The Saints had a first-year coach and a rookie quarterback in 2025, and they came out of it thinking they have two of the most important pieces in place.
Although the 6-11 record wasn’t great, the Saints went 5-4 once Tyler Shough stepped in as the starting quarterback, a marked turnaround from their 1-7 start with Spencer Rattler at quarterback. Saints head coach Kellen Moore said on PFT Live that Shough’s rookie season set him up for a successful career.
“It turned into a great journey for him through the entire season,” Moore said.
Moore said that when Shough didn’t beat out Rattler for the starting job at the beginning of the season, he immediately shifted his mindset to doing everything he could on the scout team.
“I’m gonna be the best scout team quarterback in the league. I’m gonna get to test myself, I’m gonna make throws and see if I can make this throw in this situation, do it on the field,” Moore said Shough told him at the time.
Moore said he saw Shough get better over the course of the season, especially with his poise in the pocket and ability to make the right decisions when the play broke down. This year Moore thinks Shough will be better still, thanks to a full offseason, training camp and preseason of working with the No. 1 offense.
“His reps with the core group, he’s not going to be rotating with the rest of the quarterbacks, he’s going to be with the top group and getting a lot of reps with those guys before the start of the season,” Moore said.
If Shough can get better, and Moore can get the rest of the team playing better around him, the Saints may finally return to the playoffs for the first time since Drew Brees was their quarterback and Sean Payton was their head coach.
Saints Clips
The league has added a new country to its Global Markets Program, with Italy coming aboard in 2026.
The NFL made the announcement at the annual meeting on Monday, with the Saints and Browns having the first marketing rights in the country. With Italy now a part of the program, the NFL is now active in 22 international markets.
“The expansion of the Global Markets Program in its fifth year highlights the continued focus on global growth for the NFL and 32 teams,” NFL Managing Director and Head of International Gerrit Meier said in the league’s announcement. “The league-wide commitment to the Global Markets Program is helping to accelerate fandom of our league, clubs, and players around the world, deepening our international footprint and bringing our game closer to fans globally.”
Additionally, the Raiders have expanded their international market rights to include Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.
As the GMP program has continued to expand, teams with marketing rights in a country usually have the opportunity to play an international game there. So, the Browns and/or the Saints could be playing in Italy sooner than later.
That’s especially as the NFL looks to expand its schedule, with the stated goal being 18 regular-season games with 16 international games — giving each team one international game per season.
After the Saints signed Travis Etienne early in free agency, head coach Kellen Moore was noncommittal about Alvin Kamara’s future with the team.
On Monday morning, the topic came up again when Moore spoke to reporters from the league meeting in Arizona. A recent restructure to Kamara’s contract did not add any future cap implications for the Saints if they part ways with the veteran and Moore said it’s a “full offseason process” when asked if he expects to have both backs on the team come the fall.
Moore also said “we love Alvin” and that he can envision ways to utilize both backs in the offense.
“He’s certainly on the roster and part of the running back room,” Moore said. “We feel like there’s ways to manipulate all of those guys and put them in plenty of situations. . . . Plenty of running backs play. Obviously we feel fortunate that we were able to acquire Travis in free agency, but there’s still a lot of work there to be had out there.”
With Kamara’s contract squared away, there’s no particular time crunch for the Saints to make a call about keeping both players and it doesn’t appear that they will be rushing to a conclusion on that front.
The Cowboys are signing defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard to a one-year deal, the team announced on Saturday.
Bullard, 32, is a 10-year veteran, having entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Bears in 2016.
He has also played for the Cardinals, Seahawks, Falcons, Vikings and Saints.
In 2025, Bullard appeared in 15 games for New Orleans, starting six, and tallied 26 tackles, four tackles for loss and two pass breakups.
With the addition of Bullard, the Cowboys have now added seven players on the defensive side of the ball this offseason. Bullard is the third addition on the defensive line, joining nose tackle Otito Ogbonnia and outside linebacker Rashan Gary.
New defensive coordinator Christian Parker is switching the team to a 3-4 base defense.
Bullard will reunite with his former defensive line coach, Marcus Dixon, who coached him with the Vikings in 2024. Bullard started all 17 games for Minnesota that season and posted 41 tackles, seven tackles for loss, three pass breakups and a sack.
The Saints have taken a close look at one of the more explosive players in the 2026 draft class.
Per Field Yates of ESPN, New Orleans recently held a private workout with former Georgia receiver Zachariah Branch.
Yates notes Branch’s workout with New Orleans included some punt return work.
Branch, 21, spent the 2025 season with the Bulldogs after a pair of years at USC. He led the SEC with 81 catches last year, going for 811 yards receiving with six touchdowns. He also returned 15 punts, averaging 12.0 yards on each.
As a Freshman for USC in 2023, Branch led the nation with a 20.8-yard average on 16 punt returns, with one going for a touchdown. He also averaged 18.4 yards per kick return, bringing one back for a TD as well.
He ran a 4.35 40-yard dash at the scouting combine.
In his 37 career college games, Branch caught 159 passes for 1,634 yards with nine touchdowns.
Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate ran a 4.52-second 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine. The time is not expected to hurt his draft status as a top-10 pick.
That’s why he decided not to run at Ohio State’s Pro Day on Wednesday, saying no teams have questioned him about his speed.
Instead, Tate did only position drills, catching passes from Julian Sayin.
“I definitely think it can be overvalued,” Tate said of the 40-yard dash, via Daniel Oyefusi of TheAthletic.com. “Like a couple of great NFL receivers right now like Puka [Nacua] and Jaxon [Smith-Njigba] like they probably didn’t run the fastest of times, but they’re the two best receivers in the league right now. It just depends on who’s looking at it and how y’all want to take it.”
Tate said he has top-30 draft visits scheduled with the Titans, Saints, Commanders, Giants and Chiefs. He has already visited the Browns. All of those teams draft in the top nine, with the Titans holding the fourth overall pick.
In 2024 at Louisville, Tyler Shough was the starting quarterback and Chris Bell was a starting wide receiver. A reunion could be coming on the Saints in 2026.
That’s the word from Bell, who said at Louisville’s Pro Day that Shough has been talking him up within the Saints organization and trying to get them to draft Bell.
“He said he wants me so bad, and he’s been pushing my name,” Bell said, via Sarandon Raboin of WHAS 11.
Bell caught 43 passes for 737 yards and four touchdowns as a junior, with Shough as his quarterback. In 2025, Bell had career-bests of 72 catches for 917 yards and six touchdowns.
The well-traveled Zach Wilson will be traveling to the NFC for the first time.
Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football reports that the Saints will sign Wilson to a free-agent deal.
Wilson, the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, started 13 games as a rookie and nine in 2022. Supplanted by Aaron Rodgers in 2023, a Week 1 torn Achilles for Rodgers threw Wilson back into the fray; Wilson ultimately appeared in 12 games that year, with 11 starts.
In 2024, Wilson served as a backup to Bo Nix in Denver, after being traded by the Jets to the Broncos. Wilson didn’t play at all that year.
He signed a free-agent deal with the Dolphins in 2025. He appeared in four games with no starts. After Tua Tagovailoa was benched, rookie Quinn Ewers was elevated to the first string.
Wilson joins Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler on the depth chart. Shough became the clear starter in 2025, given his performances after he replaced Rattler as the team’s starting quarterback.
Safety Terrell Burgess is set to return for a second season with the Saints.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports that Burgess has agreed to re-sign with the team. No terms of the deal have been reported.
Burgess appeared in 16 games as a defensive backup and regular on special teams last year. He had 22 tackles and three passes defensed in that action.
Burgess missed the 2024 season after a summer injury. He had 25 tackles in 12 games for Washington in 2023 and had 29 tackles in 30 games for the Rams over his first three seasons in the league. He also played in one game for the Giants during the 2022 season.
One of the top receivers in this year’s draft has been a busy pre-draft schedule, including meeting with an NFC South team in the top 10.
Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, former USC receiver Makai Lemon is working out for the Saints on Tuesday.
New Orleans has the No. 8 overall pick this year.
Additionally, Lemon has worked out for the Commanders, who select at No. 7 overall. He visited with the Browns (No. 6) last week and will visit with the Titans (No. 4) this week.
Lemon became one of the top prospects for this year’s draft by catching 79 passes for 1,156 yards with 11 touchdowns as a junior in 2025. He caught 52 passes for 764 yards with three TDs in 2024.
