Organizational dysfunction.
These two words get thrown around social media spaces like people’s lives depend on using the phrase every chance they get. But what is true organizational dysfunction? Well, we got a glimpse of it with the Jacksonville Jaguars in recent years, and they finally made the decision to move on from general manager Trent Baalke.
It starts with complacency. Complacency with being mediocre, and rather than having the ambition to be the best, focusing on just getting back to being “good” or “serviceable.” The Jacksonville Jaguars struggled mightily in finding the right coach for them, struggled to build a core around their former No. 1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence, and ultimately struggled to find a vision of what they wanted to be. Does any of this sound familiar?
While the New Orleans Saints do not have the number-one overall draft pick at quarterback, they have been running adrift for multiple seasons now after the losses of Drew Brees and Sean Payton to retirement and trade respectively. Additionally, the Dennis Allen hire was a resounding failure, and yet Loomis continues to defend him even post-firing, which certainly does not help his image, nor the image of a cohesive decision making process between him and the rest of the front office/ownership.
The roster management is one of the worst issues though. For a few years now many have called for things to be stripped down to the core, and whether or not you may agree with that assessment, the roster has not performed anywhere near expected, and has suffered significant amounts of injuries. Is this an age issue? Maybe, maybe not. Is it an unwillingness to bring in more experts to assess the situation and dive further into why soft tissue injuries are occurring at such a high rate? Yes.
Loomis has made it abundantly clear in multiple press conferences that he wants the team to remain competitive, which again, make your own assessment. But at the same time, coming off a 5-12 season, there is absolutely no sense of urgency, and you could see that from his post-season media appearance. I have no doubt that he is doing what he thinks is right, and I also understand that this may not be the easiest situation to deal with post-Brees and Payton. However, consistently trying to dig your heels in on the notion of needing to remain competitive after an atrocious season is a tough pill to swallow for fans.
On top of all of that, improving the roster has become an enormous difficulty because of the cap space. They always find a way to circumvent it which is fine to an extent, and required to at least be compliant, however it hamstrings the team each year in what free agents they are able to pursue, as they are not able to offer substantial contracts. Additionally, it forces them to make choices on who to retain, which allows players like Trey Hendrickson to walk. I personally have always been somewhat of a fan of watching it happen, but one of these years it would be so nice to not come into the offseason 50-90 million dollars in the hole, and rather have cap space to pursue players early in the process.
Then we can get to the draft picks, which sure, are not fully the responsibility of Loomis and who truly knows how much say he has in the process. So let’s for a second say its not him calling some of the shots on picks, why do you as a general manager see approximately (and I am going to be enormously generous here) eight players in the draft classes from 2018-2023 panning out, and allow the staff to remain intact that is making those calls.
- 2018 was an absolute draft class disaster
- Erik McCoy is the only player who is still a quality player for the Saints from 2019
- 2020 you somehow got down to only four picks, and just one remains in Cesar Ruiz
- 2021 you have Pete Werner and Paulson Adebo
- 2022 you got Chris Olave, Trevor Penning, and Alontae Taylor
- 2023 you got Bryan Bresee
Outside that, you also had guys like Kaden Elliss, Zach Baun, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson who have gone on to have solid seasons elsewhere, except that doesn’t help you. The Saints had 34 picks from the 2018 to 2023 draft class, if only eight were quality producers, that’s a 23.5% success rate. There are very few jobs where you can be right less than a quarter of the time and still have job security.
Overall, Loomis has gone from the founder of cap mythology and constructor of elite rosters to the pariah of the organization in many fans eyes in the span of about five to six years.
My opinion of the matter is this, Loomis deserves one more shot to get the coaching hire right, he has really only had one true shot at hiring a new coach post-Payton, and it was a dud no doubt, but mistakes do happen. If he is unable to hire a quality candidate this year, or worse, whiffs on the quality ones because he waited too long or could not sell them on the team, there needs to be discussions about a new general manager hire. Whether that come in the form of his firing or being moved into some other part of the executive management, it needs to be looked at if the organization continues down this path.
