It’s been a couple of years since the New Orleans Saints last shared the field with the Arizona Cardinals — at least in the regular season, where wins and losses count. These teams haven’t met since 2022, and a lot has changed in the time since. Dennis Allen was coaching the Saints in that game, and Andy Dalton was his quarterback. His opponent was Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury, with Vance Joseph calling plays defensively.
Neither Allen nor Kingsbury lasted much longer with their respective teams. Arizona moved on to hire Jonathan Gannon away from the Philadelphia Eagles in the spring of 2023, with Joseph eventually linking up with Sean Payton on the Denver Broncos. Allen made it until midway through the 2024 season before Saints owner Gayle Benson made a move; months later, he would be replaced by Kellen Moore, also formerly of the Eagles.
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And that doesn’t even get into all of the player turnover. Dalton isn’t in New Orleans anymore. Neither are 32 of the other Saints players who got on the field in that 2022 matchup. Just 14 of the 46 players to log at least one snap are still with the team, and even fewer than that are available for Sunday’s rematch. Here’s the full list, including injuries:
Every team experiences roster turnover from year to year (for their part, the Cardinals have held on to just seven players from that 2022 team. Ironically, the Saints punter at the time, Blake Gillikin, now kicks for Arizona). That’s a big point of the annual NFL draft. And while some teams have done a better job reloaded through the draft than the Saints, this is a different team than the one which lost to the Cardinals 42-34 (helped by a couple of Dalton pick-sixes). It’s vital that Moore and his team make that abundantly clear when they kick off on Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Just 21 players remain with same teams from 2022 Saints-Cardinals game