STATEMENT: New Orleans Saints, Tyler Shough Have PRIME Chance To IGNITE Fanbase vs Atlanta Falcons

STATEMENT: New Orleans Saints, Tyler Shough Have PRIME Chance To IGNITE Fanbase vs Atlanta Falcons

The New Orleans Saints have a massive opportunity ahead of them this weekend and they cannot afford to mess it up. 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 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 beat writer over at louisianaapasports.net. Now on today’s episode of Locked on Saints Saints, we’ll take a look at where the Saints fall now in the 2026 draft order after the Sunday slate is finished. We’ll also take a look at the Saints just kind of catching up on them. How are they ranked? Where do they sit? We’ll kind of look at them across the league. And then of course, we’ll kick everything off today with a major opportunity for the New Orleans Saints as well as potentially for rookie quarterback Tyler Shuck as well as the Atlanta Falcons look as vulnerable as ever. We appreciate you very much as always for being here with us whether it’s your first time or your next time. Being here with us this time, making it your first listen and being every day here on the show, which is a proud part of Lockdown Podcast Network, which is now the number one sports podcast network. Thank you very much for helping us get here as we bring you your team every day. Today’s episode brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel, where you can win $300 as a new customer if you win your first $5 bet. Just head over to fanduel.com today to get started. The New Orleans Saints have a major opportunity ahead of them this weekend up against the Atlanta Falcons who are going to be hobbling it looks like their way here to New Orleans. Couple things that I want to take a look at here. There are some injury concerns for Atlanta. There’s a bit of a tail spin for Atlanta, which uh we broke down in our bonus Saturday episode. If you didn’t catch that, you can go back and catch that. Uh and we’ll take a look at the opportunity that sits here for New Orleans, which is actually where I want to start. The opportunity that sits here for New Orleans is an interesting one because there is sort of this like thing about should they win games, should they not necessarily push to win games, should they kind of let the the dominoes fall as they may, like all these other things. But I think that when it comes to the Atlanta Falcons, like everyone’s on the same page. You try to win the football game, right? Like, you do win the football game. And make no mistake about it, this is a team that still has veterans. This is a team that has a dedicated coaching staff. This is a team that wants its fans to be buying into what it’s trying to put out on the field. And the only way they’re going to do that is by winning football games. And so, you might as well go out there and do everything you can to win football games. And especially in a situation here where you have a real chance to revitalize and rejuvenate your fan base a bit. If the quarterback looks good, if you win football games, but most of all, if you beat the Atlanta Falcons, who look, not every Saints fan agrees on who should be the quarterback. Not every Saints fan agrees on how the team has gone to manage itself post Shawn Peyton and post Jere. Not every Saints fan agrees with a lot of different things, right? Like different Saints fans will feel different ways about different topics. The one thing that every Saints fan will always have the same answer to is, would you like to see the Saints beat the Falcons? The answer will always be yes. And so going into this weekend, the first matchup between these two teams of the season, the Atlanta Falcons coming here to town, coming to New Orleans, they’re coming to your house. This is a major opportunity. This is a good galvanizing opportunity for the New Orleans Saints to galvanize their fan base with a very strong and ideally for them decisive victory over the Atlanta Falcons. Even as a rebuilding team, you want to beat the Falcons. Even as a team that is staring down the potential path of a top five overall selection, you want to beat the Falcons. Even as a team that could be better off losing games right now than winning games, you want to beat the Falcons, the New Orleans Saints, beating the Falcons on uh Sunday, this upcoming Sunday would be huge for them and certainly could be big for the fan base as well. So, some of the things that Atlanta is dealing with right now coming out of their loss to the Carolina Panthers. Interesting. And a and and a a decisive or not decisive loss, but an interesting game, right? 30-27. One of the several games on Sunday that ended in a game-winning field goal divisional game. You know how those can always get weird. But now all of a sudden the Carolina Panthers who last week when the Saints beat them weren’t very good. Remember that? Oh, they’re not a good team. But the Falcons were supposed to be a really good team. That was a team that won the offseason. They were offseason champions. All these other things. Carolina’s now six and five. Arizona’s now dropped to three and seven. The Saints at 2-8. If the Saints beat them, the Saints and the Falcons would be tied at 3 and8 at the bottom of the conference. And by the way, the Saints would be ahead of them in third place in that case because the Falcons, they would have the head-to-head win over them. The Falcons are going to be coming to town potentially without Michael Penn Jr. and with Kurt Cousins in the lineup. And I know what you’re thinking. Well, Kurt Cousins is a veteran quarterback. That might actually be worse for the Saints than Michael Penn than facing Michael Penn. I I don’t know if I agree with that. I don’t think that Kurt Cousins is the strongest quarterback. He went in in relief of Michael Pinnick uh late in that game and completed 42% of his passes against that Carolina Panthers defense that we just watched Tyler Shuck have a really good game against. Um Kurt Cousins is 1 and3 in his four appearances at New Orleans in uh in the regular season. So, like there’s certain elements to this that actually kind of sell you that it’s better to face Kirk Cousins than it is to face Michael Penn. And oh, by the way, Michael Penn has been the starting quarterback for most of the year. Kirk Cousins would be kind of readjusting back to the game as an older veteran quarterback getting his first start uh in a little while. I know he I believe he played earlier this season and so like it’s not like it’s his first start of the year or first playing time of the year or anything like that, but there is something to that. Um, but they also are the Falcons dealing with an injury to Drake London as well. Now, according to Adam Sheper over at ESPN, MRI came back more positive, but he could still potentially miss some time. So, he might be good to go this weekend. He might not be good to go this weekend. The Saints have been very fortunate or lucky. I don’t know really what is the right like sensitive term to use because we are talking about people being hurt here. But there was a time in the past within the very recent past where every wide receiver managed to just get healthy just in time to play against the Saints and then ended up going off inevitably in those games. But this season, whether it be week two with the San Francisco 49ers, uh maybe it was a little bit later on in the year and other occasions, but there have been several occasions here so far for New Orleans where certain bigname players have not been available to go up against them. Now, the Saints have still found ways to lose most of those games. Uh, but this could be where things kind of change for the Saints coming out of the by-week where they’ve had a little bit of that recalibration time, some of that scout time. Uh, above all else, where the Atlanta Falcons were said to have won the offseason was over on the defensive side. Well, they just allowed u Bryce Young to throw for 448 passing yards as well as three passing touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 123.3. Now remember, he had an extra drive because of overtime, but even just before overtime, he was at 394, 396, something like that. Uh, by the way, this is the Bryce Young that the Saints defense last week held to only 124 passing yards, uh, and no touchdowns with an interception. So, um, Atlanta’s defense might be very vulnerable or much more vulnerable than maybe we anticipated, particularly on the back end and in coverage. And so if Tyler Shuff’s going to come out and have that same gunslinger mentality that he had in Carolina, that could end up being a lot of fun to watch. So the Saints have a major opportunity here, as does rookie quarterback Tyler Shuck going up against a vulnerable Atlanta Falcons team. Something that an opportunity they cannot squander upcoming this weekend. All right, coming up next, we’ll take a look at where the Saints sit in terms of all of their kind of offensive and defensive rankings. We’re just going to kind of catch up on them here after spending a bit of a week away from talking about them on the field. Let’s dive into that next as we continue on with today’s episode of Locked on Saints, part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Lockdown Saints brought to you by our friends over at Mint Mobile. Are you tired of overpaying for your wireless? Well, now it’s time for you to start saying yes to saying no because no is, and this is true, Mint Mobile’s favorite word. They say things like no contracts, no overages, no monthly bills, no hidden fees, no BS. It’s kind of the Mint Mobile way, saying no to all of those things. That’s why so many people are saying yes to Mint Mobile right now and getting premium wireless for just $15 a month. Mint makes it super easy to make the switch as well. All plans come with everything that you know and love. Highspeed data, unlimited talk and text, all on the nation’s largest 5G network. So, you ready to start saying yes to saying no? Well, head over and make the switch at mintmobile.com/lockdown NFL. That’s mintmobile.com/lockedonfl. Upfront payment of $45 is required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for the first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigs on the unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. All right, family. The New Orleans Saints just wrapped up their by-week and now they’re back to getting ready to go up against the Atlanta Falcons. We’ll take a look at some of the Saints rankings in terms of where they are around the NFL going into this game. But I want to continue our conversation from where we started the show uh to a little bit more about the big opportunity that’s ahead for the New Orleans Saints because the the opportunity isn’t just for New Orleans, but the opportunity is for the Saints kind of young core as well. We we talked about how over the course of the last seven games, there’s a few things that we wanted to watch. Obviously, the quarterback position is going to very much be in focus. The run game is going to very much be in focus. Kell Moore was play calling, game management, all those things very much uh in there. Defense, will they stop giving up, you know, so much space, all these other things. We’ll see if any of that stuff uh goes. But one of the other things we talked about was like the building blocks, right? The young players that can effectively lay the foundation for the future for New Orleans. And several of those players are going to get some real opportunities here up against Atlanta this weekend. And so the chances or the things that matter for New Orleans don’t stop to just the team as a whole on, you know, collectively and their draft status and all those other things. The other things that it comes down to is some of these players are going to be the big time kind of building blocks uh for this organization. So with that being the case, let’s take a look at a few of these. Uh we’ll start off with Tyler Shuck. Obviously big opportunity ahead of him. We just talked about how um uh Bryce Young, who had only thrown for over 200 yards once this season, one time, Uno, uh ended up throwing for that twice in this game, 448 yards up against Atlanta uh on Sunday in week 11. And so big opportunity here potentially for Tyler Shuck, who is aggressive, who likes to attack, who wants to go deep, who wants to take some of those deep shots, likes giving his receivers opportunities to go out there and make a play. this is a secondary that could provide some of those opportunities uh to uh Tyler Shuck and New Orleans. So, that that’ll definitely be a big part of what we’ll be watching. Another player that’s going to be in kind of big-time focus every single one of those snaps on offense is going to be Kelvin Banks Jr. Kelvin Banks Jr. right now is uh tied for having surrendered the third most pressures in the NFL amongst all offensive linemen. not just tackles, not you know comparing him to just interior offensive linemen if there were any weird reason for me to do that. And regardless of draft class, we’re not talking about just rookies. He’s allowed 30. There are two players with 32 and then there was another player with 37. That was going into week 11. Now, couple of things to know about that. Calvin Banks Jr. obviously had played an additional game. He had played 10 while a lot of players uh on that list had played nine. But a lot of players on that list had also played 10. And so right now that number is probably looking a bit different but going into the the bye-week that’s where he ranked. And so giving up a lot of pressure but only three sacks, two of them coming in the same game just a few weeks ago. And so for Kelvin Banks Jr. like he’s played extremely well. He’s just had a couple of kind of bad, not bad gains, but a couple of like numerically underwhelming performances when it comes to what he has surrendered pressure-wise based on the pressure numbers collected by like Pro Football Focus, right? So, take all of that for what you will, but now he’s got the opportunity to where he’s going to have to show what he’s got against guys like James Pierce Jr., show what he’s got against guys like Jaylen Walker and other pass rushers for uh for Atlanta who are going to be wanting to pin their ears back and go after Tyler Shuck. The Saints invested in quarterback and offensive line over heavily over the course of the offseason. The Atlanta Falcons invested at edge rusher and so who wins out in terms of their investment. So that will be a big part of what we’re looking at as well. And then of course going back to the Drake London potential injury even if he’s hampered a little bit that means that young guys like Koul Mckenry Alante Taylor as well as Quincy Riley I’ll throw in Yonas Sanker in there along with the veteran leadership of Justin Reed the secondary has a chance to impress this weekend either going up against Drake London and trying to limit him if they can find a way to do that or uh potentially not having to face Drake London going into this game. So, we’ll kind of see where things rest uh for all those players, but lots of building block opportunities. And those guys aren’t the only ones, right? There’s other players in the defensive line, at linebacker, at wide receiver, at tight end, and the back field, and the offensive line. Like, there’s a lot more of these players around. But I just wanted to highlight like some of the impact for some of those players. All right, let’s take a look at a couple different things about where the Saints rank across the NFL now after the Sunday slate of bi-week games. So, a couple of things that I want to highlight uh for New Orleans. The Saints, interestingly enough, uh, when it comes to their passing offense, they are 20th in the NFL in passing yards, not great, not terrible either, like they’re not in the 30s, but they’re also not in the top half of the NFL. So, they are in the bottom half of the NFL. Um, but one of the things that is most kind of surprising is they’ve only thrown 11 passing touchdowns so far this season. And it’s one of the reasons why they’re the 30th ranked scoring offenses or that they are the 30th ranked scoring offense in the NFL right now. Right now. Uh and so the reason why that’s important is the Saints need to show more prowess not only in score not only in terms of scoring but in particular in particular scoring touchdowns which has been a big time task for this New Orleans Saints team. Now, we’ll see how things change. But even at the like height of optimism for New Orleans, which were the two wins that they’ve had, one win was with just 26 points. The other win was with just 17 points last week. And so seeing the Saints come out of the gate following this by week by not just putting points on the board, but scoring touchdowns would be a very, very welcome change for New Orleans down the stretch. And again, this is a team that the Carolina Panthers just scored 30 against. Bryce Young just threw for, you know, career game against all that. There should be some opportunities there for New Orleans to do that. Now, on the defensive side, when it comes to the passing game, the Saints defense is actually top 10 and passing yards allowed. I know that doesn’t feel right because there’s so much space in that defense, and it feels like so many passes get completed and a ton of passes do indeed get completed against the New Orleans Saints defense, but I think that’s kind of how they like to play. I don’t know if I like that, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if I like it or not. You know what I mean? It just it is what it is. But they don’t allow a lot of yardage. You’re actually ranked ninth right now in the NFL in passing yards. The issue is that they’ve surrendered 18 passing touchdowns, which ranks them number 24 in the NFL. So, they’re bottom 10 in terms of the amount of passing touchdowns that they have allowed. So, that’s something that we’re going to be watching out for over the course of this next stretch of games as well. and in particular going up against a veteran quarterback like Kurt Cousins, which is what we expect will happen with Michael Penn Jr. dealing with injury. Uh on the rushing side, the Saints 28th in the NFL when it comes to rushing offense in terms of yards, 32nd, dead last when it comes to scoring in rushing because they only have three rushing touchdowns on the season. Definitely want to see that run game get better down the stretch. But then their rushing defense, 21st again, not awful, not bottom 10, but very close. uh still bottom half of the league, however, and then uh 16th in rushing touchdowns, having only allowed nine. So, they’re like right in the middle when it comes to that. So, those are kind of where the Saints hit in terms of major statistical categories. And so, we’ll see exactly where the Saints are when uh they get back, right? Are they still that team or are they looking a little bit different and cooking a little bit different here in the back half of the season? Those are numbers rankings you want to see pump up pump up a little bit as they go on. All right, coming up next. We’re going to take a look at where the Saints sit right now when it comes to the draft order uh after the Sunday slate of games. Let’s get to that next. We continue on with today’s episode of Locked on Saints, part of lockdown on podcast network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked on Saints brought to you my friends over at FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than over at FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the beginning of a game, you can still get in on the action. Whether you want to ride the hot hand by betting on who will be the next player to score, or perhaps you’re looking at that fourth quarter comeback, you can get in on all of that over at FanDuel. You can even put certain live bets together to create a live bet, same game parlay, which gives you a chance at an even bigger payout as well. It helps to keep the game more exciting, especially when it’s your team making that late push. And uh maybe more likely now for the Pelicans with uh Willie Green finally ousted it here in New Orleans. And so the uh everything going on over at FanDuel, you can get in on that and the Pelicans here throughout the rest of their season. 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 play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Let’s get it. Who that Asian? The New Orleans Saints no longer hold the number two overall selection in the NFL draft. After Sunday’s slate of games, a couple of different things happened that have now pushed the New Orleans Saints a little bit further down up down a little bit further down the draft board. Uh, so now they they moved from number two to number three and then that was after the early afternoon slate, but then after the late afternoon slate, they moved from number three to number four. So Saints right now hold the number four overall selection in this year’s NFL draft. Still within the top five, still within the top five, but not within the top three anymore like they once were. So here’s how this happened. So the the Tennessee Titans lost again. So they now fell to one and nine officially and continually the worst team in the NFL. And so they are sitting with the number one overall selection currently and in are in line to have it for a second year in a row. Then what happened was the uh Saints also ended up being leapt by the New York Giants who lost their game with Jameus Winston, former New Orleans Saints quarterback starting that game. The reason why the Giants left the Saints, because this might only be temporary, the Giants left the Saints because the Giants have not yet had their by-week. So instead of them being 2-8 like the New Orleans Saints are with two wins, they’re actually 2 and nine. So they have more losses, which means that their win loss record is lower. Like their winning percentage is lower. And so that helped them leap the Saints. And that’s when the Saints got bumped down from number two to number three. Now, if the Tennessee Titans had won their game against the Houston Texans, which every element was there for them to do exactly that, CJ Strad got hurt, Davis Mills went in at quarterback, all this other stuff. But even still, the Titans found a way to lose had that happened because the Titans actually have a stronger strength of schedule than New Orleans does. New Orleans would have still been ahead of Tennessee in that case. So, they would have stayed at number two. it just would have been a change at number one. However, then the Cleveland Browns went on and lost and that ended up actually creating some conversation that we’ll get into here in a little bit about what happened in that Browns game that was not relevant but yet still relevant to a lot of Saints fans who were discussing quarterback situations. So, we’ll talk about that here in just a sec. But because the Browns lost, they now leap into number three because the Browns, believe it or not, actually have an even easier strength of schedule than the Saints have in this season so far. So, according to our good friends over at Tankathon, uh the Saints now sit with the number four overall selection at 2 and eight, tied with the New York Jets. The division between the Saints and the Jets, though, is that the Jets have a tougher strength of schedule, so they fall a little bit later. Now, the Saints will still play the Giants later on this season. The Giants will have their by-week eventually. The Saints will still play the New York Jets later on this season. Al No, they won’t play the Giants. They already played the Giants, but the Giants will have their by-week. The Saints will play the New York Jets later on this season. Sorry about that. And then the Saints will also play Tennessee later on in the season. So, some opportunities there for the Saints either win or lose or whatever their way into whatever draft pick they end up with. But it is very interesting. And oh, by the way, if the Saints and Falcons when once they meet this upcoming weekend, if the Saints beat the Falcons, then the Saints will be three and eight while the Falcons will fall to three and nine, which means that the Falcons will get a better draft pick than the Saints if the Saints win that game. But that’s okay because you want the Saints to beat the Falcons. So, you’ll you’ll take that, I’m sure. So, that’s kind of where things sit for New Orleans. that doesn’t really put them out of position to potentially grab any kind of impact impact sort of for impact player or anything like that. Like at pick number four, you still could find your way to a Caleb DS. I don’t know whether Arll Reese or Ruben Bane make it to you in today’s understanding of the draft, which is going to change and change and change and change and change by the time that we get to April, of course. Uh, but it still puts you in position for players like Caleb DS, the safety out of Iowa, uh, Ohio State, excuse me. Um, Arizona statewide receiver, Jordan Tyson would be still somebody that’s in range. Ohio state wide receiver Carell Tate still in range. Um, Clemson edge rusher TJ Parker still in range. So, there’s still a lot of those players that would still kind of be in that area where you would absolutely be able to find impact at a number of positions there. Jeremiah Love, the running back out of Notre Dame. Like there’s a lot of different players you could end up uh leaning in on over the course of that uh early portion of the NFL draft. So the Saints in position there still. Uh I mentioned we were going to speak a little bit, but that so so that’s where the Saints pick. They still pick it pick four right now, but still in position to really help themselves in 2025 and 2026. And honestly, I’ll tell you this right now. As long as the Saints are drafting inside the top 10, they give themselves an opportunity to have a huge impact. I would just love for them to draft high enough to get Arll Reese. That’s all that I really care about. But there’s so many other players that can also end up helping them, too. Uh I mentioned that we were going to have a brief conversation cuz I don’t want to I don’t want to like fire up this Firestorm too quickly. Uh but I did want to have a brief conversation about the Shidor Sanders conversation. and somebody hit the dramatic music or whatever. Uhun uh the immediate immediate I watched I watched this happen. The uh response to how you know Sher Sanders going into the game and then he completed a pass and then I saw people like oh Saints should have drafted him and then all of a sudden like the rest of that game happened. Uh obviously that did not go well for sure. Sanders going in in relief of Dylan Gabriel. um you know going in as a backup an emergency situation throwing to guys that he doesn’t throw to very often like all those things were a part of it but it was very interesting to sort of watch the Sanders shuck uh sort of conversations go on and so if Sha Sanders continues to start will be very interesting to watch that conversation proceed across the NFL. All right, let’s get on with a little bit of LAN Yap here to wrap up the show. LY Yap, a little something extra cinjun. So, we’re taking a look at a little bit extra here as we’ve been doing over the course of the past few weeks. Gotten a lot of positive response from this. So, I wanted to keep it going. Uh for today’s Lap, I want to go back to the Alante Taylor conversation. And this is a really interesting one. And in fact, I want to have two conversations here because they’ll both be brief, but they’re both contract related. So, uh Chris Olive and Alante Taylor are guys that have been discussed in contract negotiations. We got a little bit of an update here recently from ESPN Jeremy Fowler on some things that align with some things that I’ve heard and that I’ve mentioned on the show before that I wanted to come back to uh that extension conversations with the Saints and Alante Taylor did or have or are happened happening and the recent suggestion from Fowler is that those contract negotiations didn’t exactly get anywhere and that’s what made him a trade target and that’s why the Bears ers as well as the Colt Colts both reached out. However, the Saints didn’t trade uh to Taylor. So, it makes you wonder if maybe they’re going to re-engage those conversations. Maybe they’ll revisit at the end of the year, whatever it might be. Or let him test the market, see what he can get out on the market, come back to you, say this is what I got, and then see if there’s anything that you can work out through there. But this this backs up some things that I’ve heard, which is that there is a price that is wanted, there is a price that is offered, and that there’s a gap in between. That’s kind of the most that I can say. And so that’s kind of the most that I’m comfortable saying. I don’t want to put numbers out there and stuff like that cuz like if one numbers off then all of a sudden Ross is a big fat liar liar pants on fire and I just don’t want to go through all that. So um my understanding is that like there’s there’s there’s uh there’s they’re not close, right? It’s not it’s not increasingly far away or anything like that, but like it’s it’s not there yet. And so it’ll be interesting just to see if like those conversations continue. But it sounds like whatever that halt was and whatever that gap was was enough to maybe say, you know what, well, let’s see what the market looks like in terms of trademark and things like that. But Saints ended up not doing that. So very we’ll be very interested to see if they revisit the conversation before free agency begins or if he just goes into free agency and then goes to see what kind of uh money he could get out there. Um, Fowler mentioned like $18 million being like a previous president and I think I think that’s probably the highest that you’re probably going to go as a team. But I’ll be curious to see exactly like what those numbers actually look like. Either uh well offered this but didn’t take it or what he gets if he goes somewhere else or if he stays here in New Orleans. So just just a little update on that. Chris Ave. Meanwhile, those extension conversations do continue as he continues to be open, honest, and transparent about those. He appeared on K. Adams up in Adam show. She asked him about his update. He said that it’s in the works. It’s in the works. Hot is what he said and that he wants to stay in New Orleans forever. Said he loves the people. He loves the culture. He loves the community. I know Alante feels very similar, too. And so, like, you know, it’s just cool to hear like guys that say like, “Hey, look, want to be here, period.” and everything like that. And Alante’s made similar comments too. And so we’ll see exactly how things eventually boil out. Like that’s nothing’s done until it’s done. Uh but in any case, like those are two of the big contract negotiation players that we’ll be watching going into the offseason and through the offseason. So every now and then we’ll get a little update and I’ll always make sure that I bring it here to the show for you. All right, on tomorrow’s episode, highest graded, lowest graded players and Falcons hate week. We appreciate you very much for being here. Don’t forget you can find us every single weekday on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. Thanks for making us a part of your day part of your routine for saying yes to me on 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, RossJackn O. Hit me up, know the family’s doing them, how you living, let me know how your moming them. And trust that nation, I’ll holler at you. [Music]

The New Orleans Saints face a high-stakes showdown against the Atlanta Falcons—an opportunity they simply can’t let slip away. Rookie quarterback Tyler Shough heads this crucial NFC South battle, with Atlanta’s injuries and defensive vulnerabilities presenting the Saints’ offense with prime chances to shine. Shough will need to maintain his aggressive, vertical style to expose the Falcons’ secondary while Kelvin Banks Jr. and the young offensive line look to withstand Atlanta’s edge rushers.

With both teams at the bottom of the conference, victory not only rejuvenates the Saints fanbase but also shakes up the 2026 NFL Draft order, where New Orleans currently holds the fourth overall pick.

00:27 – Saints vs Falcons Opportunity
10:04 – Young Core & Rankings
19:07 – 2026 Draft Order & Contract Updates

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FanDuel
Right now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)