When the New England Patriots hired coach Mike Vrabel last spring, they turned over the keys to an organization that had won just eight of its previous 34 games.
The organization had fallen on hard times since its glory years, but crucially, the right elements for an accelerated rebuild were in place: They believed they had a franchise quarterback, and they had salary cap freedom to build around him.
It turns out that combining those crucial elements with the right coach can result in a dramatic turnaround. A year after finishing their second consecutive 4-13 season, the Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX next Sunday.
That should excite fans of the New Orleans Saints if they can trust their own organization to push the right buttons this spring.
New Orleans has its quarterback in Tyler Shough. While the Saints are not nearly out of the salary cap woods yet, they are in a much better situation than they have been and are poised, as soon as next year, to finally shed the “cap hell” label that has long been attached to them. Kellen Moore will enter his second season as head coach in 2026, but there were several encouraging signs from his debut season that he understands how to push his team toward winning football.
Start with the most important part of resuscitating any franchise: the quarterback.
Shough only started nine games in his 2025 rookie season, but the small sample size was more than enough for the Saints to comfortably go into the offseason with Shough written in Sharpie as the team’s starting signal-caller.
The Saints and Patriots both spent years wandering in the quarterback wilderness after their future Hall of Famers, Drew Brees and Tom Brady, left their respective organizations. But both appear to have found their future in the last two years of the draft.
There are some differences between the Saints and Patriots quarterbacks, of course. As a 2025 second-rounder, Shough does not have the same pedigree as New England’s Drake Maye, who was the No. 3 overall pick in 2024. It would be unfair to expect the 26-year-old Shough to make the same type of Year 2 leap as the 23-year-old Maye, who is a finalist for both the NFL’s Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year awards.
But, from a pure numbers standpoint, Maye and Shough had similar rookie seasons, with Shough edging Maye out in several categories as a passer. Maye started more games (13) than Shough and had an edge in touchdown passes (15 to 10). But Shough topped Maye in completion percentage (67.6% to 66.6%), passing yards (2,384 to 2,276) and passer rating (91.3 to 88.1).
Shough’s strong rookie campaign should make the Saints feel optimistic about what is in store, especially if he continues to improve while never counting more than $3.5 million against the salary cap in any of the next three seasons.
The Saints will almost surely follow the same logical thought process this offseason as New England did last spring: Now that you know the quarterback, build the right offensive infrastructure around him to make sure he succeeds.
New Orleans does not need to do a drastic overhaul of its offensive machinery. It already has a play-caller with a history of success in Moore to go along with some nice support pieces, such as young offensive tackles Kelvin Banks and Taliese Fuaga and pass catchers Chris Olave and Juwan Johnson.
But the Patriots showed what kind of turnaround is possible by committing to the build: They brought in a respected play-caller to run the offense in Josh McDaniels. They had four picks in the top 100 and used all of them on offensive players, protecting Maye with new starters at left tackle (Will Campbell) and left guard (Jared Wilson) while adding two explosive playmakers in TreVeyon Henderson and Kyle Williams.
New England also had more than $100 million in available cap space to fill out its roster in free agency. That’s something the Saints will not have the luxury of this season, though depending on how things shake out this spring, it is possible they could go into the 2027 offseason as a potential big spender for the first time in a long time.
The Patriots used their space to stock their roster with pricey free agents, committing more than $200 million to defensive tackle Milton Williams, receiver Stefon Diggs, and corner Carlton Davis. But they also made smart mid- and low-level signings.
Center Garrett Bradbury (two years, $12 million) and tackle Morgan Moses (three years, $24 million) both started 17 games on the Patriots offensive line. Receiver Mack Hollins (two years, $8.4 million) was one of the top receiving options. Linebacker Robert Spillane (three years, $33 million) led the team in tackles (97), and pass rusher K’Lavon Chaisson (one year, $5 million) finished second on the team in sacks (7½).
Big spending in free agency doesn’t always work out. But if New Orleans can hit on several signings like New England did, it can heat up the rebuild.
The Saints have won 11 games the last two seasons, and they haven’t been to the postseason since 2020. But as they will see in the game’s grandest stage next weekend, the arrow can swing back in their favor in a hurry if they make the right moves.