Remember when you couldn’t say the word “lie” as a kid, so you had to find other ways to say it? In our house, it was “told a story.” For the New Orleans Saints, the word they won’t say is rebuild. New Orleans is firmly in the midst of a rebuilding process. Everyone knows it, but you won’t hear it from the mouths of Kellen Moore or Mickey Loomis.

Loomis did everything but say the word during a recent interview with WWL. The interview touched on a variety of topics, but one of the first things discussed is the Saints current record. New Orleans stands at 1-6, and no one is ever happy at 1-6. At this point there was no point in denying the Saints are rebuilding. Loomis had said it in his own way.

“We didn’t expect to be 1-6, but we also recognized that in a lot of ways this was going to be a development year. Playing a lot of young players. We have a new coaching staff. Trying to identify and develop a quarterback.”

Kellen Moore, Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough are clear signs of a Saints rebuild or whatever Mickey Loomis wants to call it

Developmental year is a great way to state it. It’s an accurate assessment of what the Saints are doing and where they’re at. It also sounds better than rebuild, which no NFL team would want to say about themselves.

The Saints have the two biggest components of a rebuild: new coach and young quarterback. Usually, teams with either one of those aspects are in some sort of a rebuild. As for New Orleans, it has both of them, and Loomis pointed them both out.

Kellen Moore’s rookie year is a topic that hasn’t been discussed much since the season started. The truth is it’s a story that’s best projected or reflected upon. He made some rookie mistakes early, but it’s best to wait until the end of the season to truly evaluate.

Quarterback is a different story. The performance of Spencer Rattler has been dissected (over-discussed, under-discussed and properly discussed) every week. A week hasn’t gone by where the play of Rattler or Tyler Shough’s timeline wasn’t conversed about extensively.

Is Spencer Rattler or Tyler Shough the future? The answer could just as easily be neither. There’s a lot that needs to be seen before making that statement definitively. All we know is the Saints are currently looking for their franchise quarterback and haven’t made the playoffs since Drew Brees retired.

This is just Year One of the rebuild. It’ll be a multi-year process, and it won’t stop until we know if Moore is a good coach AND until the Saints find a quarterback.