The New Orleans Saints have landed in a spot that will not sit well with anyone around the team: ESPN’s latest roster rankings put them behind the New York Jets.
That’s the kind of placement that turns heads on its own, but the details make it sting even more. ESPN analysts Mike Clay, Aaron Shatz and Seth Walder ranked the Saints 26th, then slotted them below a Jets team that traded away arguably its best two players, Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, during a fire sale last year.
The Saints’ outlook this offseason has been all over the map, with predictions ranging from playoff hopes to a top-10 draft pick. This ranking lands on the harsher end of that spectrum, and it stands out as the most disrespectful assessment of New Orleans yet.
The quarterback comparison is where the argument really starts to fall apart. Tyler Shough is viewed as the Saints’ X-factor, while Geno Smith is the bigger concern for the Jets.
Clay even wondered whether Smith can turn back the clock after what he called a repeat performance from last season. On Shough’s side, the discussion centered on the growth of a quarterback whose rookie year “went better than expected.”
That contrast matters because this wasn’t a ranking that stripped out quarterback play. It was part of the evaluation, and it made the Saints look better than the Jets at the sport’s most important position.
The logic is pretty simple from there: the Saints have a quarterback situation that is trending up, while the Jets are dealing with one that is trending down. And beyond that, the Jets don’t separate themselves enough elsewhere to make this an easy case for them.
For a team hoping to shake the league’s lowest expectations, being placed behind the Jets is a tough pill to swallow.
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