The Saints, my friends, are in trouble

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, folks, but I think the New Orleans Saints are in big trouble.

Those are pretty hard words for me to type because I actually want the team to be relevant. When the Who Dat Nation is chugging along, it makes being a Sports Editor in Louisiana a pretty easy and enjoyable position to hold.

But reality is reality, and the truth is that the team is a long way away from performing at an elite level. I don’t like what I see on the field, and I don’t like the way that the team’s roster has taken shape.

I don’t think the Saints will be awful, but I don’t think they’ll be particularly good, either.

Combine that with the fact that Drew Brees’ career is closer to its end than it is to its beginning and it’s made me really start to wonder – and worry – about the future of this team.

Let’s start with my gripes about the offense.

With Jimmy Graham in Seattle and Kenny Stills in Miami, the Saints have arguably the sorriest set of weapons in the entire NFC South.

Brees has no one that he can turn to – at least not consistently. He has no one that he can rely on to be a sure-fire No. 1 receiving threat for all 16 games in the season.

Marques Colston used to be that guy, but he’s now a fossil by NFL standards. The days of Colston’s prime are long gone. He is merely an average/slightly above-average target that can keep defenses honest, but who provides almost nothing else.

Brandin Cooks is the Saints most gifted offensive weapon, and is the player that’s listed as the No. 1 receiver on paper. But Cooks isn’t a big guy, standing just 5-feet, 10-inches and weighing less than 200 pounds. The best defensive backs in the NFL will always be able to give Cooks a hard time just because of that massive gap in size.

Never was that more evident than in the opener when Patrick Peterson and the Cardinals secondary slowed Cooks to just four catches on 49 yards. Cooks is an incredibly talented monkey wrench within an offense – a really, really fancy wrinkle that is undoubtedly a huge asset to have.

But is Cooks the No. 1 receiver on a modern-day NFL team? Nah, he’s not that. He’s not big enough, and if given that heavy of a load, he’ll be highly prone to injury.

The rest of the receivers on the roster? Yeah, they’re all no-named jobbers who won’t move the meter much in any director.

That’s a problem.

The Saints will be able to move the football on anyone. Most NFL teams in the modern era do gain lots of yardage.

But they won’t be an elite red zone team, which, of course, means they’ll have to settle for a lot of field goals.

Again – that’s a problem.

Against Arizona, they reached the red-zone four times and scored just one touchdown. Field goals don’t win games – touchdowns do. Not having a big, physical weapon will hamper New Orleans offensive attack in a big way.

Of course, the easy solution to a lot of these woes would be to take a Dallas Cowboy-like approach to offense and become a run-first attack behind a big, physical offensive line. That option actually is where I thought things were going when the team traded for Max Unger and drafted Andrus Peat.

But in Week 1, the team ran the ball 20 times, compared to 48 passes. That made me realize what I should have understood many moons ago: Sean Payton’s skull is thick as concrete. He isn’t changing his ways – no matter what his roster is shaped like.

The Saints are going to pass, pass, pass, pass, pass even if it’s best that they run, run, run, run, run. It took me a long time to realize that, but it’s never going to change, folks. A tiger never loses his stripes.

So with New Orleans probably scoring less frequently than it did in its peak, the onus falls heavily on the team’s defense to keep the ship afloat.

But, of course, as we all know, the Saints defense can’t keep anything above water – not even itself.

New Orleans is beat up from head-to-toe on the defensive side of the ball – both by injury and attrition.

Junior Galette is gone. That’s the team’s best pass-rusher from 2014. So, too, is Curtis Lofton – the team’s top tackler from last year.

In the secondary, Jarius Byrd may or may not play consistently ever again, and Keenan Lewis is out with an injury. Brandon Browner was hurt in the preseason and is a ticking timebomb waiting to explode. The team’s other starting cornerback by default is a guy who couldn’t finish his career at LSU because of a broken neck – that’s hardly durability.

What’s left is a starting group that consists of a handful of veterans, a few rookies and a couple others who wouldn’t start for any other team in the NFL.

That’s not a good recipe.

New Orleans defense isn’t any good, folks, and as teams get more tape on them, it might only get worse.

Rob Ryan isn’t the answer. He’s never had success anywhere he’s been. Trust me, I know. I am a Dallas Cowboys fan. Before he ruined your team’s defense, he ruined mine. I know how it feels. It stinks.

But it gets better. Eventually, Payton will fire him and get a new coordinator. When he does, life will return to normal. It just takes time.

But it’s time that the Saints simply don’t have, because Brees hour glass is quickly running out of sand.

I don’t like what I see, folks.

I don’t like what I see at all.

If things turn around, this can maybe be a 10-win team. But at the rate it’s going now, it’s looking like another 7-9 is a very, very real possibility.

And with Drew Brees now in his late-30s and the team’s salary cap situation only getting worse, that, my friends, just isn’t good enough.