‘4 Downs’ with Rich: the New Orleans Saints’ Biggest Questions Heading into the ‘26 NFL Season

The daily march through all 32 teams landed on New Orleans, and Rich framed the Saints' season around a quarterback almost nobody expected to be worth framing a season around.

First down was the simple one. What does year two look like for Tyler Shough?

The setup matters. Shough did not take the reins until the middle of last season, and he was not a first-round pick, so the reasonable expectation was ups and downs with the downs winning. Instead, as Rich put it, he damn near took the Offensive Rookie of the Year award away from Tetairoa McMillan.

Now everything changes underneath him. All the reps in the offseason. All the reps in training camp. All the reps from week one to week whatever, as the guy, from the jump. That is a different job than the one he did last year, and Rich called it a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Second down went to the running back room, and specifically to a number. Alvin Kamara is 31 and now sits second on the depth chart behind Travis Etienne Jr., the free agent splash New Orleans made to pull him out of Jacksonville and bring him back to the bayou.

"How much does Kamara play?" Rich asked. "Does he somehow, some way have a fountain of youth? Can he be anything close to the Kamara of old?"

That question is not academic. Rich's math is that if Etienne plays like he did last year and Kamara has anything left, "the Saints have got themselves a heck of an offense potentially."

Third down was about availability rather than talent. Can Jordyn Tyson stay healthy? The Saints spent a first-round choice on the wide receiver taken after Carnell Tate, and Rich noted plenty of people expected Tyson to be the first receiver off the board entirely. Put him next to Chris Olave and the ceiling gets interesting in a hurry.

Rich also flagged the depth behind the headliners, including Oscar Delp out of Georgia, which prompted a nod from Chris on the SEC side of the desk.

Fourth down was the one that ties it all together, and it belongs to Kellen Moore. Year two. More or less?

The case for more is better than most people realize. New Orleans put enough together in the back half of last season to finish two games out of first place. Rich acknowledged the obvious asterisk, that the team leading that division was under .500, but two games is two games.

So he asked the question out loud. If Shough steps it up, if Kamara still has gas in the tank, if a tight end room that also picked up Noah Fant holds its end, could the Saints actually win the division?

The alternative, in his words, is that they take steps back and everybody has to reassess. Rich did not pretend to know which version is coming. He just laid out how thin the line between them looks right now.