Grading the 2024 New Orleans Saints: Here’s How Each Position Stacks Up | Inside Black & Gold

Grading the 2024 New Orleans Saints: Here’s How Each Position Stacks Up | Inside Black & Gold

hey y’all who that and what is up I am Jeff Noak this is inside black and gold and we sit here now less than two weeks away from the start of Saints training camp it feels like we have talked about everything and it’s because we pretty much have so that means that we are continuing our edition of rankings that don’t really mean anything we recently gave you our top Saints of the modern era we did in the last episode the Saints under the most pressure but today we’re actually going to do another edition of a ranking I started last year which is basically a ranking of each position relative to each other using a handful of of metrics that I made up and I decided on and you’re going to hear it and you’re going to tell me that you disagree with a lot of these and that’s okay but we are going to go through it so I’m going to flash up the rubric to my right and how I went through these so the biggest difference this year compared to last year is last year I took all of these I think I added upside this year relative to okay when you’re looking at starter quality versus long-term ability where is that upside are you playing young players who might be lower on the quality Spectrum but you feel like could develop down the road is the depth there are you talking about guys that you took with high draft picks and you want to use so I think that’s a good way to kind of balance the starter quality equation where a there might be a group with a higher starter quality but lower upside because the floor is high the ceiling’s low so for starters that is there this year and I also unbalanced the categories right like last year I had everything at at a 10 so it was eight out of 10 seven out of 10 five out of 10 this year as you can see I have unbalanced the equation not in the math sense in the math sense that would mean it doesn’t compute in this sense I mean I have starter quality weighted at a much higher rate I have depth higher I have defendability higher I have track record higher playoff experience Etc so you’re going to go starter quality I’m going to rate it on a scale of 1 to 30 depth on a scale of 1 to 20 depend dependability on a scale of 1 to 15 track record 1 to 15 playoff experience 1 to 10 and upside one to 10 last year I kind of found that rating the playoff experience of the same value was starter quality just didn’t produce results that made a ton of sense so while I still think it’s important I I dumped it down so that the weight of hey if you have great starters you’re going to get a better grade even though they haven’t been to the playoffs right so we’re going to dive into that now just for for Math’s sake when you’re looking at these grades if you want to find out okay how would this grade out over 100 for example starter quality one through 30 so you just scale that over 100 right so I I know I’m giving you a math lesson on a football podcast but bear with me so if you wanted to say hey okay so linebackers I rated a starter quality of 26.5 so how would you find out how that scales out across 100 if you wanted to get kind of a grade on it you would take 26.5 times 3.3 because 30 times 3.3 gets you as close as you can to to 100 now it’s not exactly 100 it would be 99.9 but you get the idea for TW for depth if it’s rated out a 20 and I give you a 15 you would multiply 15 time 20 and that would be kind of your great so if you want to look at it that way go for it but the idea here is basically just to to get an overall picture of the position and how it Stacks up against other positions on the team theoretically you could go across the league and do this with every team and every position and that would be a good way to stack up you know kind of like a Madden style who’s the best group as a whole who has the best quarterbacks who has the best running backs that sort of thing I’m not doing that because this that’s not what this podcast is but if you wanted to feel free and go ahead the funny thing is this scale system kind of came from I I got really bored during the pandemic and I ranked all the Marvel movies on a scale of like okay how good is the villain storytelling writing uh you know action scenes stuff like that and that’s how I kind of developed a one through however many Marvel movies in terms of you know scale I still haven’t put that out in the world and I don’t necessarily plan to it’s it’s for me it’s it’s mine I don’t think anyone cares what I think about Marvel movies but I was really bored at the time and I wanted to figure out what I thought was the best and so that kind of goes into to this so we’re going to go from bottom to top from with the positions with the lowest grade to the positions with the highest grade on the Saints and it’s going to end up being similar to last year there haven’t been a ton of roster changes for the Saints relative to last season there’s been a lot of changes particularly on the offensive staff but when you look up and down the roster you know you’re talking about same same t end quarterback same top end running back same top end tight end the offensive line is pretty much static other than one rookie that you’re adding to it your Corners are the same your linebackers probably will be the same you are without Michael Thomas but other than that your wide receiver Ruben is the same so it’s gonna go along similar lines with some significant change with some with some notable changes as we go I’m not grading Specialists it just doesn’t seem to make sense I I you’re not grading against anything in particular so I I left that out so we’re going to go through 10 positions and ideally we’ll do three here three in the second segment and then four in the final segment it’ll go on as long as it takes we’re going to start from the bottom and work our way up so without further Ado let’s dive into it the lowest graded position on the Saints and it and it shouldn’t necessarily surprise anyone but the grade itself is particularly low and we’re talking about tight end and one of the reasons I changed the rubric was so we could get a grade out of 100 and right now I have this position with a failing grade by a wide margin and a lot of that’s because you don’t have topend talent by any stretch to begin with and you didn’t add any talent that you would look at and be like okay yeah this is the the tight end of the future and the top end of your Deb chart is dealing with injuries so you’re already in trouble and so let’s just go down kind of the depth chart as we have it I’m not talking about practice squad guys I’m talking about guys I expect to make the roster and right now you’re talking about Joan Johnson as kind of the pass catching tight end the move tight end he’s dealing with an injury so that definitely does not help my idea that okay this this group is ready to to improve and ready to lead and and ready to be impacting an offense positively so you have Jan Johnson who’s dealing with the injury we’ll see how long that takes him to get back from you have Foster Morrow who’s a veteran he’s more of that blocking tight end he has a role I think he fills that role well but it’s a very it’s a li role in in what he does and then you have you know pick a name right probably D Hulker will be your third guy I imagine you’ll keep three maybe before tight ends if you do maybe a Jesper horstead maybe a Michael Jacobson but those names on that list are not exactly jumping off the page particularly in a league where it’s it’s it’s been shown over the last few years that Elite tight end Talent equals winning I mean not necessarily Elite draft picks and not necessarily topend draft picks but look around at the championship games last year and look at the teams in them and the tight ends they had and you’re talking about George K you’re talking about Mark Andrews you’re talking about Travis Kelce you’re talking about Sam leap pora right it is not a coincidence that the four teams that made it the farthest in the 2023 season were probably the teams with the four best tight ends so you have it and so I’m raing to start quality for the Saints at a 16 that is the lowest grade I gave to any position depth at a six like I see starter quality is low I also don’t think your depth is very good right I mean you’re you’re saying okay we have jwan who you have some kind some level of confidence in but then beyond that okay what what happens you go to a udfa to start in his rookie season that’s that’s rough and I’m talking if jwan can’t play probably not so you end up with Foster who while capable is he is the defense taking any time in their week saying okay we have to figure out how to stop this guy no so you could add tast of that mix I think that’s probably what would happen if if jwong can’t go you would find a way to incorporate tesm mmore as a tight end but one way or another it’s tough track record I put it out of four you know and this is out of 15 that’s bad but like what’s the track record here right like you felt like last year you had jwan going into a season that he would Excel just didn’t later in the year you got some impact but the track record there is tough and again when we’re talking about dependability I’m talking about kind of Health availability consistency track record I’m talking about statistically what have you done and how have you performed in big moments now none of these guys in my opinion really stack up well in that part of the equation right they just don’t um playoff experience really not much to speak of so I’m putting that at a three could be lower but I kind of felt that at this point upside I’ll put it at an eight because I do think there is upside with some of these players and and that kind of takes away from the start equality like your start equality could go up but that’s because I feel like you haven’t reached your your potential now I still think the upside is is not great but we’ll see right like I’m I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they can improve so we’ll see but that is by far the lowest grade that is a 43 um that is a fail grade we’ll see hopefully they prove me wrong moving on to the next position on the list and it shouldn’t surprise anyone but it is the offensive line in terms of of grade now starter quality I’m putting at a 20 and you know it’s it’s kind of unfair and it is booed by Eric McCoy it’s tough to look at an entire position and give it a starter quality grade when okay Eric McCoy is a top end Center Caesar Ruiz is a solid guard and then you have t fonga who hasn’t really got a chance to prove himself in terms of what type of quality will be Nick salivary same situation Trevor pen we’ll see how he looks at right tackle but I’m giving that a 20 out of 30 right so if you were expanding that out you were look in the C range we’ll see right like I I’m not sure depth I’m putting it an eight because I don’t know if you have a lot of players behind the guys either so that’s the bigger concern to me when you’re talking about the offensive line is okay so we have players at the front end spots that we feel like have a chance to be successful in the NFL but what if they’re not what if they fall off what if Trevor Penning can’t hack it at right tackle what if tal forer can’t hack it at left tackle what if next salivary can’t hack it at guard where are you then what if one of those three what if two of those three can’t get it done where are you then and that’s why so a depth I’m putting kind of right there I’m putting it at an eight not not super low but definitely not where you want to be because that again is out of 20 dependability track record these are both out of 15 I’m putting it at a 10 for both and these are rankings that are booed significantly by Eric McCoy Caesar Ruiz if not for those two players particularly Eric these this would be this grade would be much lower playoff experience I’m putting it a four out of 10 again because you know Eric McCoy is there and Eric has a lot of playoff experience or at least a good amount relative to the rest of the group Caesar has been in the playoffs too in that 2020 season he played in two playoff games so there is some experience and the veteran guys are going to have to lead the young guys but you at least when I look at playoff experiences valid that’s what it is it’s okay you’ve had guys who have been there before and they can lead others in that way when you have no playoff experience in a position group that concerns me because I think there is very much value and we’ve been there before we understand how to win when we get there and you can say that about Caesar and Eric in the sense that they have one playoff games the other guys they’re just trying to get through a season then upside I’m putting it a seven out of 10 I’m putting it pretty high because I do think there is some decent potential with this group but overall you’re graded out at a 59 not particularly um exciting in that group last one for this segment and we’re just coming up the list and it’ll get more and more positive as we go quarterback is my third lowest graded position and it a lot of that is due to the starter quality grade now you know there’s a lot of Derek Carr stands that like to comment on these videos and they’ll get annoyed that hey okay I’m not I’m not putting his grade higher I think when you talk about the quality of a quarterback group you have to kind of go in tears at least in terms of the the qb1 and so I look at it and say where is Derek Carr in the NFL as it pertains to quarterbacks and where they rank you gotta put him somewhere in the middle right like I don’t think you you look at some of these rankings they have him super low I think he’s in the range of a baker Mayfield of a Kirk Cousins of of of a lot of these guys who have been around for a while and haven’t necessarily won and that’s the case with Derek as well now winning is relative he hasn’t won a playoff game the best chance he had was the he broke his leg that’s tough but I think there is there is value in doing it and until I see him do it I’m not going to believe it now I put it at a 20 which isn’t super low but it’s also on the lower end of what you would expect to be a starting quarterback in the NFL and I I look around okay where would you where would you grade A guy like Jared Goff right because I think Derek Carr and Jared Goff in terms of capability in terms of cealing are similar now the biggest difference over the last several years for Jared gof is he was placed into a situation where he has been able to maximize his ability to his ceiling right like I think he is playing about as close to his ceiling as he can be and and it’s the situation he’s in that’s allowing him to do that if you’re hopeful for Derek Carr it’s under the idea that okay with this new offense Derek can get closer to his ceiling than he was last year which in an offense that just did not make sense that was not constructed in a in a sensible way and we’ll see how that goes either way I’m putting it at a 20 putting depth at an eight out of 15 I kind of flipped back and forth between this but in my opinion depth at the quarterback position is a lot different from potential at the quarterback position right like depth would be okay Derek Carr goes down and the guy you send in you feel is fully capable of going to win that game in this case for the Saints whether it’s Spencer Rattler or Jake haer I expect both to be on the roster you look at it and you say okay if Derek Carr goes down we don’t know what we’re getting out of either of those young guys you would go in and you would expect them to go in and play well but who’s to say they don’t struggle right like who’s to say they don’t throw three interceptions and completely blow any chances you had in a game that maybe you otherwise would win right like that was the thing with jamus is you knew what to expect from jamus I don’t know what to expect from Jake or Spencer and so that’s why it’s an eight dependability I put it at 10 out of 15 track record I put it at 10 out of 15 and again you know like there’s some there’s some question as to how what is the topend project with Derek Carr but one of the perks of a Derek Carr is okay we know what his floor is right you’re not going to look at him and say okay this guy’s gonna go out there and throw five interceptions he’s going to be completely overwhelmed it’s not going to work you’re you’re looking at a guy say okay how much can he do and how can you get there like that’s the difference between saying okay we have a we have a Young quarterback who we feel like has a super high ceiling but we have no idea what the floor is and a veteran quarterback a baker Mayfield a Kirk Cousins where where you expect them to run the offense at a certain level of productivity how much productivity that’s a question but you know you’re looking at Derek car and even in a season where a lot of people would look and say it was not a great season he threw 25 touchdowns against eight interceptions right eight interceptions over 17 starts is a really solid number so that’s why I look at like dependability and track record now I’m not looking at it any higher than that because in order to have a successful track record you have to go to the playoff and win games and you just haven’t done that playoff experience I’m putting at a three again you know I it could probably be lower dereck’s played in one playoff game he lost it so we’ll see how that goes and upside I’m putting it a seven that kind of goes you know the upside kind of takes away from the the depth score right because if the depth score was higher then your upside would probably be lower because to me a depth scor at quarterback is a guy who you necessarily trust like a Chase Daniel right like a like career backup who’s done it before like when you had Andy Dalton in that role like your depth at quarterback was really high your upside was a lot lower so that’s where you’re going to see it’s a seven the grade is a 63 it’s around where I had it last year like I don’t think a ton has changed at the quarterback position for the Saints other than the fact that I think in this new offense we could be in a situation where we go into next season feeling a lot differently about the quarterback position whereas after last year’s offense and what happened with Pete Carm Michael with all this I I don’t I don’t know what to expect like I’m not going to project that things are going to get better but we’ll find out either way that’s going to wrap up that segment of inside black and gold we are ranking the positions by grade in terms of this rubric that that I have established and that we are going through again we started at tight end he got an overall grade of 43 offensive line got an overall grade of 59 quarterback got an overall grade of 63 now I’m not I’m not going by letter grades because that’s just not how not how it works in the NFL I’m going by a two-digit number so that you can kind of scale these so don’t go like I don’t want to look at it and say okay well quarterback’s an F it’s not really you know it’s relative to the rest of the league and it’s relative to the position uh but 63 not a great score and we’re going to go through some some much better scores as we get to the rest of this list but again I’m Jeff Noak this is inside black and gold you follow me on Twitter Jeff _ Noak you can hit up the show at Saints corod and without further Ado here’s some ads and we’re back on inside black and gold I’m Jeff Noak you can follow me on Twitter _ Noak we are getting ready for the start of training camp so I’m going through a handful of these episodes these segments just trying to give you an idea of you know a preview of what to expect of how I’m looking at the team as a whole we went through pressure players under the most pressure who has the highest Stakes that they’re facing this week we’re kind of ranking each position against the rest of the team this is not against the rest of the NFL although the idea is you could scale this out and kind of Stack one team against another and see how they go now these are not Madden type characteristics I’m not breaking down speed and you know hands and and and whatnot at positions I’m going kind of by more generic metrics and and and we’ll go from there we went through three in the first segment right we went through tight end which I ranked the lowest at 43 we ran through offensive line which I ranked second at 59 we rent through quarterback which I ranked 63 and so the next position on the list and this was a tough one I feel like it could be a little higher but I just have a lot of questions relative to how the position Stacks up behind the top two players and so we’re talking about wide receiver I graded it at a 72 overall which isn’t it’s kind of in the middle right I put the starter quality pretty high at 25 again it’s not necessarily the starters that I’m worried about it’s everyone behind them that I just don’t know what to expect from I got depth at a 10 out of 20 because again like you’re looking at you’re saying where where is the depth do you have guys if Chris alve goes down that can step into that wide receiver one roll because I don’t I don’t think you do right so we’ll go from there you know you’re trying to replace Mike Thomas now not necessarily doing Mike Thomas things but you’re trying to replace his impact and you’ve been trying to do that for several years can Chris alve step into that role we’ll see dependability I have at a 10 out of 15 track record I have at a 12 because I do think these particularly Chris rashed Shahed when on the field have been very productive have done what you wanted them to do and so we’ll find out but I have that pretty high it’s 12 out of 15 playoff experience I have at of four and that’s because the only playoff experience you have is not Chris La Rashid CH neither of those two players have ever been to the playoffs the playoff experience you have is with a guy like Cedric Wilson who made the playoffs with the Dolphins last year right like the Cowboys made the playoffs now it wasn’t good playoff experience both of those teams lost in the first round but either way you at least have a veteran in the room and and you’re going to go from there then you have at Perry equinus St brown guys like that but not exactly a ton of excitement now upside I have ranked at a 10 I think this is this is a position with the highest upside possible and that helps buoy the score a little bit I think the upside of a Chris Rashid Shahed you know Chris alve we talked about I need him to take that third year kind of star leap right like you had back-to-back thousand yard seasons you’re talking in the 70 to 80 catch range I really want to see 110 catches 1400 yards eight touchdowns like that type of season that’s basically what you know Michael Thomas I think year three three you’re talking about 125 catches 1,400 yards nine touchdowns I think Chris can be in that range I think his catch total will be lower but his yards per catch should be higher right and we’ll see if if teams really roll a lot of the coverage to to to Chris alve then maybe Rashid Shahed has has a bit more of a breakout Chris’s numbers are a little lower but he creates for other guys so so we’ll see but either way the wide receiver position is one I have a little concern with just because I don’t know what it’s going to look like and if the system that you bring in is going to work for the guys in I hope that I hope it will I feel like it can but we’ll find out and there’s just a lot of question marks and that’s when you look at this Saints team and you try to project okay how can they overachieve the tough part of doing that is there’s so many question marks right like you look at a team like the 49ers you don’t have question marks with a lot of the players on the roster you know what to expect you’ve seen it it’s about fixing things that were broken and finding ways to improve on the things that were working already but you have that and with the Saints maybe on defense and as you’ve noticed we haven’t gone through any defensive positions yet on offense you don’t have that you have a bunch of things that’s like hey this sounds good in theory but we have not seen it in practice and we have not and I mean in practice in terms of them actually doing it and so we can talk in theory all we want but until you get on the field I’m not going to believe it going forward talking about we haven’t seen a defensive position yet we got one here it’s safety total of 72 and a lot of that is based on the depth right I have the starter quality at 22 which is it’s on the lower end um it’s probably a little unfair to a guy like Tyron Matthew but I kind of you know I put Tyron really it’s one of those situations where Tyron helps that grade be very high beyond that there are significant question marks and is it a guy like Jordan Howen is it Jonathan Abram who were you looking at I will will Harris right like you don’t have a ton of proven guys Beyond Tyron Matthews so that brings a stter equality down depth they have it at 10 out of 20 not a lot of depth at a lot of positions right that’s going to be a trend that you that you see is one of the main concerns with most positions on the Saints is depth because what happens when you get past the first two guys if you have a slew of injuries one week and you have to rely on the backups where are those backups coming from where do you see them impacting the game and I just don’t know like if you lose Tyron Matthew for any period of time which the Saints have been fortunate to not lose him for a single game over the last two years he has started 34 games in 34 opportunities like that’s where he has been he has been that productive and consistent at age what 34 um so hopefully that can continues if it doesn’t then I think you could be in trouble so that’s why depth I have low dependability I have it a 14 out of 15 like I do think the guys you have have been dependable have been healthy have been consistent when you’ve had them out there so uh that’s a good one for that group track record I have at a 12 playoff experience I have at an eight out of 10 now this is just an example of hey Tyron Matthew been in a ton of playoff games the guys behind him not so much but Tyron buoy is that group and when you have one guy who has one Super Bowl in a position group that helps upside is a little lower right like I don’t think you have a ton of high upside guys at the safety position but you do have a decent number of of reasonably High floor guys and that helps and so you’re in the middle like this is a middle group 72 um and you know I I do think that tyron’s performance is a big swing here like if you can continue to get the level of performance from Tyron Matthew that you’ve had over the last two years great but you were getting up there in age eventually you expect to see him drop off a little bit can this defense still play at a high level if that happens I don’t know so we’ll have to see but there really haven’t been any signs at least since he’s been with the Saints of a major regression right like sure you could say go back to 2018 and you can say that was Tyron then this is Tyron now but from 2022 to now since he’s been with the Saints I think you’ve seen a very consistent player so we’ll see next position and we will do two more before hitting the break here it’s defensive end and I have it rated at a 74 for the Saints so it’s right there in the middle starter quality I have it a 23 depth I have it a 19 now that’s a high score that’s 19 out of 20 on the depth grade and I think that’s when you look at this defensive end group it’s hard to look at it and say there isn’t depth right like there’s plenty of depth there’s just not a ton of proven players in that group now you have Jordan you have Carl Granderson beyond that it is a giant question mark but I do feel really good about the players in that group in terms of what they can do on the field right like if pton Turner can stay healthy I think he can get the job done right if Chase young could stay healthy I think you have a really solid potential impact player there Isaiah fosy you’re hoping he can develop into Year too but again these are your projected backups if you’re looking at Cam Jordan and Carl Granderson as the starting defensive ads so that’s an excellent depth I don’t know if you can look at a Saints defensive end group over the last five years six years and say there was a deeper group in terms of the potential vers is like okay this is what we’ve seen in the past the the the break breakout Trey Hendrickson here yeah that was a really deep group but like beond him you’re still talking about a Carl Granderson like this is a group that if you can get two out of three of Payton Turner Chase young Isaiah fosy to have solid impact Seasons behind Cam Jordan Carl Granderson and maybe take some of the pass rushing onus off of Cam Jordan I think they could impact games now Health has been a major issue and and that’s where track record comes in and you’re talking about an an eight on dependability an eight on track record so that’s that’s why your score is a lot is isn’t isn’t in the 80 range but I still think when you look at this group this should be you know I said this last year and the health didn’t allow it to happen but this group has a potential to impact games you have to be better they were 28th in sacks they had 35 I want to say 28th in total pressures they had 118 you know they gota you got to be better than that I think they can be now can you solve the issue of running quarterbacks that’s not a depth question but I do think you got a little bit more athletic in terms of Chase young in terms of Isaiah fosy ideally being on the field and we’ll see how that goes now I also would like to see one of those players maybe cam start shifting inside in the NASCAR package without Tano passo we’ll see how that goes but either way playoff experience I have it an eight upside I have it an eight again overall 74 right in the middle you know and I think that’s where a lot of these positions are with the Saints okay the final position we will talk about in this segment running back I have it rated at a 78 now I’d love to say it’s higher I really would and you look at the names on paper and you feel like man this should be a strength this this group you’re talking about Alvin chra Jamal Williams Kendra Miller you know so you have the proven star caliber running back and Alvin CRA who should still have a a season or two left with before you kind of feel like that the cliff you know because you do see that kind of 30-year old Cliff for running backs I don’t think Alvin has hit that yet although the stats would indicate that he may have I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say Pete Carmichaels offense and the schemes that you were dealing with the last two years and kind of the understanding of how to get him unlocked words not there and so we’ll see this year if potentially the clbc offense can work for him so I’m still giving the starter quality of 26 I’m giving the depth in 18 because when you look at the Players you should feel good about the depth when’s the last time the saints went three deep at the running back position with guys you felt like could play was it 2017 was it the year that you tra you added Adrien Peterson and then decided after a couple weeks yeah we don’t need this guy because we have Mark Ingram and Alvin chra right like that’s how I feel about it and I would love for kendre Miller to make Jamal Williams Expendable and and that’s not because anything against Jamal it’s just when you draft a young player you’d hope that by year two or three he’s the guy just like Alvin made Adrien Peterson Expendable right if that’s happening for the saints that is a major win so we’ll go from there you also have dependability at a 10 you know that’s a lot lower than it would have been a couple years ago but health issues consistency just haven’t been there track record I’m putting at a 10 and you know Alvin kind of buoys this but over the last couple years you just haven’t seen that same impact for Alvin you definitely didn’t see it with Jamal and you really didn’t see much of kendre at all last year so I’m putting that at a 10 playoff experience I’m putting it at eight because Alvin has played in several High leverage playoff games um you know Jamal did with the Packers so there’s a lot of playoff experience there there’s built-in understanding of what it takes to get to that point and then upside I am putting at A6 now I’d like to say that’s higher but to have significant upside you’d have to say your best years are ahead of you and I don’t think that’s true for Alvin or Jamal I think you’re hoping to get back to a level that that is impactful but only Kendra I would say is has that kind of elite upside that that you could go forward and and have a good feeling about so we’ll find out either way that all grades out at a 78 it’s the highest grade we’ve had thus far and it kind of tells you where this team is at right like there’s a lot of positions that you look at and you say it’s not terrible but it’s not great right like you have a lot of positions in the middle of the pack that you you’re not GNA feel like oh this is a strength of this team now it’s not g to send you off a ledge you’re not going to lose because of this group but are you going to win because of that group I don’t know and I think when you if you you’re looking around you’re like why aren’t more analysts giving the Saints more credit in terms of what they could potentially do this season how they could get back to the playoffs how they could be that surprise team that wins 12 13 games it’s because of that it’s because you look up and down the roster and you just don’t necessarily see the topend talent that a lot of these topend teams have and part of that’s due to to the draft strategy you haven’t made enough draft picks you’ve missed on too many draft picks even when you’ve made them and that that hurts you a lot um you know a lot of it is due to hey well people don’t trust the coach people don’t trust the offense um and when you’re kind of mired in this mediocre slump it has to go one way or the other and I think a lot of people look at it and saying yeah I think it’s way more likely that it goes down than goes up so we’ll find out I think that they there is a good potential for an above board season of like this team could have probably should have won 10-11 games last year they have a they have a 10-11 win season in them I don’t know how many because you know as we’ve kind of talked about you have a veteran group you have an older group um but we’ll see either way I think that’s where it is that’s where the concern is is okay you you have decent starter caliber players at a majority of your positions but you don’t have players behind them that you feel like will develop into pro bowlers down the road into solid starters down on the road you have a lot of backups and you’ll have a lot of career backups um and that’s what we’ll find out but the good news is that’s the end of that segment and that is the last position before we get into the top four positions which are all graded higher that’s how the math Works um and and one of them I think is among the best in the NFL and and we’ll talk about that and you could probably guess which one it is but that’s going to be the fun segment we’re going to get into the final segment we’re going to talk about the top four graded groups on this Saints team we’ll be doing right when we come back again this is inside black and gold if you haven’t subscribed yet please do that I’m Jeff Noak Steve Geller’s getting the day off he had some stuff he had to deal with and I was like hey I did all these grades I can just go through them and hope you’re enjoying it all right one more segment to go keep it locked on inside black and gold we will be right back and we’re back on inside black and gold we are finishing out our Saints position grades these grades are by me we went through the rubric before but I’ll flash it up again again you’re talking about start quality with a grade from one to 30 depth of a grade from 1 to 20 dependability you’re talking Health availability and consistency graded one through 15 track record talking about statistics in kind of performance in big moments graded 1 through 15 playoff experience and upside each graded one through 10 now we’ve gone through seven of those positions and now it’s time to go through the top three graded positions by me on the Saints all three are on the defense now we’re going to start with a position that’s a small group but I feel like it’s a really strong group and that’s defensive tackle I think you’re getting slept on a little bit in Colin Saunders Nathan Shepard Brian breaze and then probably one other player kind of works their way into that group could be Christian boy the rookie could be Kendall Vickers could be somebody else but we’ll we’ll find out there either way I have starter quality graded at a 24 that’s pretty high in terms of you know I don’t think a lot of people around the league look at the Saints and say that defensive interior is a strength but I do think the defensive line as a whole can be a strength and a lot of it’s just in terms of okay you have the players coming back and you have the players staying on the field you look at that Bucks game in week 17 of last year the biggest impact that changed the result from week four is you got a ton of pressure on Baker Mayfield up the middle did not allow him to Escape right B I thought had a particularly good game and Brian B is one of the reasons that I feel really good about this group I think he’s going to continue to get better and I think Colin Saunders and Nathan Shepard are quality NFL starters you’re not talking about pro bowlers but you’re talking about two players who can get the job done and then you have a guy who you expect to develop into a star you don’t draft a defensive tackle in the first round unless you feel like he profiles as a potential star developing player right and so that’s why so I have Star Quality at 24 I have depth at 17 that’s pretty high it’s 17 out of 20 dependability I have at 13 out of 15 now that’s that might be a little high I might be overvaluing these players but I just think that that’s a group that can get the job done and and did enough of the time last year that I can look at it and say this track record I have it a 10 not exactly a huge number but but I’m okay with it 10 out of 15 playoff experience I have it a seven now again you’re looking at Colin Saunders as that guy but it’s a small group and one of your one of your players in that group has a Super Bowl I’m okay with it then upside I have it an eight I feel good about it again I think the defensive line on this team should be a strength it should be now the question is are you athletic enough on the edges and I think that you have done some things to get more athletic mostly adding Chase young and Brian breaze is kind of isn’t a lead athlete at the defensive tackle position so I just think you know if you execute the way you can this is a defensive line group that can dominate games and we’ll see how that goes you still can’t hit the quarterback and that’s obviously an issue for any defensive line but we’ll go from there the second highest graded group on the Saints is another small group it’s another small group but it is linebacker and it’s a group that’s consist of should be a Hall of Famer de Mario Davis a guy I’d love to see more from him Pete Warner newly signed Willie gay who I think gives you a whole lot of upside and variability on how you send out your your linebacker group The Saint spent more than 80% of their snaps last year in base Personnel right and so that’s two linebackers and a nickel I think they were 11 or 133% in base personnel and I think that number is going to be higher now when opposing teams are coming at you with 75% of their reps having three wide receivers on the field you’re limited in what you can do in terms of getting those bigger bodies on the field but when they mix it up you can mix it up and I think the same will feel a lot more comfortable getting three linebackers on the field when that third linebacker is Willie gay because if he has to drop in coverage you feel like he can do it right like it’s not something you wanna you want to spam you don’t want to have Willie out there in coverage constantly but if you look at how the chief used him and how the Saints used Zack Bon there are major differences Willie gay spent 46% of his snaps in coverage last year Zack Bon had 18% of his snaps in coverage last year so I just think the way you use them will be different either way you could put any of those guys on the field and feel good about it right you’re talking about sub packages and you’re going to put Willie gay out there I like it depth I’m putting it a 17 because even behind willly gay I think you have khik Hudson right you have DeMarco Jackson you have some really solid players who can make an impact and so if Pete Warner goes down right like it’s the it’s the it’s one of the few positions on the Saints where if you lost both of your starters you feel like you could go out there with two backups and have success now I don’t want to play a game without Dem Mario Davis and to this point in his Saints career you really haven’t had to um he missed one game I believe it was the Dolphins game the covid game in the 2021 season that everybody missed but if you do have to be without the Mario Davis you feel like okay we can manage that we can we can survive that whereas I don’t know if you can at several other positions if you lost both starters at you know if you lost both your left tackle and right tackle what are you doing you’re you’re in sham but that’s probably true of everybody so maybe it’s unfair dependability I have at a 12.5 track record I have at a 12 did I say starter quality I have to starter quality at 26.5 it’s one of the few positions I put a five on uh track record dependability I mean demaro Davis is gonna rescue any position if he’s in it right because no one has been more dependable no one has a better track record probably in the entire NFL then de Mario Davis does Pete Werner has not necessarily been that right like seing flashes of Brilliance from Pete Warner in the first month of the 2023 season you’d have been like man this guy is a this is an all proo linebacker he had 40 tackles he had 32 solo tackles in the first four games of the 2022 season he played in 16 games in 2023 and he had 93 tackles what happened you know and he dealt with the ankle injury in 2022 he dealt with some some some just nagging stuff in 2023 I am hopeful that you can see him get back there but like that that potential uh really helps me playoff experience I’m putting it at a 10 I don’t know if you could have a better array of playoff experience than you have with Willie gay and de Mario Davis you know Pete Warner is not a guy you’ve seen in the playoffs but uh between Demario Davis who has been to the NFC Championship Game and has made multiple playoff runs with the Saints and then Willie gay who in the last three seasons has been at the AFC Championship game then won a Super Bowl and then won another Super Bowl how do you I’m sorry for the podcast audience as I make faces at the screen I don’t know how you get better than that if there if there’s a 10 for anybody who doesn’t play on the Chiefs now who played there the last three years has got to be a former Chief who has going somewhere else right so I’m putting it out a 10 and the upside I’m capping a little bit I’m capping it at a six and that’s mainly because you know you’re talking about Demario Davis a guy I’m hopeful can maintain I don’t expect him to go up so that that kind of brings it down Pete Werner I’d like to see get back but I don’t know if the upside like you’re you’re talking about upside and I’m just trying to find out if he can get back to that Willie gay yeah we’ll see uh but either way that’s a that’s an 84 grade it’s the second highest grade on this team and you know if you’re looking for a reason to feel positive about this team it’s got to be the defense because you look at a lot of positions and you’re like man that’s a really good group of guys one more position and uh you’ve probably guessed which it is it’s cornerback it is the group of marshan Latimore Paul cadio elante Taylor who I’d also slot into the slot and then Kool-Aid McKenry we’ve talked a lot about this I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a Saints defensive back room better than this one from top to bottom and I said that last year and you had Ike Adam in that group and Bradley Roby in that group right you’ve replace Bradley Roby and Nike Adam with a second round draft pick who many would will end up looking at and saying he should be starting right now in Kool-Aid mckinstry I put the starter quality at 28 pretty close to the top right it was a 30 I put the depth at 20 I maxed out the depth grade for this group and and and again it’s like you’re looking you’re not saying okay well there’s no starting cornerback in the NFL better than marshan Latimore Like that’s not what I’m saying I think he’s pretty close to that top end but when he’s healthy obviously but I’m not saying that I’m saying go find me the defensive back room that is better top to bottom than the Saints right now I I don’t know if it exists right like obviously you can put marshan wherever you want to put marshan he’s in the top 10 of cornerbacks there’s no question in my mind so go find that top 10 and show me the team that also has the fourth quarterback who has a higher Flor than Kool-Aid mckinstry a guy we haven’t even seen right go find me a team that has a top 10 quarterback and also has a third quarterback with the floor is high as elante Taylor with a ceiling as high as elante I don’t think it exists right go find me the team with a better number two than paulon adbo that’s that’s tough to do and so that’s why I’d Max them out at 20 again I don’t know if there’s a team that’s deeper and that’s part of reason you’re looking at it and saying well why aren’t they trading one of these guys why aren’t they trading Maran lore when they have that deep of a room it’s a good question I don’t think the Market’s there I don’t think teams are willing to trade for quarterbacks right now which is weird but I think that’s where you are at and so hey we’re not going to take nothing for a star player in the NFL we’re gonna ride it out and see what we can do because you get people get hurt every year right like why would you assume that Martian’s not gonna get hurt I hope he doesn’t but recent history is not on his side either way dependability I have it a 10 and and that’s just a good example like hey we haven’t seen that dependable dependability from Marshon over the last two seasons we’ve seen it from Paulson but if your star player hasn’t been dependable enough then the group as a whole is not going to be Dependable enough and so we’ll see how that goes track record I have it a 14 out of 15 because I do think these guys when they’ve been on the field have been very good so where their playoff experience I’m putting at an eight you know that’s that’s a tough one that might be a little higher than it should be but obviously Marian has been in in those groups he was there from 2017 through 2020 when they went to the playoffs all those times uh you know that’s helpful right and and you’ll go from there upside I have it a 10 so I’ve maxed out two grades in this position group alone again you’re talking about okay your number four corner is a guy you probably could be starting uh and you’re G to have to find ways to get him on the field in Koolaid mckinstry your number three corner is a guy you’ve thrown into the slot because you just want to get on on the field that badly it’s not even the position that I think he’ll Thrive at down the road but that’s where you are so upside I don’t know if you have a a position with greater upside than than cornerback the overall grade is a 90 you know and I just think like that’s a good example that’s I I I feel like they should be higher than that but it’s just tough when you’re looking at a grade and you’re saying okay are they perfect no are they really good yes you know can I put them out of 30 for starter quality no but I want to put them very high so every time you take away a point in something it’s going to break it down so 90 in this type of grade that’s Elite like I don’t think you’d find maybe one two quarterback rooms in the NFL with a higher than 90 grade if you were honest about it and did it this way but that’s where we will end it again let’s go from bottom to top talking about 10 positions this is how it broke down tight end 43 lowest grade offensive line 59 quarterback 63 wide receiver 72 safe sa 72 defensive end 74 running back 78 defensive tackle 79 linebacker 84 cornerback 90 let me know what you think if you agree with any of that you disagree with any of that we’re getting close we’re g to find out we’ll see when the saints get on the field whether these are completely off whatever but that’s going to be the end of this episode let me know what you think in the comments hit me up on Twitter _ Noak I’ve gotten a few comments from people out in California hey if you want to hang out when I’m out there hit me up you know where to find me I’m right here uh because I’m getting ready to go I will be hitting the road on the 22nd so from the time I’m recording this 11 days away I am psyched to me the start of training camp is the start of the season so as far as I’m concerned the 2024 season starts in 11 days uh so I am pumped it’s going to be a blast looking forward to it you know I feel like you know a lot of times it’s like okay when the fans are out there they they get an idea with this year it’s all going to be reporting so I think I’m G to have to kind of revisit how I report a lot of that stuff out because it’s going to be some of the only ways that people can follow along so if y’all have ideas requests for coverage from this year’s Camp definitely let me know I’m going to try to take as much video as possible obviously we explained this in the past we’re not allowed to record everything we’re not allowed to record team drills but I’ll try try to get as much footage and put that out here put that out on social media as much as possible I’m looking forward to it but all right who at go Saints we’ll be back at you next week with position battles and I’d like to close out next week before we head out to California with a Live Mail bag hear from anyone and everyone what they want to say let’s do it thanks for listening y’all peace

Does the 2024 New Orleans Saints roster make the grade? On the latest episode of the Audacy original podcast Inside Black & Gold, Saints sideline reporter Jeff Nowak goes position-by-position to see how each stacks up based on a host of custom metrics. Where does QB land? Is the Saints CB room the class of the NFL? Let’s dive in.

0:00 – Segment 1: The Bottom 3: Saints QBs, TEs and OL have a lot to prove
… Grading an entire roster can be difficult, but for the second straight season we’ve done our best on Inside Black & Gold with a custom rubric that weighs starter quality, depth, dependability and a handful of other metrics. We’ll start with the bottom three positions, all three of which land on the offense and could make or break the season.

19:09 – Segment 2: The Middle 4: Can Saints RBs and WRs Exceed Expectations?
… The most exciting names on the New Orleans Saints roster land in this category, with stars like Alvin Kamara and Chris Olave having a lot to prove in the 2024 season. Can they exceed expectations, and how about the rest of the depth chart? A couple of defensive positions creep in here as well, including defensive end, with a group that has impressive depth if they can avoid the typical injury pitfalls.

35:12 – Segment 3: The Top 3: Saints CB Room Might Be the Class of the NFL
… We’ve reached the top three positions across the New Orleans Saints roster, and it’s no surprise that possibly the deepest cornerback room in the NFL. But what other positions rank closest to the top? Let’s dive in.

The grade rubric:
– Starter quality: 1-30
– Depth: 1-20
– Dependability: 1-15 (health/availability … consistency)
– Track record: 1-15 (statistically & in big moments)
– Playoff experience: 1-10
– Upside: 1-10

Spoilers!
– 43: Tight end
– 59: Offensive line
– 63: Quarterback
– 72: Wide receiver
– 72: Safety
– 74: Defensive end
– 78: Running back
– 79: Defensive tackle
– 84: Linebacker
– 90: Cornerback

Full roster projection: https://www.audacy.com/wwl/local-sports/saints/see-whats-changed-in-saints-post-minicamp-roster-projection

Follow Inside Black & Gold on the Audacy App or wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/InsideBlackGoldPodcast … and remember to rate and subscribe!

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