After Jordyn Tyson took a maintenance day yesterday, in May, some people reacted like his hamstrings are still absolutely shot. Naturally, I did what any rational dynasty manager would do and started digging into the Saints to cope. What I found actually made me feel a lot better.
In 2024, the Saints hired Ted Rath, one of the most respected sports performance coaches in the NFL. He has been named the NFL Strength Coach of the year twice by his peers, and he previously led player performance for the Eagles and Rams and has built a reputation for reducing preventable soft tissue injuries through individualized training, workload monitoring, and recovery optimization.
The most notable thing, the Saints reportedly reduced soft tissue injuries from 71 to 20 in a single season after overhauling their approach under Ted.
Does this eliminate all of Tyson’s injury risk? Of course not. His history still matters. But if the Saints were comfortable enough to spend top-10 draft capital on him, that tells me their medical staff believed in the long-term outlook and they have a plan to keep Tyson on the field.
27 2nd is projected early-mid
28 2nds are base
Team attached
I know I’m paying a lot to move up, but I’ve found it impossible to trade for a QB (which presumably would be Mendoza as the pick at 1.04). I’ve built up quite a war chest of picks, and I need to cash in at some point because I only have so many roster spots.
How bad is it? I’m happy I don’t have to give up any 1sts too.
I’m in a rebuild with no QB2 and trying to think a step ahead.
If Fernando Mendoza ends up sitting for a TBD amount of games to start this upcoming season, does that actually give rebuilding managers an edge over say a Tate, Tyson, or Lemon who are great WR prospects but would ultimately pump up max PF numbers and jeopardize the Jeremiah Smith sweepstakes.
Basically:
• Lower production early = better odds at higher pick in 2027
• But still hold a QB with long-term upside in a Kubiak offense
Feels like a win-win if you’re intentionally trying not to compete this year, but I’m not sure if I’m overthinking it.
What are some of the early drafters in a similar boat thinking?