Sports

3 Offseason Questions Still Looming for the New Orleans Saints

By Luke Easterling Athlon Sports

With all 32 NFL teams preparing for OTAs and mandatory minicamps, Athlon Sports is going under the hood to see what key questions remain for each team before training camps open in July. These questions might not get answered at minicamps, but any opportunity for new coaches to get familiar with their roster, rookies to get a feel for life in the NFL and free agents to get comfortable with a new team can be helpful.

Today's focus is the New Orleans Saints, who haven't been to the postseason since Drew Brees' career ended with a home playoff loss to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the end of the 2020 season. They've averaged just seven wins per season over the five years since, with last-place finishes in the NFC South in each of the past two campaigns.

If they want to return to relevance in their division, and get back into playoff contention, the Saints will have to find answers to these three questions as they prepare for the upcoming season:

Can Tyler Shough be a true franchise QB?

The Saints took plenty of grief (plenty from me) for spending a top-40 pick in last year's NFL Draft on a 26-year-old rookie quarterback, but by the end of the 2025 season, Shough had put together some solid tape against pro defenses. He was showing off all of the positive traits we saw from his college tape, and was able to avoid the injuries that led to so much missed time (and more years of eligibility) at that level.

Now comes the time where Shough has to prove he can grow beyond what we saw from him during his rookie season, and show that he's got a higher ceiling than his predraft detractors projected.

At his best, Shough has shown above-average arm talent, with the ability to make sound decisions and distribute the ball with accuracy and anticipation. His college tape was riddled with head-scratching moments, though, from wild inconsistency with his ball placement to turnover-worthy throws that made absolutely no sense.

If the Saints are going to keep building their offense (and their future) around Shough as their franchise passer, he'll have to ensure that last year's effectiveness wasn't a fluke. Now that NFL teams have a year of film and an offseason of preparation, he could be at risk of falling back into some of those negative patterns that developed at the college level. He'll also have to stay healthy if the Saints want to get the proper return on their investment, and work their way up from the bottom of the division.

Who will fill the veteran voids on defense?

It's hard to imagine a Saints defense without Cam Jordan or Demario Davis, but it looks like fans will find out what that looks like in 2026. Davis signed with the New York Jets this offseason, and while Jordan has yet to find a new home for the upcoming season, it doesn't feel like a return to New Orleans is imminent at this point.

Jordan has spent his entire 15-year NFL career in New Orleans, while Davis has been with the team for the past eight seasons. Each player has only missed one game during their respective tenures with the team, making the stalwarts and mainstays on that side of the ball.

Jordan proved last season how productive he can still be as a pass rusher at this point in his career, and Davis was still one of the league's better off-ball linebackers. Both players have been somewhat underrated throughout their time with the Saints, and as much as their on-field impact has been needed in New Orleans, their veteran experience and leadership has been just as valuable.

Replacing multiple players with that kind of presence on the same side of the ball won't be easy for the Saints, and they'll have to rely on a combination of new arrivals, ascending young players, and familiar faces stepping into more vocal leadership roles to band together.

Can their top receivers stay healthy?

The Saints already had one of the league's better young receivers in Chris Olave, but they didn't stop them from spending their top-10 pick in this year's NFL Draft on Arizona State's Jordyn Tyson. From a talent and potential standpoint, this gives New Orleans a dynamic tandem of pass-catchers, both of whom have "WR1" skill sets.

The only thing that could hold that pair back is health. Olave has dealt with multiple nagging injuries over the past few seasons. The same has been true for Tyson, and his predraft process was limited by a hamstring injury that slowed him throughout the 2025 campaign with the Sun Devils.

After trading away Rashid Shaheed at the deadline last year, the Saints had a massive drop-off on the depth chart between Olave and the next-best receiver on the roster. Tyson doesn't just make up for that; he's got the talent to quickly push Olave for the top spot.

If they can both stay healthy, Shough should have a blast throwing to both of them while opposing defenses struggle to focus on either of them with rolled or bracketed coverages. But given their recent history, that's a huge "if" in the durability department, and they'll have to prove they can stay on the field.

Copyright 2026 Athlon Sports. All rights reserved.

This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 4:01 AM.

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