New Orleans Saints AREN’T CLOSE, Nor Competitive In Tyler Shough’s Debut Against Los Angeles Rams

New Orleans Saints AREN’T CLOSE, Nor Competitive In Tyler Shough’s Debut Against Los Angeles Rams

The New Orleans Saints are not close. We got all that and a little bit of land yet 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 Network, your team every day. What is good Huda Nation and Huda family? I am your host, your friend Ross Jackson, New Orleans native, your New Orleans Saints expert and credentialed member of the media covering those New Orleans Saints as a Saints beatwriter over at louisianaapasports.net. And on today’s episode of Locked on Saints, the New Orleans Saints need to seriously consider trades at the trade deadline in order to help themselves when it comes to their future as their present is very, very bleak. Rookie quarterback Tyler Shuck’s first start overshadowed by another dismal performance across the entire roster. And to kick everything off today, the New Orleans Saints are going to have a hard time making anybody believe that they’re close because the loss against the Los Angeles Rams is proof positive that they absolutely are not. We got all that coming up for you on today’s episode. We appreciate you very much. Whether it’s your first time or your next time, being here with us this time, making it your first listen and being it every day or here on the show, which is a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today’s episode brought to you by friends over at FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if that first $5 bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head over to fanduel.com today to get started. The New Orleans Saints have said in a couple of different ways that they are close, that they’re heading in the right direction, that there’s promise, that there are things that are looking up, that they’re building something, that they want to compete and be competitive. And after their performance up against the Los Angeles Rams, they’ve only proven the exact opposite so far. There were low expectations going into this game between the Saints, who were starting a rookie quarterback for his first career start, traveling on the road in uh a bit of a hostile environment as it turned out, Sofi Stadium this time around, and going up against one of the NFL’s great teams, right? One of the elite teams in today’s league. and it looked like they were entirely outmatched in a way that even still fell below the already low expectations. The New Orleans Saints are not close. The New Orleans Saints are not a competitive football team. At least that’s not what they showed on the field up against the Los Angeles Rams. Then I really appreciated what it was that veteran safety Justin Reed said after the game where he was talking about how the team has the right attitude behind closed doors in terms of making sure that they’re working, that they’re dedicated, that they’re showing up, that they’re getting things done, that they’re not out there in public spaces saying bad things about where the team is and creating division, that they have a team of problem solvers as opposed to guys that create problems. But the my favorite thing that he mentioned was a big part of the accountability factor is not just pointing out what’s wrong with the team, but pointing out the solutions that the team would need to undergo in order to address those problems. So in that same spirit, that’s where I want to start with today’s episode. Not just pointing out the problems of which there are many, but looking at the possible solutions for this team. And as I looked and thought about and planned this show out and mapped out certain solutions to some of the saints largest issues, it became very very clear that many of the solutions are not solutions the saints are just going to stumble upon and get fixed and and and get implemented rather in order to get those problems fixed here in 2025. which is what the statement that we’re close quote unquote would indicate. That they are close to turning a corner or that they are close to addressing some of the issues that they have or that they are close to uh leaping and bounding some of the shortcomings that this team has on its roster and across its, you know, organization really. And I think that that’s still worth having a conversation about because the Saints are not going to make a coaching change. The Saints are not going to overreact to what they have seen so far here in a 1 and8 start. But they need to react. They need to do something because right now it’s going to get harder and harder and harder to get anyone to buy in on what the vision is supposed to be for a team that clearly lacks an identity on both sides of the football. And if they do have an identity, has failed to replicate that identity and turn it into success. So, let’s talk about some of the things that the Saints have struggled with and what possible solutions are and what the timeline for that could potentially look like. And I’m telling you right now, it’s the timeline part that might be the most sort of saddening and frustrating for a fan when it comes to this entire conversation. So, the Saints struggle to run the football, right? This is a team that had one 29yd run thanks to uh quarterback Taesm Hill, who went in for a series of plays at one point and had 57 rushing yards in total. This is now the fifth consecutive game in which this team has not been able to rush for 100 team rushing yards. And again, 57 yards, 29 of those came on one run. And in fact, that 29yd run was the only rush by the New Orleans Saints that went for over four yards in the entire game. What do you have to do in order to be able to fix that? Well, a lot of this comes down to the protection up front. The New Orleans Saints have not been a successful team when it comes to blocking in the run game. That might mean how then the next question becomes, how do you actually address that and make it better? Well, that’s probably personnel changes if we’re being completely honest. But the Saints don’t necessarily have the better options to turn to on their roster. So, that feels like that’s part of what the Saints should be looking at going into this off seasonason. And ideally, doing so with veteran players, not draft and develop players. something that this Saints organization has proven that it can’t do successfully as of right now. And so go out there, find the veterans that you can plug in and probably want some bigger bodies on the interior most specifically. So a possible solution there would be going to free agency and trying to find the players that meet the profile that work for a Kell Moore run game because it doesn’t feel like the Saints necessarily have that. The other thing is finding running backs that are going to be able to go out there and pick up yards after contact. That was something that this Saints team was very good at early on in the season. Running backs not so successful with it. Often going down on first contact here throughout this game and really over the course of the past few weeks. It’s an eye test thing, but the analytics back it up as well. Over on the defensive side, the New Orleans Saints could not get off the field. The Saints offense possessed the football for just 16 minutes and 7 seconds. a franchise worst and according to Nick Underh Hill over at New Orleans football, the 13th worst t game in NFL history when it comes to time of possession. So, the run game would help you stay on the field in those situations. The Saints went three and out in their first four uh their first three possessions, four of their first five possessions. not something that’s going to go their way. But the Saints defense also could not get off the field, particularly during the third quarter where the Saints possessed the football for only 1 minute and 12 seconds. In fact, they had uh that’s just game time. According to Kell Moore, over 40 minutes of real time or around 40 minutes of real life time between a touchdown at the end of the first half where maybe you thought, “Okay, this team is maybe finding something here until when they finally touch the ball nearly 10 minutes into the uh third quarter. Unacceptable for New Orleans. You’re not going to be able to win football games that way. So, not being able to stay on the field on offense, not being able to get off the field on defense compounded to create a really, really challenging situation, not just for rookie Tyler Shuck, but for the New Orleans Saints as a whole. And finally, the Saints inability to get started. Period. That’s the end of the sentence. Their inability to get started is something that has been a big issue for this team from the very beginning. And the play calling in particular in scripted plays should allow you to be able to get a first down. And the Saints have not been able to do that. consistently enough to start games, nor have they been able to do that consistently enough to open up the second half. That’s a big thing Kell Moore has got to look at. His strategy when it comes to scripting plays, why it’s been so inefficient, and how to get that adjusted because if you can’t put together scripted drives, you’re going to be you’re going to have a really, really tough time outside of when the defense is playing off at the end of each half, which is where we saw the Saints have the most success so far in this game. Coming up next, speaking of success, Tyler Shuck, New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback, did have some success, but it was completely overshadowed by everything else going on with this team. Let’s get to that as we continue on and continue to try to optimize and identify solutions for this team moving forward here as we continue on with today’s episode of Locked On Saints, part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I’m Cody Ror from Lockdown Broncos and this episode is brought to you by Pelaton. Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Pelaton crossraining tread plus powered by Pelaton IQ. This is Pelaton’s most advanced equipment yet, giving you realtime guidance and endless ways to move. Whether you’re running, lifting, or you’re crossraining with your favorite instructors like Alex Tucant, it’s training re-imagined to make your workout more personal. Pelaton is built for breakthroughs with features that help you plan, stay motivated, and hit peak performance. You can let yourself run, lift, flex, and go while Pelaton handles all the rest. Plus, Pelaton IQ provides real time strength coaching, tracking your progress and suggesting weights that challenge you so you can get stronger. Plus, the new movement tracking camera. It counts your reps and corrects your form in real time, making sure every rep is safer and smarter. So let yourself run, lift, flex, push, and go. Explore the new Pelaton crossraining tread plus at onepelon.com. Today’s episode of Lockdown Saints brought to you our friends over at Supply House and the opening whistle blows on some of those big projects and big repairs that might be in store for you. Make sure you get your crew moving forward with Supply House. Order today and see parts at your doorstep as quickly as tomorrow. with over 280,000 plumbing, HVAC, and electrical items for you to choose from for all those trusted brands in the business that you know and love. And not to mention that real time inventory as well as lead time to make sure you’re not punting on any of those big projects. All thanks to Supply House. And of course, that fantastic tradem program as well. So join that free tradem program so you can score some serious perks that include things like priority shipping, lower prices, and a dedicated support line. Just visit supplyhouse.com to sign up for free and use the promo code shnfl5 for 5% off of your first order. That’s supplyhouse.com. Real people, real service. All right, family. A dismal performance by the New Orleans Saints in their 34-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams completely overshadowed actually some pretty good positives all within context around rookie quarterback Tyler Shuck’s debut. Um Shuck threw for about 176 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The interception came on a fourth down. Just kind of, you know, figured can’t take a sack on fourth down. Tried to put the ball up uh to Rashid Jah. ended up getting intercepted by Manuel Forbes there, but the play was actually drawn up and completely sold out for Chris Olive on a route over in the opposite side. There was an underneath route that could have that maybe Tyler Shuck could have found to Taesm Hill, but he said that he lost sight of him. So then just put the ball up for Rasheed Shahid. I’m going to treat fourth down interceptions for Tyler Shuck just like I treated him for Spencer Rattler. You go out there and you can’t take a sack and so give get put the ball up, give somebody an opportunity. Uh that’s what Tyler Shuck did. But outside of that, I thought that there were some promising things that we saw. Now again, I mentioned all things in context. This is still a loss. The Saints still only scored one touchdown and the Saints offense could not move the ball through the air on a consistent enough basis, nor of course was there any support from a run game and hardly uh and and certainly early on in the game, not a lot of protection uh going the Saints way on offense as well up front with the offensive line. So with all of that in context, a couple of the positives for Tyler Shuck came from his ability to operate out of structure and the clear arm talent that he has. Good ball placement on the touchdown pass to Jawan Johnson that gave Jawan an opportunity to go out there and fight for more yards. The big 27yd completion from Tyler Shuck to Chris Olive where he evaded some pressure, stepped out and then stepped up and then delivered down the field. Really good there. two corner routes or a couple of corner routes on off of play action with the uh kind of those C routes where you run inside but then break it back outside up against the boundary, finding those spots and finding those lanes there and then finding some other spots where he was able to, you know, dump the ball off or get the ball to a receiver. But the Saints are plagued by kind of the same inconsistencies over and over again. Again, the the the inability to move the ball on scripted plays is a massive concern because if you can’t do that, like we said earlier, you’re going to have a hard time moving the ball out of structure as well. And if you’re only making plays out of structure and you can’t make plays in structure, then that says a lot about your offensive system in scheme too. It feels like, right, I’m kind of reading into that, but that feels like something that should be, hey, if you can’t operate in structure, red flag, red flag, red flag. And so the Saints have got to get that kind of stuff figured out. So, so what do you do? Um, some of it is about getting the quarterbacks in rhythm a little bit early. Other parts of it are again developing a more consistent run game that can support your young quarterback. We haven’t seen that consistently here throughout the season, although it started off very strong early on in the year. And so, the Saints have got to get whatever that is figured out. But, I think a part of the solution for getting things in structure to work is going to be finding a way to get into a rhythm and finding a way to get the support of the run game. And that rhythm can be, you know, three-step drop, dump the ball off, fivestep drop, get a quick hit, you know, hit a quick hitch or get a quick slant or something like that. Like there will be those types of plays over the course of time that the Saints are going to find, okay, this is really comfortable for Tyler Shuck. So give him a series of those types of comfortable comfort building plays and maybe it allows him to settle in a little bit. Now, we have to acknowledge that the Los Angeles Rams are a very, very good team. That being said, the Saints have also not shown up against some not so great teams as well. And a lot of the teams that the Saints have lost to early on throughout the season are teams that currently have winning records and in some cases have very good records like the Buffalo Bills, like the New England Patriots, and now like the Los Angeles Rams. But an inability to really go out there and perform against bad teams, good teams, and great teams just kind of runs the gamut. That shows you kind of where this Saints team is. And sometimes that’s going to overshadow even the most positive performances, which it felt like Tyler Shuck and Chase Young were the most positive things to come out of this team. Maybe you could say some special teams things that worked out pretty well. The Saint special teams unit, particularly on the coverage side, has gotten a lot better here throughout the season. Isaac Adam with a great play on a punt uh punt coverage. um you know, a couple of missed field goals by the Rams, one of which forced by a diving Justin Reed. So, there are those little things that are positive, but they’re all going to be overshadowed by, you know, a faulty run defense or a poorest run defense. Um, a coverage unit that surrenders so much space in some cases. And we’ve already heard that it’s execution, not scheme, from the players themselves. A run game that wasn’t able to get started over on the offensive side of the football. an inconsistent pass rush that outside of Chase Young has really struggled to uh have a consistent presence that disrupts the rhythm of an opposing quarterback. Matthew Stafford completed 75% of his passes in this game. That is about as automatic as you’re going to get outside of some incredible performances that we’ve seen from guys like Drew Brees in the past. Uh then you build on top of that some of the consistent issues of ball control. Again, Alvin Camro with a fumble. Did not touch the football after that and hardly hit the field after that as well. Kell Moore said that that wasn’t really like a disciplinary thing, but it sure looked and felt like it. And then and and I would like if that was a disciplinary thing. I would actually credit the Saints for that to say, you know what, if you can’t hold on to the football, you’re not going to be on the field, period. That is some form of accountability in a way, right? We saw we see Shawn Peyton do that. We saw Peyton do that to uh Mark Ingram one time, right? And so I actually don’t think that would be a bad thing regardless of who the player is and what the name is on the back of their jersey and the number is that they wear if there’s a opportunity to go out there and create some display of accountability. I think that there is a reason to do that just to show that you can. I also liked what Justin Reed said about accountability after the game too that it’s about going out there and owning your mistakes. Alvin Kimera has never been somebody that shied away from things like that. him putting the football on the ground is something he’s not going to be very happy with himself about. And he did not touch the ball again after that. It turned over to rookie Devin Neil. And of course, a lot of passing because the Saints were down 24 points already at that point or or near 24 points already at that point. And so for New Orleans, like you can’t really buy into a bunch of the positives because of the distraction of all of the things that show that this team is not ready, that this team is not close, and that this team is not a competitive one right now. Now, their schedule eases up towards the end of the season. If and and you’ve got to prove that you can compete in these upcoming eight games up against more beatable, less formidable opponents. But until you’re able to start hanging with some of the best in the NFL, you can’t call yourself close because then the question becomes close to what? Coming up next, we’ll wrap everything up taking a look at the trade deadline and why the New Orleans Saints should absolutely be entertaining trades before the trade deadline on Tuesday. We got coming up. You got that coming up for you next as we continue on with today’s episode of Locked on Saints. Put a locked on podcast that work your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked on Saints, also brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel, the official sports betting partners of the NBA. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on all of the action. And even if you miss the opening tip for those basketball games, you can still get in on everything going on. Because right now with FanDuel and their live bets, you can bet on who’s going to score next fourth quarter comebacks and you can even group together a bunch of live bets into a same game parlay. So you have the potential for an even bigger payout. There’s no better place to get in on all of the action than over at FanDuel today. And of course, if you’re still following the NFL and this New Orleans Saints team, four and a half point underdogs on the road up against the Carolina Panthers next week. Maybe something worth getting in on there. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. So, head over to fanduel.com to sign up and get started today with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Let’s get it. Hunadation and the New Orleans Saints should absolutely be shopping their players at this point when it comes to tomorrow’s NFL trade deadline. There have been so many reports about players that could be drawing interest from around the NFL. Whether it’s wide receivers Chris Alav, Rasheed Jahed, and Brandon Cooks, linebacker Pete Wernern, cornerback Alante Taylor, edge rusher Carl Granderson, even veteran corners like Isaac Yadam were brought up and and even veteran offensive lineman like Dylan Raidens were all brought up and and Caesar Ruiz were all brought up in trade talks over the course of the last few weeks. New Orleans Saints now sitting at 1 and8 with not much left to prove throughout the rest of the regular season from a team perspective. At this point, this team is becoming a lot more about individual evaluations and the development of young upandcoming players that the Saints should absolutely be open to dealing players and maybe even should consider coming down on some of the requested price tags on some of those players just for the sake of being able to get some additional draft capital and looking at being able to maximize the team’s opportunity to build its roster through the draft. The Saints are in line right now for the number one overall selection and to this point only have five at max potentially six draft picks in the upcoming year’s NFL draft after trading away a fourthround pick and a later pick as well in a couple of different moves including bringing in a massively underutilized asset like wide receiver Devon Vele. The Saints are not really in position to do much building through free agency. Not at a big spender position. Now, they’re are going to be in a better free or better salary cap situation because they’re going to be able to roll over 20 plus million from this year. They’re getting a little bit of cap relief going into next year because of the Derek Carr retirement and some of the money that’s going to come off the books at that point. But they still have some extensions that are going to kick in, some accelerations that are going to kick in for players that probably aren’t going to be around next season, some potential upcoming retirements as well at the end of this year. So, there’s a lot that’s going to happen when it comes to the Saints monetary and financial side going into next season that’s going to be pretty hard to plan for when it comes to player futures and things like that. So that means that the draft is really their most successful avenue when it comes to building for its future. Now, I still think that going to free agency and bringing in and identifying veterans, especially on the offensive line, can be very helpful for this team, potentially on the interior defensive line as well, but it’s going to be the draft that’s going to lead the New Orleans Saints to a position where they might might be able to complete their rebuild. Now, this is a team that has not drafted very effectively in the recent past. The 2025 draft class is creating a lot of promise. However, we have seen all of the players that the Saints drafted to an extended extent so far this season. We highlighted some of the promises, the ups when it came to Tyler Shuck. We’ll wait to see what the downs are throughout the season and how those are further developed, patched up, built around, grown, you like how you address those, all of that. So, we’ll see all of that throughout, but guys like Quincy Riley, um Yonas Sanker, uh we’re seeing now some opportunities continue for Danny Stsman and others. Calvin Banks Jr. has been a starter at left tackle all season. Has a lot of things he can he needs to be doing better. Has a lot of opportunity to grow and a lot of time to do it, however. And so, the Saints are going to need to be able to rely on their ability to draft in order to be able to properly rebuild this team. And if the Saints go into 2026 and fail in the draft again and are not at least a scoch better in 2026 than they are here in 2025, I don’t expect them to be massively better in 2026 at this point because there are so many deficiencies they’ve got to get cleaned up. But they need to be performing better and stop this downward trajectory that they’re presently on beginning in 2026. If they don’t, then the people that are making the decisions around the draft, the people that are building the roster, the front office becomes the next point to go into the crosshairs in terms of where things need to be changed. The coaching staff was flipped last off season. This upcoming offseason, it’s all about the player roster. We’ve talked about that since the moment that they flipped the the coaching staff, but then retained the Payton/Dennis Allen roster that they’ve mostly retained so far uh here in this first year under Kell Moore and Brandon Staley. talking offense and defense there. And then if those things don’t get better in 2026, then the only thing left to do is point to the people that are making those decisions. And eventually that would have to be the reckoning, if you will, at that point. But for 2026, it’s going to be all about can this team accumulate the assets that it needs and can this team draft? And if they can’t do that, then there’s no hope for them moving forward, right? because that’s going to be the pathway or not no hope moving forward but no hope for this iteration of what they’re trying to create. And so the Saints have got to be able to draft better. And so when you’re asking for a third round pick for one of these wide receivers and a team offers you a fourth round pick, you might consider taking it. When you’re asking for a fifth round pick for one of these veteran players and a team offers you a sixth round pick, you might consider taking it at this point. The Saints need to start paying attention to what they need for their in terms of assets moving forward from this point. And it all begins with the NFL draft. The Saints have a day at this point to potentially start to accumulate some of those draft picks and draft capital. And I think that the Saints need need to actively be considering that. I don’t have a lot of hopes that they will, though. I don’t think this is a team that’s looking to sell, even though they should be. Coming up in tomorrow’s episode, we’ll dive deeper into the numbers and take a deeper look as well at Tyler Shuck’s inaugural performance as a starter. We got all that coming up for you here on the show. We appreciate you very much as always making us a part of your day part of your routine for saying yes to me and the show. If you see me, please say hi. And if you need anything else around your New Orleans Saints in between these episodes, make sure you follow me on your favorite social media, RossJackna. Hit me up. Let me know how the family’s doing, how you living. Let me know how you moming them. And trust that nation, I’ll holl at you.

The New Orleans Saints were embarrassed by the Los Angeles Rams in Tyler Shough’s debut. The game proved that the Saints aren’t nearly as close as they’ve said and a talent-deficient roster limits the team’s ceiling under its new leadership. The team is in search of solutions over finger pointing, but those solutions likely won’t be actionable during the 2025 NFL Season.

Shough’s debut was overshadowed by another disappointing loss. But his arm talent and ability on the move were among the traits that most caught eyes and shed some positive lights. Whether it’s Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, Alontae Taylor or otherwise, the Saints should be seriously considering trades ahead of the deadline. The team will have to build through the draft and with only five, maybe six, picks next year, the team needs to stockpile opportunities to improve its roster for 2026.

0:24 – Saints Are Not Close
4:57 – Saints Problems & Solutions
11:39 – Tyler Shough’s Debut Analysis
20:18 – Saints Should Consider Trades

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