“The Athletic Football Show” is previewing all 32 teams leading up to the start of the 2026 NFL season. Below are select quotes from the show’s preview of the New Orleans Saints. The quotes are edited for clarity. You can watch the whole preview on YouTube and in the embedded video below, or listen to the full NFC South preview wherever you get your podcasts.Dave Helman on what about the Saints most excites him: My enthusiasm is slightly dampened by the Jordyn Tyson situation, but even still, it’s Year 2 of Tyler Shough, and the Saints have done a remarkable job of improving the supporting cast around him. Getting Travis Etienne in there at the price that they did was great. I don’t know if he’s going to change the game for the New Orleans Saints, but it is much better than what they’ve had.Taliese Fuaga, Brandon (Thorn from “Trench Warfare”) has him ranked 20th among 32 right tackles heading into Year 3. Kelvin Banks comes in at 18th out of 40 left tackles after one season. They paid a premium for David Edwards, but he is a top-10 guard. Erik McCoy, top-five center when healthy, which, please God. And even Cesar Ruiz, who probably gets the least amount of pub among this offensive line, was the ninth-best right guard among 34 ranked. The potential is here for this to be a kick-ass unit.Derrik Klassen on what he’s watching the first month of the season: I’m watching the defense. We’ve mentioned it a number of times this offseason. Towards the back half of the year, the Saints defense was really good. They were third in EPA per play. When you bring in a new play caller, it (can) take them half the year to really get going. And I think that you really saw Brandon Staley’s defense start to come into its own.