The New Orleans Saints have been one of the worst teams in the league all season and it seems to stem from their questionable situation at quarterback. The Saints have one of the worst quarterback situations in the league with Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough battling for the QB1 spot.
Shough recently took over as the starting quarterback in New Orleans and has been solid for the Saints, but they were still sellers at the trade deadline. But they didn’t sell as aggressively as many assumed they would.
Instead of selling aggressively, the Saints took a conservative approach and landed some draft capital for a few mid-tier players on the team.
But NFL’s Ian Rapoport recently reported that the Indianapolis Colts were close to acquiring Alontae Taylor in a trade at the deadline before the Colts swung the blockbuster deal for Sauce Gardner that shocked the entire NFL. Rapoport also reported that the Chicago Bears were eyeing Taylor at the deadline.
“Before the Colts stuck their mega deal for Gardner, they had discussions centered around Saints cornerback Alontae Taylor, who drew real interest on Monday and Tuesday,” Rapoport wrote. “In fact, sources say the Bears were deep in talks for Taylor before a deal ended up falling through.
“Taylor, who is in a contract year and likely will get paid this offseason, spent time with Bears defensive coordinator Dennis Allen when he was head coach in New Orleans and the fit made sense. Alas, the Bears ended up dealing with the Browns for pass rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka.”
Taylor would have been a solid addition for the Colts. Indianapolis needed to add some secondary help at the trade deadline, but it made the biggest move imaginable to add Gardner. Gardner is certainly a better upgrade than Taylor would have been.
The Bears could have used Taylor, too, but it seems as though the Saints were being a bit more conservative than many expected them to be. Still, the Bears should have been a bit more aggressive to bring Taylor in. He would have helped with their playoff push in a big way.
The Pittsburgh Penguins had their final practice on Thursday before playing the Nashville Predators in the NHL’s Global Series in Sweden on Friday.
This will be the first of two meetings against the Predators in Sweden before the teams play again for the second and final time on Sunday.
Kindel-Crosby-Rust
Novak-Malkin-Mantha
Dewar-Lizotte-Koppanen
Koivunen-Hayes-Tomasino/Heinen
Wotherspoon-Karlsson
Shea-Letang
Clifton-Brunicke
Dumba-Graves
Heinen appears to be the odd-man out at forward, meaning that Philip Tomasino would get the spot on the fourth line. It’s put up or shut up time for him since he has really struggled to open the season.
Brunicke has been scratched for three games in a row, but if he returns on Friday, his entry-level contract would kick in since it would be his 10th NHL game.
All three goaltenders (Arturs Silovs, Sergei Murashov, and Filip Larsson) got work during practice, but if head coach Dan Muse keeps up the rotation, Silovs would start on Friday. Larsson is up as a third goaltender for this trip after Murashov made his NHL debut last Sunday.
A win would get the Penguins to 10-5-3 and snap a two-game losing streak.