The Saints have reached the kind of trade-deadline crossroads that tells you everything about where a season stands. They’re coming off a bye week, sitting in a division that is still wide open, but also staring at a roster with obvious problems that were never fixed in the offseason.
Right now, New Orleans is only one game out of first place. Every other team in the division has three wins, while the Panthers, who have already had their bye, have four losses and the rest of the division has five. That leaves the Saints in an awkward spot: close enough to dream, but not complete enough to feel good about paying for help.
So the question is simple, even if the answer isn’t. Do the Saints buy at the deadline and chase the division, or do they accept that the bigger issue is long-term roster construction and start thinking about 2026 and beyond?
If they do try to add, the help would almost certainly have to come on defense, and more specifically up front. The Saints spent the offseason overlooking major problems on that side of the ball, especially their inability to stop the run. That means any serious move would need to begin at the line of scrimmage.
One name to watch would be Grover Stewart of the Colts. He’s one of the league’s best run-stuffing interior tackles and has piled up more than 400 total tackles and 13 sacks in his NFL career. The hesitation is obvious, though: Stewart has been in the league for nine years, and it’s fair to question whether New Orleans should be spending draft capital on a veteran at that stage of his career.
Daron Payne is another option. The Commanders lineman is an eight-year veteran who can help against the run and also bring interior pass-rushing juice.
He has 38 career sacks. Dalvin Tomlinson is also in the mix, and while he doesn’t carry the same resume as Payne or Stewart, he brings something the Saints badly need: reliability.
He has not missed a start in nine seasons, which matters for a team that has dealt with health issues.
There are also linebacker possibilities, including Cody Barton of the Titans and Daiyan Henley of the Chargers.
Still, the bigger argument is that New Orleans probably shouldn’t be giving up draft capital at all. This doesn’t look like a roster that is one player away from anything.
It’s one thing to push chips in when a championship run is there for the taking. It’s another to do it for a team trying to win a weak division and maybe finish with eight or nine wins.
That’s not the kind of season that should cost future assets.
The other path is selling, but that comes with its own problem: the Saints don’t have a roster built to bring back a massive haul. They’re not in position to land a package like the Titans just got, which included two first-round picks and a fourth-round pick.
The most obvious player who could return meaningful value is Chase Young. Based on how he’s playing, the Saints might be able to get a second-round pick for him, mostly because this is the first year he has both played well and stayed healthy. Young is starting to look like the heir apparent to Cam Jordan at edge rusher, and Carl Granderson has helped make that pairing work in a real way, even if Granderson’s recent seasons have been uneven.
Chris Olave is another name in the mix, but the Saints just signed him to a top-10 contract extension among receivers in the league, which could make a trade difficult.
The more realistic names are Justin Reid, Pete Werner, Spencer Rattler, Kendre Miller, and Cesar Ruiz. Those are players in groups New Orleans needs to upgrade anyway, and moving them wouldn’t necessarily create holes that would be impossible to fill. Whatever the Saints could get back might be more useful than what they’re currently getting from those spots.
That’s what makes this such a strange place for the franchise to be. Do they lean into a nine-win season and make the future harder? Or do they choose the future, even if the roster doesn’t have enough premium pieces to produce a huge return?
And hanging over all of it is a bigger question about the coach and the vision for this roster. Can he actually get the most out of these players?
The next few weeks should answer a lot. The decisions New Orleans makes now will shape not just 2026, but the road well beyond that.
In Other News...
Gayle Benson Sends Saints A Clear Message About This Season
Gayle Benson is not sounding the alarm on the Saints 2-5 start, at least not publicly. The team owner said she still believes in the effort being shown inside the building, even as New Orleans has struggled to find consistency and has already made one notable staff move by parting with run-game coordinator T.J. Paganetti.
Bensons comments leave the bigger picture hanging over the rest of the season, with the Saints still trying to stabilize things before any broader decisions are made. She also touched on the possibility of New Orleans taking part in an NFL International Series game in Italy, a reminder that even in a difficult year, the franchise is still being discussed in a wider league context. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Reach A Roster Crossroads With Deadline Pressure Building
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At the same time, the front office is also keeping an eye on the market, with Kendre Miller and Justin Reid drawing attention as possible trade candidates if the Saints decide to lean toward selling. No deals have been made, but with the deadline pressure building, the balance between getting healthier and reshaping the roster is becoming harder to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Backfield Problem Could Suddenly Elevate An Unexpected Name
The Saints running back room has gone from crowded to precarious in a hurry, and that has put Audric Estime back in the mix after the team released him with an injury settlement earlier this month. New Orleans is now working with just two healthy backs in Kendre Miller and Alvin Kamara, a thin spot on the roster that has made every update at the position worth watching.
The bigger concern is the uncertainty around the rest of the depth chart, with updates still pending on Travis Etienne and CJ Donaldson. Etienne has been sidelined by a hamstring injury and has not played since, leaving the Saints waiting on clarity at a position where one more setback could force a much different game plan than they expected. [Read more 🡒]