The New Orleans Saints had a massive free agency. They made three big splashes in March: David Edwards, Kaden Elliss and Travis Etienne. Saints fans saw that and were excited. ESPN's Bill Barnwell saw them and sighed.
"I would have liked to see them go for players who offered more upside or have their best years ahead of them. Instead, a win-soon team made win-now decisions," Barnwell wrote. Etienne is the youngest of the bunch, but 27 isn't young for a running back.
Barnwell painted the Saints collection of veteran acquisitions as overage and overpaid. You don't want to see either and Barnwell feels the Saints are guilty of both offenses. While he doesn't have a true issue with the players as individuals, he isn't a fan of how the Saints went about securing the players.
When is the time for the Saints to go for it?
When is the right time to start building aggressively? When you've established multiple young stars years into their rookie deals? When you see the tides beginning to turn on your team? The Saints are arguably in the latter space right now.
Barnwell openly wondered if this was the correct time for the Saints to shell out money for veteran free agents. His inquiry stems from the Saints' proximity to contention. The analyst sees the signings of Edwards, Elliss and Etienne as moves for a team who is close to being a competitor, which the Saints aren't.
It's solid logic from Barnwell, but it ignores two important pieces of context. It doesn't account for the current status of the NFC South, but most importantly, it doesn't factor in how the team is viewing Tyler Shough.
The Saints focusing on building the offense this offseason, through multiple avenues, tells you how they view their quarterback. They've identified Shough as the franchise quarterback and made it their main mission to surround him with a supporting cast to make that undeniable.
Shough also has the contract to pair with the belief. Barnwell may have felt these were too large of contracts for the players, but he acknowledged why the Saints can stomach Etienne's contract more than the Jaguars could've. Shough is on a rookie contract, so they have more money to play with. The logic extends to Elliss and Edwards as well.
If everything goes right, Shough will get a much larger contract going into 2028. By that time, neither Etienne nor Elliss' contracts will have any guaranteed money. The Saints have a young quarterback on a rookie contract. That gives them the freedom to spend a bit more to build around him. The Saints acquired three consistent players, and it's much better than needing Shough to do all the heavy lifting.
On top of that, the NFC South is for the taking. It's a big jump from divisional title to Super Bowl championship. However, there is still a prominent goal with reach for the Saints. Knowing they could move to being a playoff team this year could've pushed the Saints to be more aggressive and it's hard to fault them.
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