Should the Saints Sign Keenan Allen?
What becomes better with age? A bottle of wine may require years before it reaches the pinnacle of its flavor. Many types of cheeses develop richer and more complex flavors with time. Compared to new hires, a company benefits more from long-term employees who have already become accustomed to and are well-aware of the culture and processes of the firm. Your favorite piece of clothing is likely a worn-out pair of jeans that are comfortable for you to relax in while watching a football game on an autumn Sunday afternoon. It may not feel like it at the time, but the aging has improved that wine, that cheese, and those jeans.
Obviously, as a member of the staff in charge of assembling the offense and defense. You’ll look for young talent, fresh out of college, who are frequently mentioned by analysts during a news broadcast following the game. The drawback to this is primarily not knowing “how things are done at the professional level,” which requires valuable time, attention, and training. Although it may be frowned upon in sports, there are some positive aspects of having an athlete in his late 20s or early 30s because he already possesses the experience and knowledge of playing at that level. This specifically applies to the position of wide receiver, who has likely spent several seasons memorizing routes, learning when to expect the quarterback to pass the ball, and is already aware of which opposing players to avoid while on the field. One of the factors that has been preventing the New Orleans Saints from having a good season is the lack of experienced and established players who already know how to play at the professional level.
One of the remedies for the Saints would be the signing of Keenan Allen. He has been in the NFL since 2013, beginning with the San Diego Chargers, staying with the team when they relocated to Los Angeles in 2017, and remained until the end of the 2023 season. At the time of his departure from the Chargers, he had played 139 games while starting in 134 of them, had 10,530 receiving yards from 904 receptions, and scored 59 touchdowns. In March of 2024, he was traded to the Chicago Bears in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the following month’s draft. When compared with his stats as a Charger, his initial season on the Bears didn’t yield him any impressive numbers with the amount of receptions equal to around the average amount of his first three seasons in Los Angeles and receiving yards being close to the lowest he had in a single season of his professional career. You probably couldn’t expect a player to have a standout performance in his first season with a new team, particularly after having spent 11 seasons with the same organization. Given the pool of qualified and successful receivers already on the team, it would be in the best interest of the Saints to add another established NFL player to this upcoming season’s roster.
