Saints vs Chargers Preseason Game One Preview

who that to the who that nation welcome to the who that said podcast here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and boy don't we feel good football is back yes we're not into the regular season these games don't count but

i don't care they count to me because we get to see our new orleans saints

on the football field against another opponent this Sunday,

3 o'clock,

as they travel to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers.

This is the first preseason game of the 2025 season,

officially kicking off the Kellen

Moore era.

As the head coach of this team,

I must say that I have become excited.

I wasn't.

But I am now.

I'm excited for this new season coming up for the New Orleans Saints.

You know,

we've been through a lot here in the Who That Nation.

We've been through a lot in the last few years,

you know,

not making the playoffs for,

what,

three,

four seasons now?

And we're on our third head coach in the last five years.

We haven't had a quarterback since Drew Brees retired.

I think we're on our sixth.

maybe seventh quarterback in the last five years.

I mean,

it has been a dumpster fire over there on airline.

It's not,

I don't know,

man.

I don't know how to describe it.

It's just been hard to watch.

It's been hard to watch the Saints in this manner.

And look,

I've been watching the New Orleans Saints as long as I've been watching football,

well over 45 years.

right at 45 or whenever but it's been a long time i've seen a lot of ups and i've seen even more downs with this franchise and this is probably the lowest man this has been the lowest i

feel that the saints have been as an organization now i know a lot of people will point to the

80s you know during the jim moore era or look at the mike dicker era and uh this

disagree with what i'm saying but the reason i'll argue that this is the worst because it's not like the saints had pro bowl hall of fame players around that time yeah in the 80s you had the dome patrol that's the only thing that really kept the saints relevant but

aside from that saints didn't have opportunity they was in a division that they were set up to fail in in the NFC West.

You know,

you're in a division with the

49ers who went to the Super Bowl every year.

No,

the Saints weren't going to succeed during those times.

And then during the Dicca era,

it was just bad times back then.

Now,

with the Saints,

with their talent pool that's on the roster,

with all of the,

how can I put this,

kind,

with this division being

probably the weakest division in the NFL,

it should have been a cakewalk for the Saints for the last couple of years.

It hasn't been.

It hasn't.

They've looked the worst in this division.

The worst.

And the Saints have had the most talent.

I mean,

show me where I'm wrong at.

Atlanta maybe,

but Atlanta's young.

Whereas the New Orleans Saints,

they have seasoned veterans.

They have players who've been there before who know how to win.

I don't understand what happened here,

but it is what it is.

That's the past.

We're moving on.

We're on to the next.

We're on to this new regime.

We're on with a new quarterback.

We still don't know who he is,

but he's one of these young quarterbacks that we currently have on the roster.

That's the whole purpose of the preseason,

to see who will step up and be the starter,

not just a quarterback,

but in all

22 positions.

Now,

there are some that are cemented.

You know,

Alvin Kamara,

we know that's the starter.

Chris Olave and

Rashid Shahid,

they're locked in.

Now,

you know,

these guys are locked in,

but there are other positions here.

That we need to find out,

is this the guy that's going to help us move forward,

not lead us to a playoff,

not lead us to the division,

and sure not lead us to a Super Bowl,

but take the steps to getting to those goals.

And so...

I'm excited.

I am.

I am excited because this looks like it's going to be a very competitive battle for the starting quarterback job between Spencer Rattler,

Tyler Shuck and Jake.

You know,

can't leave him out of the equation either.

And going by what's happening at training camp for the past couple of weeks,

it appears that it's a little tighter than first expected.

Now.

the leader would be spencer rattler you know just going by what i've read and and watched it looks like is spencer rattler with the edge but he hasn't really gained much distance between him and tyler shuck for that number one spot and

to be fair jay canard has looked pretty good in in camp so it's not like this is a foregone conclusion that

it's going to be Spencer Rattler.

It's going to be Tyler Schuch.

It's going to be

Jay Kane.

The jury's still out.

And as they deliberate,

we have these three preseason games to go through.

In this game coming up,

our first preseason game,

Spencer Rattler will get the start.

He's going to be with the ones.

And I would imagine probably one serious and he's going to have a seat.

You know,

maybe even two.

I don't know.

I don't believe he's going to go a whole half,

maybe a quarter.

We'll see how he goes.

You know,

it could be an instance of that first drive didn't really click,

you know,

or didn't go according to plan.

Let's give him another shot.

Give him two drives.

Could end up scratching to the second quarter.

Who knows?

We'll have to wait and see on that.

But I don't see him playing too many,

and that goes for all of them.

So I think...

kelly moore wants to get all three quarterbacks on the field this sunday and so we'll see how that plays out going forward but we're here we're here saints are coming off of 5 and 12 season

last year where we bared witness unfortunately to a seven game lose streak in the middle of the season that was just unbelievable i'm i can't believe

that the saints collapsed like they did last season especially judging by those first two games of the season where it looked like nobody was gonna stop the new orleans saints and all of a sudden all of a sudden it's like the wheels just fell clean off of that caddy and it was it was a

painful thing to watch what took place you know the coach got fired uh

The owner and the GM weren't on the same page with that decision.

It was just a whole thing that was going on over there.

The fact that they managed to win three more games later on in the season was a miracle within itself.

But regardless,

Saints ended up with the 10th pick or the 9th pick in the draft,

whatever.

And they addressed needs.

They got Calvin Banks Jr.,

the offensive lineman from Texas.

Really good pick,

smart pick,

and I think he's going to pan out in the second round.

That's when they picked up Tyler Shuck,

quarterback from Louisville.

The question marks going into this,

which is my big question.

And

I feel like I got to do this every time

I talk about it,

but it's the truth.

I don't have a problem with

Tyler Shuck.

I actually hope Tyler Shuck.

Does well.

I need him to do well because he's the Saints quarterback.

I need him to do well.

But my questions are valid because the dude never finished the season as the starting quarterback in college.

He got hurt every year.

He's injury prone,

and he's had two major surgeries on his shoulder.

Not his throwing shoulder,

but his other shoulder,

his left shoulder.

And

I think my...

concerns are valid you know this if it wasn't the shoulder i think he had a acl at one point it's just a lot it's a lot going into this and i'm not 100 confident that he's going to uh be

able to stay healthy i mean look at kendra miller kendra miller was hurt in college

and wouldn't you know he's hurt every year this year knock on wood he's looking good in camp this year he looks healthy he looks like he's he he got his mind on straight which i'm praying that he do because i've seen the talent kendrick miller is is amazing um

when he's healthy so if he can stay healthy good but you look at what happened the first couple of years when we drafted him he was heard all the time.

And so that's my concerns.

with shuck but i hope i hope that we're wrong there or i'm wrong that he's going to be a injury prone quarterback uh that's gonna hurt this team more than he helps we'll see uh

i make no secret that i'm a huge spencer rattler fan i was i was jumping up and down when the saints drafted him in the what was it fourth round a couple of years ago i was like man that's the future right there.

I watched him in South Carolina.

The dude is good,

really,

really good.

Just got to give him a chance.

Now,

you can't judge him off of last season when he made his start.

He had no offensive line.

He had no

Chris Olave,

no Shadid.

A couple of games there,

he didn't have no Alvin Kamara.

He was blind.

He was out there.

They literally just sent him out to the wolves with a big,

juicy steak wrapped around his neck.

So.

He didn't stand a chance.

I can't go off of that.

I need to see him in a proper setting with a healthy team around him,

number one players,

you know,

starting players.

And let's see from there.

Now,

if he sucks,

okay,

we'll move on.

But there's only one way to find out,

you know.

So all I've asked is he get his chance.

And now if Tyler Shuck beats him in camp,

best man wins i'm all for it i want the best man to win i don't care if it's the ball boy i don't care it could be the water boy bobby boucher could be out there and he outperforms him stardom i don't care i just need it to be the best man for the job that's all i'm asking and

so that's the big question mark going into this camp and the big question mark going into this game is the starting quarterback

position but for me and i know that's around the who that nation but for me my biggest question is the defense that's the one i'm worried about i believe kellen moore will get the offense to where the offense needs to be he did a good job in dallas he made deck prescott look relevant in dallas he did a decent job for that i think one year he

he was the offensive coordinator over they're in

Los Angeles with the Chargers.

And,

hey,

what else can we say about the Philadelphia Eagles turned to be the Super Bowl champions?

Yeah,

he has Saquon Barkley and

Jalen Herz as his quarterback there.

But,

I mean,

I watched games.

I watched a game that we played them early on in the season where we actually had them beat.

And his ability to adjust,

he adjusted to what the Saints defense was.

throwing at them and were able to ultimately come out victorious in that game unfortunately for us but i was impressed by the way they adjusted i i was super impressed in the super bowl the way the kansas city chiefs took saquon barkley completely out of that game they

took him saquon barkley if you uh put a blindfold on me over me and just had me listen to the game

I would have told you that Saquon Barkley didn't play because he didn't play.

He didn't do anything.

The Chiefs took him out.

So what did

Kelly Moore and

Jalen Hurts do?

They took the ball and went with it.

They found another way to win.

And

I was impressed by that.

This was during the time when he was rumored to have been taken the head coaching job down here in New Orleans.

I was watching it closely.

at that point and i was sold at that moment so i'm i'm confident with the offense i'm confident that he'll get that right i mean the last offensive minded head coach that we had won us a super bowl and

so i'm looking to see look i'm not going to put too much pressure on the dude i'm not saying he's the next sean payton but the potential is there but when it comes to the defense

I am a fan of

Brandon Staley because,

once again,

he is returning to San Diego as well.

Well,

not San Diego anymore,

but to the Chargers as well.

He was the former head coach there for a couple of years.

Now he's coming back as the defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints.

And as a defensive coordinator,

he's really good.

As a head coach,

not so much.

He mirrors

Dennis Allen.

Dennis Allen,

awesome defensive coordinator,

horrible head coach.

You know,

not everybody is built to lead in that way.

Or,

to put it,

you know,

to go more in depth,

it could be the situation.

Sometimes it has to be the right team,

right time,

right system,

or quarterback,

or whatever,

right owner that's willing to give you the chance.

Everything has to click.

You know,

same thing with Sean Payton when he came here.

Everything had to click.

He was brought in.

He was basically left alone,

told to run this team,

build this team,

and get us some victories.

And he was left alone to his own devices,

and he found the way to win.

You know,

got the players he wanted.

You didn't have a prying GM or a prying owner that was on his back.

At least.

early on uh mickey loomis i believe started really getting involved after the fact uh or later and that's what ultimately uh called sean payton to leave here but that was the right situation

for sean payton at that time uh with brandon staley that wasn't the right time for him to be the head coach he probably could be a good head coach just not at that time for that team

when he was with the Chargers,

and so on and so forth.

So as a defensive coordinator,

I have no qualms with him at all.

He's a really good defensive coordinator.

He's implementing his new,

well,

not new,

but new to us,

this 3-4 defense,

and

I think that does nothing but benefit this team.

We are built.

If you look at the personnel for the New Orleans Saints defense,

This team is...

built for a 3-4 defense you know i can see brian berzee flourish in this defense i can see uh chase young flourish in this style defense you know and

we got some nice young linebackers who are even challenging um demario davis at this point but we have some really good ones uh the one we just drafted what's his name uh struckman he's been having a really good camp

Our secondary looks great.

Even with the retirement of the Honey Badger,

Tyron Matthew,

the secondary still looks strong back there.

We look like we got the best secondary in years.

and I'm trying not to get overly excited because I haven't seen them actually play on the field,

but I've watched some videos of

Camp and read some reports from Camp.

I'm strongly encouraged by what's been said about this group,

and

I can't wait to see it on the field.

So that's the biggest thing I'm excited for going into this week's game against the Chargers.

Now,

I know we're not going to get,

you know,

maximum play calling packages.

This is preseason week one.

It's going to be vanilla as vanilla can get.

is going to be

pretty basic i don't think we're going to see any blitzes and stunts and all this here yeah i mean they've been practicing against each other all week so it's not like there's a need to uh evaluate any further going up against this team we've seen it we've

seen it all week uh but uh to actually see live bullets on the screen man for this for this franchise i am i am super excited and so i You know,

I...

I know we normally do our predictions and whatnot,

but it's preseason.

We're not going to do predictions.

This isn't about wins and losses the next couple of weeks.

I could care less if the Saints win or not.

I just want to see progression in certain players.

I want to see progression in our offensive line,

how our offensive line is pieced together as it is.

Will it work?

Will moving pinning?

in the guard position work i i was a huge huge champion of this because i think he's built more for a guard not a tackle he struggles with tackle but i think he's more ferocious you know as as mean as he is he he needs to be a guard so moving

him to guard i think is a plus i just i can't wait to see that uh the rookie uh calvin banks jr love to see how he pans out

uh the second year for uh uh uh talian say foreski i think i got his name i think i got it right i want to see how he progressed as well um on defense chase

young man chase young i need him to step it up but the one person i need to step up even more is isaac foreski and i say step up just step because i haven't seen him what is

Is he on a team?

We drafted him pretty high.

I think he was second round pick a couple of years ago.

And so why isn't he on the field?

Why can't he get on the field?

Can somebody please explain?

Cam Jordan is begging to retire.

He can't because this dude cannot outperform

Cam Jordan.

And Cam Jordan has visibly lost a step.

It's not even worth debating.

He is not.

Cam Jordan,

as much as I love him,

he's a Hall of Famer in my heart.

He has lost a step,

man.

He has lost actually a couple of steps.

And so

I need Isaac Forsky to be that next man up,

man,

to take the reins.

Cam Jordan rides off into the sunset after this season or whenever he decides.

I need to see something from Forsky.

Grandison.

Carl Grandison,

need to see something from him.

Ever since he got his extension,

his contract,

he's disappeared.

He looked good.

When it was contract year,

he was a beast that year.

Got his money,

the same old thing.

Let's see about Kool-Aid McKendry.

We got issues.

I was raving about our secondary.

And I'm still high on my secondary,

but let's not forget,

let's not act like it's like we're like we're blind here.

This is what we lost in the last few months in our secondary.

Traded away Marshawn Lattimore,

Paulson Adebo.

He lost him to free agency and the Honey Badger retired.

That's three big pieces.

And these weren't just.

Position fillers here.

These were our top people in the secondary.

And so it's going to be,

it's going to be rough,

but,

but we are still scrum there because we brought in Justin Reed.

We brought in,

uh,

or brought back,

uh,

Isaac Yeldon.

Uh,

uh,

you brought in

Justin Blackman.

You,

you drafted Quincy Raleigh.

You,

you,

you brought in some really good players here,

you know,

and you still got.

alante telly and like i mentioned before you still have kool-aid mckendry so it's very strong back there and i'm pretty sure i'm leaving some names out and i can't think of them right now so you're strong there but i want to see how these group of men mesh together on the field because communication is key and

if there's a lack of communication in the secondary the saints are in for a very very long season but that's what i'm looking for this

game.

I just want to see and I know it's going to be a little bumpy.

We're probably going to get about 10 flags in the first couple of drives here due to the excitement of being back on the field and hitting somebody that's not wearing the same color helmet as you.

I'm expecting a sloppy game.

I know we got a new system here and all type of stuff,

but that's not going to stop me from

evaluating these guys and how we feel moving forward in the who that nation but i i'm i am so excited man i am so happy that football is back happy to be talking about my new orleans saints we're about the journey into a new season here i

i need this man i need this in the worst way and i know a lot of people in the who that nation have been jonesing for some football it was looking bleak for a minute

You know,

for a little while,

I had put in my mind,

I'm not watching the New Orleans Saints this season until a certain somebody retired in the offseason that just made me so much happy.

It brought me so much happiness.

You have no idea.

But it wasn't until that moment that I started paying attention,

and then

I got excited moving forward.

But I am so happy because so much has been going on.

in new orleans not not just the world but we could just put it in new orleans man man we didn't have terror attacks we didn't had snow uh blizzards and uh escape convicts and it's been going crazy in 2025 when it comes to the city of new orleans it's it's i

don't know what to say i i don't know i need something to take my mind off of the madness that is going on around me but uh

the saints are here to distract me for at least or distract all of us for at least three

three hours on a sunday i can't wait for this don't forget to check back after the game when we recap the game and and uh give some some analysis on it you know we're not gonna dive in too deep deep of it i mean come on it's a preseason game but we're gonna talk a little bit about the game and the results of the game and who stood out and who needs to improve after

the Saints defeat the

Chargers.

on sunday evening or afternoon i think the kickoff is at 305 sunday so uh be on the lookout for that be on the lookout for the who that said podcast all season long going forward it is started i

have bitten off officially bitten off more than i can chew i have tied up my weekends with the start it is uh for the next 20 weeks i think 21 weeks

We'll see if I can make it a whole season without my pressure being shot through the roof.

But I would love to know,

what are you looking forward to this Sunday?

What matchups are you looking forward to?

The quarterback battle,

the running back battle.

I didn't even mention the running backs because there is a battle.

Not for Alvin Kamara's starting spot,

but who's going to back up Alvin Kamara?

The Saints have a lot of...

running backs on the roster we drafted Devin Neal we have Cam Akers we have uh Clyde Edwards uh Hilaire uh Kendrick Miller is there so it's a lot of running backs on this roster that we won't make uh

but we'll see who makes it because that is a very important position on this squad or is it Rob receiver or

Are you looking in the secondary or the defense as a whole or the offensive line?

I would love to know who are you paying attention to this Sunday?

Live from Los Angeles,

California.

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Hey,

everybody.

Thank you for joining me as we previewed week one of the

NFL preseason

Saints versus the Chargers.

Oh,

man.

Football is back.

Don't forget.

After the game,

I'll be back to discuss it.

Until then,

I'm going to be screaming,

Who dat?

Saints vs Chargers Preseason Game One Preview

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