Why players value Saints’ always-in approach and the culture that comes with it

We’ve had the conversation a lot in recent years surrounding the Saints. Whether they should “tear it down” and rebuild to reset their aging roster and bloated salary cap.

The reasons are obvious. Better draft picks, more draft picks if you trade veteran players, and more money to spend on future free agents. Maybe even a more attractive situation to lure a future coach or front office executive or free agent once the assets have been stockpiled.

Meanwhile, the reasons to avoid a total teardown are harder to quantify. But players insist they’re meaningful beyond just a longshot playoff run in the short term.

I asked several players, both older and younger, in the past two weeks about how much they value the Saints’ almost-stubborn refusal to ever stop competing – even when it feels like a futile task from the outside.

Of course I knew what they were going to say. Players and coaches don’t have the luxury of thinking long-term. Even if they’re not approaching their final chance, they’re either approaching their next contract or trying to keep their job – or simply don’t want to waste one of their prime years in a sport where every season is precious.

Still, I found it insightful to hear them explain why the culture and atmosphere itself matters so much.

“They care about winning,” linebacker Demario Davis said in the most “no duh” way possible.

Davis made it clear that he didn’t want to make any direct comparisons to his two previous teams, the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. But I’ll say it for him. Those two franchises might as well be Exhibit A and Exhibit B for the downside of rebuilding.

“I mean, I’m not trying to talk about any other organizations. But you see other organizations that are constantly in a rebuild, and they never win, they’re never in the playoffs. It’s been decades,” Davis said. “But this organization, it feels foreign when we’re not in the playoffs.

“They’ve created a culture. When you have a great culture, you create a high standard, while maintaining a place where everything feels important.”

Alright, I’ll add my own “no duh” comment here: Of course the older players feel that way. They wouldn’t be around long enough to see the fruit of a rebuild. Vets like Davis and Cameron Jordan and Tyrann Mathieu don’t want to waste any opportunities they may have left.

“Did you see my eyes glaze over?” Jordan cracked when I was listing the reasons why more and more Saints fans have started to push for pushing the rest button. “I’m trying to get this next win.”

Alvin Kamara was blunt as usual when I asked him how he’d feel if the team traded guys like Davis and Jordan and Mathieu as well as Marshon Lattimore.

“I’d be like, ‘What the fuck?’” Kamara said. “Cuz if they trade Demario and Cam and Marshon’s gone, I’d be like, ‘Where’s the grim reaper at?’ Because I’d probably go with ‘em.”

But all of those guys insisted that it’s not just their expiration dates that make them feel that way. They know what it’s like at some other places around the league when hope is fully extinguished.

Jordan said he even remembers how tough it was from 2014-2016 when the defense rebuilt around him after aging veterans like Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma, Roman Harper, Malcolm Jenkins and Jabari Greer were all replaced at once.

“If you take marquee players out, you feel the energy drop off. And day-to-days become a little more difficult,” said Jordan, who said he saw his close friend Mark Ingram have the opposite effect on the Ravens when the Saints saved a little money by letting him go to Baltimore in free agency. “Goes from a good team to a great team because the locker room culture changes with it. You see the energy injected by the Craig Robertsons of the league, the Roman Harpers that bring culture. It’s all about the energy in the locker room.”

Younger players feel the same way. Juwan Johnson is in his prime years. Bryan Bresee is in Year 2. And they both said they feel the same way about being surrounded by players they know are all about winning.

And both said even if a team was built to lose, the players wouldn’t take the same approach.

“I don’t think anyone in the locker room, regardless of the situation, would ever think that way,” Bresee said. “Everyone who’s playing is gonna play as hard as they can no matter what, because we all want to win. That’s what we’re here to do is to win. So, I think that’s just kind of the mindset. So anytime that anything happens (like players being traded or a coach being fired), no one’s mindset is gonna change.”

Johnson said “fans can say whatever, and they should, because they care so much.” But the part they might not appreciate is how dispiriting an obvious teardown could be for everyone in the building.

“They don’t know what we put into our jobs. You never know what guys put in in the offseason,” Johnson said. “No one wants to quit. I’m just not about (taking a year off). As a man, you just don’t do that.

“You do your best, you finish everything. And at the end, if you just happen to have a draft pick, then that’s what it is.”

Winning just plain feels better. The energy that has come along with Rizzi Ball has been impossible to ignore these past two weeks, even though the team’s record has only climbed from 2-7 to 4-7.

The part that’s even harder to quantify is whether it means anything to finish strong or come close to the playoffs. Is 9-8 really more valuable than 3-14?

Players seem to think so. Derek Carr talked a lot all offseason and during the Saints’ 2-0 start about how he felt like the offense was building off the successes from late last year when they finished 4-1. He even just lumped that five-game stretch in with this season the other day when he said he feels like it has been the best football of his 11-year career.

And we did feel that hit-the-ground-running energy throughout OTAs and minicamp and training camp leading into the 2-0 start before the bottom dropped out on this year’s team.

(I won’t insult anyone’s intelligence here by making a direct comparison to the Saints’ 2009 Super Bowl season after they went 7-9 in 2007 and 8-8 and 2008, because I know that was a younger ascending roster without salary-cap issues. But obviously I just mentioned it only to suggest that things like momentum and confidence can carry over from one season to another.)

Regardless, the Saints have truly felt like they were close to something more special than 9-8, 7-10, 9-8 and 4-7 over the last four years. And Johnson said it was a very true and real feeling that they were just one win away from the playoffs in each of the past three seasons.

More importantly, Johnson said they’ve never lost the sense of “togetherness” in the process.

“You gotta love fans, but fans’ opinions will change,” Johnson said. “What if we win the rest of our games? When things go good, they forget what they said about getting the No. 1 pick.”