Championship Window Shut In New Orleans?

If you listened closely last night in New Orleans, you heard the latch close on the Saints' Championship window.

Slammed shut? No, but there's no more fresh air coming in. Losing to the Lions on Monday Night Football ensured New Orleans another losing season, their second straight, and the best they can do now is tie last year's 7-9 mark. With the best quarterback in franchise history, you should be competing for championships, not trying to keep the ship from sinking.

The memory of 2009 still lingers in the minds of Who Dat Nation, but that Super Bowl is a long way away. Drew Brees and Sean Payton wrote history in New Orleans, but it's turning more into folklore now if you watch the product on Sundays.

Don't blame Brees. He might not be a spring chicken anymore, but he's the one thing keeping the cart from going completely off the path.

With one of the worst defenses in the history of the NFL the last five years, the 36 year old gunslinger is getting backed into corners he can't shoot his way out of. In six of the Saints' nine losses in 2015, Brees passed for over 250 yards. He's fourth in the league in passing, but the defense is at the bottom of the crud bucket. How can you expect to win when you're giving up over 400 yards of offense and 30 points a game?

Opposing QB's feast against the Saints, and Brees is asked to pretty much be perfect every week. It's too much to ask, which is why Saints fans need to start getting realistic.

It might be a very long time until New Orleans is back in the Super Bowl, and the only way to reopen the championship window is to embrace their young talent for a while...and possibly finish with a few more losing seasons.

I'm not suggesting the Saints gas up the tank and decide to toss away all their assets, but when your best defensive players are in their 20's, it might be time to grow some patience. Stephone Anthony, Hau'oli Kikaha and a deep draft class serve as solid building blocks for the future. Another efficient draft could position you to be good again sooner rather than later, but they can't fool themselves into thinking they're top contenders next season.Trading away pieces for costly free agents obviously hasn't worked for them lately, so they might want to put some players in the slow cooker and let their talents simmer. It's a harsh truth, but does anybody really think this is a quick fix? Didn't think so.

Unfortunately for Drew Brees, this defense might not be able to help him out for another year or two. By that time, how effective will he still be?

The worst mistake a franchise can make is convincing themselves of a false reality. Sean Payton said the Saints' championship window is still slammed open, but it looks like his fingers are caught in a jam. Do you cut off his hands and hire somebody to lift it back up? Absolutely not. Just acknowledge the window is shut, and it's going to take work to get it back open.