Saints destined to be disappointed by this big offseason addition

We have to lower our expectations when it comes to the New Orleans Saints to not end up so grossly disappointed. Of the 32 teams making up the NFL, how many will be definitively worse this upcoming season? While I am sure they will be better than someone, I cannot pick a team that will definitively be worse than them in 2025. It is a combination of their first-time head coach and its rookie quarterback.

Tyler Shough may be the last player to be drafted whose birth year starts with the No. 1. However, his age and experience at the college level may be a tad overstated. Shough spent last season learning from Jeff Brohm at Louisville. What he did in Brohm's offense afforded him the opportunity to be a second-round pick by the Saints. I never saw this when he was at Texas Tech or Oregon previously...

Even though the Saints are not expected to do much, they are not setting Shough up for success. He goes into a quarterback room with the likes of Jake Haener and Spencer Rattler, but draft picks made by general manager Mickey Loomis, but ones fighting for their overall NFL livelihoods. Kellen Moore is a first-time head coach. Doug Nussmeier has never coordinated in the NFL before. This is a problem.

There is also the allure of the Saints potentially drafting Nussmeier's son Garrett very high next year.

Tyler Shough may be fed to the wolves by the New Orleans Saints staff

I go back and forth on this. While I do not want to see a player with NFL talent like Shough be fed to the wolves, it was always his destiny to experience a baptism by fire by being drafted this high. He did not ask for this, but there really is no way around it. To me, he will either sink like Jimmy Clausen did in Carolina, or he will sort of swim like Davis Mills did a few years back when he was drafted by Houston.

Although the Saints used a first-round pick on former Texas Longhorns standout offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr., he will be going up against former Georgia Bulldogs star edge rusher Jalon Walker twice a year with the Atlanta Falcons. Walker would eat Banks' lunch every day and twice on Saturday. Shough cannot afford to have a rival team's emerging star pass rusher constantly in his face all day.

Where the disappointment is going to arise is Shough is being asked to do the impossible. He is doomed if he wins a few more games than expected in New Orleans, just like he is doomed if he does not. If he does play well, he will have the Saints just good enough to not be in a position to draft a high-end franchise quarterback in 2026. He may be the guy for that season before he does fizzle out.

The worst part in all this is if he stinks, then the entire Saints regime is going to throw him under the bus. Loomis can do no wrong, even if that pick was an absolutely wild reach at the time. Moore is not going to be a one-and-done head coach, just like I do not think Nussmeier will be given the cold shoulder either, regardless of how next season shakes out. For better or worse, Shough will wear it.

While I am pulling for him to be more like Mills, I am afraid that he is destined to be the next Clausen...