Marques Colston recently sat down with RG's DJ Saddiqi to discuss the New Orleans Saints' current direction. One of the major takeaways from Colston’s interview is the Saints lack of identity, which is to be expected. Kellen Moore is in his first year at head coach and Spencer Rattler is still a young, inexperienced quarterback.
Colston is a Saints legend, finishing his career with 711 receptions, 9,759 yards and 72 receiving touchdowns in his 10 year career. Each of those marks are franchise records. He played through the golden age of Saints history, so he should have a pretty good idea of what a team should look like.
“I think it's a team that's very much still finding their identity. There's so much transition. You got an offense coordinator as a first-time head coach. He's trying to find his identity as a play caller and as a leader. You got some of those younger players that are just trying to figure out who they are in the league. On top of that, you got some of the veteran players that are kind of that staying force in that that they're kind of that steadying anchor.”
The Saints' young talent have great mentors surrounding them
The Saints have a mix of young, developing talent with some proven veterans. This is exactly what the front office wants. Let the new age of players learn from some franchise greats. This will create a culture and set the standard of what the team wants to be.
"They know who they are, and they have this standard that they want to play at," Colston said. "I think as long as the younger guys can continue to play to the standard of the Cam Jordan's, the Alvin Kamara's, the Demario Davis's. I think as long as that kind of becomes that North Star, that standard becomes the North Star, they'll continue to get better. They'll continue to improve. Once you start to build that momentum, you'll start to see the winning stack over time."
Having leaders such as Demario Davis, Cameron Jordan, and Alvin Kamara greatly aid the rebuild and player’s development. For example, both Danny Stutsman and Devin Neal have a spectacular mentor to learn from before they hopefully take over.
Despite the record, Spencer Rattler has played winning football
Colston praised Spencer Rattler’s performance. He’s been playing winning football by limiting his turnovers and making good decisions.
“He's played pretty well over these first handful of weeks, and it hasn't necessarily showed up in the win column, but he's playing winning football. It sounds funny, but the No. 1 objective in winning is, don't lose, right? He's not turning the ball over, he's making good decisions. Sometimes the decision is, get to fourth down and punt.” Colston said, “He's playing winning football, and I think he'll just continue to build momentum. He'll continue to build confidence.”
Rattler has been great outside of his week seven performance against the Chicago Bears. As Colston said, the record doesn’t reflect it, but the Saints have been in a position to win. It’s all about building momentum from here on out.