipe Franks, the Gators finished with the nation’s No. 16 passing offense with Trask at the helm. Five key contributors, all having caught at least 20 passes in 2019, are now in the NFL, leaving Trask with several high-potential weapons—and also loads of inexperienced depth—at wide receiver. Tight end Kyle Pitts offers a huge boost, but Florida will depend on Trevon Grimes, Jacob Copeland, Kadarius Toney and others to take a big step forward in Dan Mullen’s spread offense.
Mullen appears confident Trask can overcome the loss of veteran production, noting his “graduate-level” progressions last week. Without a spring camp amid the pandemic, however, Trask and his young weapons missed key time to jell. If that lost time proves pivotal, Florida will know early on: The Gators face the reigning No. 29 and No. 31 defenses in the nation—Texas A&M and LSU, respectively—back to back in Weeks 3 and 4.
The Saints look towards their 2020 training camp with question marks along the offensive line, at linebacker, and in the receiving corps.
It sure feels like New Orleans Saints training camp is a lifetime away, but it’ll be here before we know it. And when the black and gold gather for a month-long workout under the grueling Metairie sun, it’s safe to say that the coaching staff will have some questions weighing heavily on their minds.
We have three of those problems already written down in pen, circled, and highlighted. These are the most important issues facing the Saints this season, and they won’t even sniff Super Bowl LV if they don’t solve each problem before September. New Orleans must act quickly to gets its 2020 rookie class on the same page as its veteran pickups and the nucleus of players returning from the 2019 team.
Who starts at center and guard?
Credit: Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports
New Orleans sent both guards to the Pro Bowl last year, but the Saints offensive line got even deeper in the 2020 draft by picking Michigan center Cesar Ruiz. While Andrus Peat is entrenched at left guard (having signed a five-year contract extension earlier in the offseason), the center and right guard spots are all but settled. If anything, they might be the most competitive roster battles we’ll see in training camp.
Ruiz and Erik McCoy, the incumbent, will both compete for the right to start at center. They’ll also work into the lineup at right guard, three-time Pro Bowl alternate Larry Warford is entering the final year of his contract (which carries the second-highest salary cap charge for the Saints this year, behind Drew Brees). With just those two spots available, the Saints will be benching either a draft pick selected in the first two rounds of the last two drafts or one of their best free agent acquisitions.
It’s possible Warford gets traded to help make that decision easier. Moving him would allow the Saints to work around the salary cap a little easier, while also getting both Ruiz and McCoy on the field together. While McCoy was graded very well by Pro Football Focus in 2019, Ruiz is one of the best center prospects in years — his college coach allowed him to make all the line calls for the Wolverines, and credited Ruiz with getting it right “99% of the time.”
The Lions had expressed interest in running back Rashaad Penny before the trade deadline but the Seattle Seahawks opted not to deal him.
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The Seattle Seahawks have not utilized running back Rashaad Penny much since the trade deadline when he was speculated to be a potential trade candidate. In the two games the Seahawks played since the deadline passed, Penny rushed a combined six times for 14 yards and a lost fumble.
The Lions had expressed interest in Penny before the trade deadline, according to a report from Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. The Lions were 3-3-1 at the time and were looking to bolster their stable of running backs, but apparently did not think Penny was worth anything more than a third-round pick.
If this report is true, it prompts an abundance of questions and speculation.
Another RB the Lions were checking in on at the trade deadline: Rashaad Penny. Sounds like Lions were willing to part with a third-round pick for him but Seattle wanted more. They'll roll with Ty Johnson, J.D. McKissic and Paul Perkins at RB today.
What more would Detroit have had to offer for the Seahawks to trade Penny? Is Seattle still confident that Penny can develop into something great at his position and just has a longer learning curve? How is Penny specifically going to be used in the future with Chris Carson soaking up all the carries despite a few mistakes over the course of the season? Did his 55 rushing yards on eight carries against Atlanta make the Seahawks’ decision for them?
Penny has shown flashes of success over his young career thus far, especially with the ball in open space. However, he has some noticeable issues, particularly regarding running between the tackles. He still has potential, as he is only in his second season in the NFL. However, Seattle may soon find out if it regrets not dealing Penny sooner, or if he breaks out and becomes a consistently favorable complement to Carson.
