NFL offseasons are all about drama, and that drama has seemingly already started for the New Orleans Saints. During the year, the football field is where storylines develop, but in the offseason, the stories start on social media, and the Saints already have a cryptic post to get things rolling.
Payton Turner is the player who kicked things off with a recent post on his Instagram stories. The veteran defensive end shared a picture of a dusty Rolls Royce stored in a garage, and it was clear that it hasn’t been driven in a while. Over the picture read the words, “No matter how good you are, if you are I’m a wrong place, you are worthless.”
Naturally, Saints fans interpreted this as a shot at the team; Turner is the Rolls Royce in this scenario and New Orleans is the old, dusty garage that’s deemed the wrong place.
Saints fans think Payton Turner is criticizing the Saints in a recent post
To be fair to Turner, players’ lives are about more than football. This message could’ve been about any aspect of his life, or he could’ve just thought it was an important message to pass along. While it definitely could be about the Saints, it’s not guaranteed unless he confirms it.
Of course, that reality won’t stop the reaction from fans, and fans who interpreted this as a shot at the team weren’t all that kind to Turner. The general reaction was that Turner hasn’t shown enough to send out a message like this. Since being drafted by New Orleans in the first round of the 2021 Draft, he has appeared in just 31 games, tallying five sacks, 50 tackles, 11 for a loss, and 11 quarterback hits.
However, with Zack Baun going from an underused defender in New Orleans, to a Defensive Player of the Year finalists with the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles, there will be a lot of players in New Orleans and around the league that argue they’re falling victim to similar circumstances. When it comes to Payton Turner, though, fans will have to see it to believe it.