Saints can learn this lesson from NFC Championship Game

There are lessons in everything and the NFC Championship had one for the New Orleans Saints. The Saints didn't play, but they can still take something from it.

The New Orleans Saints, like 27 other NFL teams, were at home watching the NFC and AFC Championship games. While the AFC title game was sort of ho-hum with the Kansas City Chiefs advancing to another Super Bowl, the NFC side was a game that the Saints can take a lot from, even though they weren't blessed with the opportunity to play in the actual game.

Since the turn of the millennium, the AFC has been dominated by supreme quarterbacks while over in the NFC it has basically been whichever roster gets hot at the right time will make a run. Seriously look at the list of NFC quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl since about 1998. It is objectively hilarious.

The point is, the Saints have followed this trend pretty much their entire existence. They drafted a quarterback in the first round once and that was Archie Manning in 1971. Fortunately they struck gold when the signed Drew Brees, but now the chickens have come home to roost.

The San Francisco 49ers meanwhile are NFC champions once again, being led by the former Mr. Irrelevant in Brock Purdy at quarterback. He has talent all around him, and a genius offensive head coach in Kyle Shanahan. So what can the Saints learn?

Well, they can learn that while they too have a talent roster, they need to try and plug in a young, cheaper quarterback that they can develop. This way, it widens their potential window. Then there's the coaching.

Look, Dennis Allen isn't a bad coach. He is just a defensive coach during a time where the Saints need to maximize what they have at quarterback, if they are insistent on staying with Derek Carr, and a defensive-minded head coach won't cut it.

The main takeaway is, the New Orleans Saints will more likely than not be stuck in their ways. If that's the case, they need to emphasize offense, and bring in an offensive coach to capitalize the talented roster that they have, and quarterback with perceived limitations, just like the 49ers.