REBUILD: New Orleans Saints Trade for WR Ja’Lynn Polk SIGNALS Future Focus, Chris Olave Impact

REBUILD: New Orleans Saints Trade for WR Ja’Lynn Polk SIGNALS Future Focus, Chris Olave Impact

The New Orleans Saints rebuild is real. We got all that and a little bit of land yap for you on today’s episode of Locked on Saints. You are Locked On Saints, your daily New Orleans Saints podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is good, Hudet Nation and Hudet family? I am your host, your friend Ross Jackson, New Orleans native, your New Orleans Saints expert and credential member of the media covering those New Orleans Saints as a Saints beat writer over at louisianaapasports.net. Now, on today’s episode of Locked on Saints, the Saints are helping themselves out on their defensive line before going up against the San Francisco 49ers. They’re trying to get ready to deal with Christian McCaffrey. But before we get to that, the Saints make another trade to bring another wide receiver here to New Orleans. And the move signifies that this team is absolutely embracing its rebuild and looking ahead to the future. We got all that coming up for you on this quick episode of Locked on Saints. We appreciate you very much for making us your first listen and being in every day here on the show, which is a proud part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. The New Orleans Saints are telling everybody very much out loud that they are a team that is very much just as concerned about its future as they are concerned about the 2025 season. And NFL teams don’t typically look very far down the road, but it’s very clear with some of the moves that the Saints have made going all the way back to the trade for Devon Vele, a different wide receiver. Uh then the waiver pickup of um another wide receiver actually and Trey Palmer. The trade for Aum Richards to bring him in the New Orleans Saints kind of consistently moving for guys that have multiple years left on their deal. The Saints do it again on Saturday, trading with the New England Patriots to acquire wide receiver Jaylen Pulk, who was drafted last year in 2024. Has three years left on his deal, including 2025. However, he will not see the field on 2025. But this because he’s dealing with a shoulder injury, he was already on injured reserve. And thanks to a 2018 rule change that was proposed by the Denver Broncos, I think at that time, you can trade for players that are on injured reserve, whether they’re on short-term or long-term IR. It’s just that they go to your injured reserve list when you acquire them. You can’t take them off of the injured reserve list or something like that. So, for the Saints, they get Jaylen Pulk, but you won’t see him in 2025. We’ll discuss a little bit about the player, but to me, this move signifies the Saints are very, very much thinking about what the future in New Orleans looks like. And in particular, they seem to be looking at what the future looks like at the wide receiver position more than just about anything else. So, the Saints showing you that the rebuild here in New Orleans is very much real. You don’t have to say that you’re in a rebuild, but the moves will tell you that the rebuild is absolutely there, or at least that there’s some forward thinking in terms of where this team heads in its future. So, what would Jaylen Pulk bring to this team? Well, in exchange for a sixth round pick, the Saints, oh, sorry, a sixth round pick in 2027, so two drafts from now, uh, they get Jaylen Pulk as well as a seventh round pick in 2028. The Saints in 2028 now have uh a pick in every round, but three seventh round pick selections. In 2026, they have rounds one through five. And then in 2020, uh sorry, 2027, they have rounds 1 through 5. And then in 2026, the upcoming draft, they have 1 2 3 and then a pick in the fifth and a pick in the sixth. So, five selections in each of the next two drafts at this time. And so, we’ll see where the Saints go with all this. But for Jaylen Pulk, what you get, you get a 6′ 6’1 almost 6’11, 6’1, 203 lb guy that doesn’t necessarily have blazing speed. Ran a 452 at the combine coming into this year’s NFL draft or coming into the 2024 NFL draft, but is a uh big-time high point the football kind of guy. Can create separation, is very physical at the catch point. He’s somebody that operates extremely well against zone coverage in particular coming out of Washington as he was coming into the NFL draft. His success rate was over 80% against zone according to our friends over at reception perception. The only receiver that was better than that was his teammate Roman Dunay who was a firstround pick. Went to the Chicago Bears of course. And when you grab a guy like Jaylen Pulk, it’s really good against zone coverage while you’re operating in a division like the NFC South where and look, I know it’s a small sample size, but just in the first week of the season, both the Panthers and the uh Atlanta Falcons were top five in zone coverage percentage. Now, they could have defensive coordinator changes going into next year and things like that, but that’s okay. In any case, you’re still mostly playing against zone coverage in today’s NFL. And even the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who are in kind of the low 20s across the league play zone coverage over 60% of the time on average. So the Saints grabbing guys that will compete with help them compete within their division assuming Jaylen Pulk makes the roster. This is the nice thing about trading a sixth round pick two drafts from now is that if he doesn’t make the roster, he doesn’t make the roster. It’s okay and then you just kind of move on. But the Saints were very high on Jaylen Pulk going into the draft last year. something that Luke Johnson over at nola.com has reported as well and that is a player that this team identified as a player that they would like to work with. They went and they got him but they invested in him for 2026 2027. Like we said he’s not going to see the field here in 2025. Now some folks have asked hey does this impact or does this change you know the course of where things could go for Chris Olive or Rasheed Shahid? thing to remember is that Chris Olive is on this team next year as of right now. Fifth year option, right? And they already picked up that fifth year option. So unless they’re going to do something crazy and trade him, which is not out of the question, right? You see all of these trades that the Saints are making, eventually they’re probably going to want to recoup some of these draft picks. And so the Saints being dealers at the trade deadline is very much going to be a conversation. And guys like Chris, Alvin Chimera, and other players are all going to be a part of that conversation. I’m just telling you now, I’m not saying that they should trade either one of them. I’m just telling you that those players are going to be a big- time conversation and big- time talking points across the media landscape about whether or not the Saints are going to make any moves and try to deal at the uh trade deadline if they’re like 2 and 8 or something like that by week 10 or whatever the new trade deadline uh date is. So, the Saints could end up dealing players to recoup some of those draft picks. But if that’s not the case, then I don’t think that this acquisition really has much impact on how the Saints feel about Chris Ave. Crystal Lave’s extension opportunity is all about how Crystal Lave plays, not a guy that might be able to be a pretty good third or fourth wide receiver for you if guys like Brandon Cooks, Mason Typton, and others don’t stick around going into or aren’t around going into next year. I know Brandon Cooks is on a secondear deal, but a lot of times secondyear deals are one-year deals. So, we’ll see how things go with that. Rasheed Shahid though of course would be somebody that is also going to be in those contract conversations. But again, if Chris Alav and Rashid Shahed earn their contract extensions, that’s what’s going to have the impact on their contract extensions, not a sixth round pick from two years later that was traded for, right? The idea here is that the Saints really like Jaylen Pulk and you might have your top two guys going into next year, but you want to make sure you’ve got other people. And so having a Devon Veil, having a uh Trey Palmer on multiple years on his deal, having a uh Jaylen Pulk with multiple years on his deal, that gives you your wide receiver core moving forward, even led by the two guys at the top. And then we’ll see what happens if the Saints do end up becoming dealers or sellers at any point during this time. So, I don’t know that the trade immediately has an impact on the Saints outlook at the wide receiver position when it comes to the top players there, but certainly gives the Saints a promising young option to see as he returns from that shoulder injury in 2026. An opportunity to be able to uh stick and hang on with this team as a an additional option or maybe even climb beyond that. 6’1, 203 pounds, he’s a physical player, he’s a good separator, he’s a good route runner, and he’s great against zone coverage. That’s a pretty And he’s got solid hands, too. It’s a good possession type guy to have around. And you’ll see that the Saints have really focused on that. The acquisition of Devon, the acquisition of Dre Palmer, the acquisition of Jaylen Pulk, these are all guys that have been uh at least reliably handed or if not solidly handed players. So, that’s where I think that this goes for New Orleans. But, I like the forward thinking for this team. And I think the forward thinking gives you what it is that a lot of folks have been asking for, which is for this team to hit the reset button and start paying attention to its future. Saints very clearly doing that. Uh, and this acquisition is just the latest punctuation on that assumption. Coming up next, the New Orleans Saints had their Saturday roster moves. We’ll break all of them down, including the clear indication that the Saints are very concerned about Christian McCaffrey, as well they should be. We got that coming up for you next as we continue on with today’s episode of Locked on Saints, part of Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked on Saints, brought to you by my friends over at Mazda. Mazda makes cars for those who choose to do more than simply move. They follow what moves them every time that they drive. And that’s what makes Mazdas stand out. Mazdas have always stood out to me. I love a Mazda. I’ve owned Mazdas. I love Mazdas. You’re going to be able to find everything that you need there, including some great safety specs as well. And look, it’s it’s it’s above and beyond when it comes to them. They’ve won more IHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than anyone else since August of 2025, or rather as of August of 2025. 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Who that nation? The New Orleans Saints are clearly concerned about Christian McCaffrey as well. They should be. And listen, when I say that they’re concerned about Christian McCaffrey, it’s not because I feel like they feel like they can’t do anything to limit Christian McCaffrey. Remember, they were going up against a very good rushing offense last week in week one up against the Arizona Cardinals. They gave up over 140 rushing yards, but 52 of them came on one play by Trey Benson, who’s a phenomenal talent. Uh but for the Saints, they had a 70.8% success rate in the run game. So they were more successful and they were one of the most su they were top 10 in the league when it came to that metric. So they were more successful as a run defense than they weren’t. They outpaced themselves big time going back and looking at the success rates from last year’s run defense. So we’re already starting to see a little bit of early early early early improvement, but now they got a big test up against Christian McCaffrey. So when I say that they’re clearly concerned about Christian McCaffrey, I don’t mean that they’re in a situation where they’re afraid of Christian McCaffrey or anything like that. But I think though that they know that if they limit Christian McCaffrey that that could be ballgame for them. And the Saints are in position here going into this game to potentially steal an early season win when many of us projected them to go 0 and4 to start the season and not see their first win until week five up against the New York Giants. I still think that’s the way that things will probably play out, but this opportunity for the New Orleans Saints is massive. Like, if there was a time for them to get a win, this is absolutely it. Now, there’s still a very good defense over there opposite this New Orleans Saints offense. It’s still kind of finding its footing, its identity, all of that other stuff. Uh Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, like there’s still a very good defense over there. However, the Saints are in a pretty good position here. And a big part of keeping that position or or potentially uh uh uh uh converting from being in that position to actually taking advantage of that moment is going to be whether or not they can limit Christian McCaffrey. And if you look at the things that they’ve done on Saturday, it kind of shows you that they’re ready to do that. Uh number one, they finally move um Julian Blackman to injured reserve. He’s likely done for the season with Edin Labram uh surgery he had on Friday, it sounded like from Kell Moore. or it’s what I gleaned from his post uh postpractice presser there. And so we won’t see him. It’ll be Yonas Sanker that’s going to step in there. And it’s good. This is another opportunity where the Saints get the chance to see what they’ve got in terms of young players, future information, future guidance, all that good stuff for exactly the type of attitude that this team should be having right now. But then beyond that, they sign Jonah Williams, defensive lineman, to the uh active roster. They elevate Fidil Diggs, which we expected was going to be the case that he would be active one way or another, either by being signed back to the roster or by being a standard game day elevation. And then to help out with the numbers, whether it be on special teams or even just safety depth as well, they also elevate Terrell Burgess, who had been missing since or had been out of practice rather since that joint practice up against the Los Angeles Rams with an undisclosed injury. Sources tell me that that is a that that was a hammy deal, but it it seems like everything’s good there. Now, he was at practice all throughout the week, wasn’t limited, all that good stuff. So, positive, positive, positive signs there for him. So, for New Orleans, the thing that you’re looking at here is those two defensive linemen, right? And Fidel Diggs was one that we expected. The Saints don’t have Chase Young for a second week in a row, and you know, we said that that might be a multi-week thing, but that it’s not supposed to be a long-term thing. So, ideally, he’s back next week. Otherwise, things are going to get a little bit spicy, I think, around those types of conversations um from the fan base. And then I think the other one is with that Jonah Williams elevation. It shows you that the Saints are really focused on making sure that they have a rotation and that they have players ready and available to go on the defensive line. And I think a big reason for that is that they want that run defense to step up. It’s pretty simple. They want the run defense to step up and they want that defensive line to stand strong and be fresh and go up against tiring older offensive linemen over in San Francisco for four quarters trying to keep that run game limited. This is where the Saints have always kind of done the right thing when it comes to defensive line rotations, but sometimes they did it hockey teamwise, right, to where three guys would run off, three new guys would run on. The Saints didn’t do that last week, but towards the second half, you saw, you know, maybe Cam Jordan come off and Fidil Diggs go on or Carl Granison comes off and Fidel Diggs goes on and Jonah Williams comes in and maybe Nathan Shepard goes out in certain situations and things like that. And so the Saints have been doing still a little bit of a rotation even though it doesn’t look the same as it has in like the Dennis Allen defenses and all that. But there’s value there in that rotation because you get those fresher legs, those fresher players out there going up against these offensive linemen that have taken 40, 50, 60 offensive snaps already and who don’t get rotated off of the field. And so having these defensive linemen that can rotate in, having these defensive linemen that know the scheme, right? Jonah Williams and Brandon Staley go a little bit back and so and they really like what Jonah Williams brings. And especially when you ask about Jonah Williams, the answer almost always gravitates towards what he does in the run game. And so here it is, right? Here it is. This is the game for New Orleans. It’s executing on the offensive side and not, you know, being turned over multiple times by that San Francisco defense and taking care of the football, finding ways to run the football, control the clock, and then maybe get the best out of Spencer Rattler that you’ve seen so far. All of those things would help. Although, the game doesn’t rest on any one of those things singularly outside of maybe not allowing that San Francisco team to turn you over, right? Forcing turnovers, giving the ball away, all that kind of stuff. Like, that’s all that will end the game very quickly for New Orleans. There’s no doubt about that. But over on the opposite side of this, it’s also about limiting Christian McCaffrey. And if they can limit Christian McCaffrey, that’s going to help them out big time over in the offensive side because you want M. Jones throwing a football typically speaking, unless he just gets on an absolute tear, which, hey, we’ve seen it happen, right? But unless that happens, if you’re able to kind of limit, right, you’re not going to take Christian McCaffrey out of a game. You’re not going to neutralize Christian McCaffrey. But if you can limit him as best as possible or limit at least his impact as best as possible, like go out there and run for 100 yards if you want to, but if you don’t find an inzone, then that’s not helping San Francisco too terribly much. And so if New Orleans can keep the game within pace from a scoring uh perspective and put points on the board with their offense or even with their special teams to a certain extent, uh then I think that New Orleans could be in a really good place here. And the Saints are clearly clearly very focused on what they’re going to need to do to limit Christian McCaffrey. I think that’s why you see some of these defensive line guys coming up a little bit more. Again, Fidil Diggs makes sense. You want four edge rushers. Four edge rushers is better than three edge rushers. But bringing Jonah Williams back up just like they did last week, going up against one of the better rushing offenses from 2024, 2024. Uh I wasn’t 2025, sorry. Now you’re going up against one of the other better rushing offenses here in 2025 as well as back in 2024. And so you can see the same game plan kind of or a similar game plan rather uh or level of preparation on the defensive line kind of taking shape. So I think it’s a wise move by New Orleans and I think that it’s one that ideally sets them up in an opportunity to be able to come up with an upset tomorrow. So make sure you come back for the show tomorrow after the game. Uh uh I don’t know if Lance will be live, but I do know that Dylan and Darien will certainly be live. I’ll jump in when I can. I won’t end the stream early this time like I did by accident last time. Whoops. might be uh and that will give us our squad show and then I’ll be live or I’ll I’ll have a show that’ll go up a little bit later as well and we’ll break it all down. Uh don’t forget that you can catch us every Monday through Friday over in the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network at 10:00 a.m. at least once a day. So, make sure you go and check that out. And for your second listen today, why not go and check out Lockdown NFL? See what’s going on around the rest of the league. We appreciate you very much as always making us a party day part of your routine for saying yes to me in the show. If you see me, please say hi. If you need anything else around your new instincts in between these episodes, make sure you follow me on your favorite social media, RossJackna. Hit me up. Let me know the family’s doing. Let me know how you living. Let me know how you moming them. And trust that Nation, I’ll holler at you.

The New Orleans Saints acquisition of wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk from the New England Patriots, signal the Saints’ commitment to long-term team building.

Breaking down the implications of the Polk trade on the Saints’ future, particularly at the wide receiver position. Analyzing how players like Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed fit into the team’s plans.

0:00 Ja’Lynn Polk Trade Analysis
12:07 Saints Prepare for Christian McCaffrey

Saints’ defensive preparations for containing 49ers’ star running back Christian McCaffrey.

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