The Saints continue to receive roster advice that they clearly won’t be following

There are a lot of questions surrounding the New Orleans Saints, for good reason. The team has missed the playoffs the last three seasons, finishing 9-8, 7-10, and 9-8, in that order. However, the Saints elected to get the band back together for 2024, in hopes that this will be the season the team gets over the hump and return to the playoffs. Aside from replacing Pete Carmichael Jr. with Klint Kubiak at offensive coordinator, New Orleans looks pretty similar to last season’s team.

Because of that, expectations are low for the Saints. The majority of people are expecting another mediocre season where the team misses the playoffs. Of course, when you aren’t excelling, everyone has an opinion on how you can improve. New Orleans has seen this all offseason, as a ton of suggestions have been thrown the team’s way by analysts.

That continued in a recent Bleacher Report piece by Alex Ballentine. Ballentine named six teams that should already be planning ahead for 2025 free agency. In addition to highlighting those teams, Ballentine argued three steps each team should take to help improve the long-term health of the respective franchises.

For the Saints, Ballentine made the case that New Orleans should trade Marshon Lattimore ahead of Week 1, extend Paulson Adebo before the season, and trade Alvin Kamara before the trade deadline.

Bleacher Report says Saints should trade Marshon Lattimore and Alvin Kamara, and extend Paulson Adebo

Of those steps, extending Adebo is the most likely to happen, and the only one fans would like to see. He’s coming off a breakout season, and only ascending as a player, so it makes sense to keep him around long term. The other two steps won’t have much support from New Orleans, though.

Still, Ballentine argues that trading the two franchise cornerstones, that were both apart of the elite 2017 Draft class, is best for the franchise. Simply put, trading the two would improve the team’s cap situation, and “move the Saints toward a true rebuild.” There’s no denying that New Orleans’ cap situation is bad, or that the team is avoiding an inevitable rebuild. However, it may be too late to make these moves.

The Saints have committed to competing in 2024, so it would be counterproductive to start blowing the roster up now. They must enter the season with what they have and see where the chips fall. If the season is already lost for New Orleans by the trade deadline, then they could offload talent. Until then, it’s safe to assume that the Saints will enter the year with all of their key players.

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