We take a break from our usual Saints news and banter to talk about an important charitable cause all three of us are involved in, that is: Hogs for the Cause and our Hogs team: "Deadpork" (Ryan Reynolds has not yet technically approved our appropriation of his movie title, but it's for a good cause, right?!). For those who may not know, Hogs for the Cause, now in its sixteenth year, raises millions of dollars annually to assist families and their children fighting pediatric brain cancer, through the help of over 90 teams who compete in a barbeque competition - this year occurring on April 5-6 in New Orleans - as Hogs originated. Hogs is now a barbeque competition and full-blown music festival all in one, featuring numerous bands playing on three separate stages over the course of two days.

Since 2016, Max, Nick, and Corey have been part of their Hogs team, Deadpork, so to explain more about the efforts behind Hogs and to spread awareness regarding our annual fundraising efforts to support this amazing cause, we invited our good friend and team captain, Clint Scroggs, to join the pod and give everyone more detail. Of course, Clint also has some hilarious stories to share from years past at the Hogs festival and just from being friends with all three co-hosts in general. This is definitely a must-listen - yes, for your entertainment; but also so you can learn more on how you can contribute or simply learn more about an extremely worthwhile cause and amazing New Orleans festival. LISTEN IN!

We've done this exercise before, for Chris Olave. The exercise, now known as: The 28 to 3 Pod "Game Show" has proven to be one of our favorite, and maybe most effective, ways of determining exactly where a player ranks league-wide, despite our biased feelings (rightfully so) as Saints fans who may have trouble separating our positive (or negative) feelings from any given hometown player.

So, we put Derek Carr through the game show process. In his case, it obviously seems like the majority of Who Dats have negative feelings towards Carr (to put it lightly), leading many to say they'd rather anyone else under center. But, when compared head to head against every other starting QB's in the league, would that be justified? Maybe it is., maybe it isn't - maybe...the answer isn't black and white.

After we go through every starting NFL QB and simply say "Yes or No" to him or Carr, we feel confident the picture behind that answer will be more clear. This was definitely a fun and maybe even enlightening episode. LISTEN IN! WHO DAT?!

The Saints are now a full week into the Free Agency signing period (a little more counting the "legal tampering" period). We recap the team's moves, especially the big Chase Young signing - and, as of the day we recorded this, the big Chase Young injury news (aka the most "Saints" thing ever). Obviously, before the Chase Young signing, the moves were pretty small ones, at best, especially compared to some of the big splashes our rivals had made. But, do we like this apparent sign of financial restraint from the Saints, or does the lack of significant signings simply beg for the team to do more to address certain needs?

We go pretty in-depth into the Chase Young signing and address the accusations by some that he seems to be simply another Marcus Davenport-"type" of player. There's some strong disagreement on that one.

We also address the more positive aspects of the players we did sign, such as Willie Gay and Cedrick Wilson. Definitely worth a listen to help get your mind right as the Saints further navigate free agency ahead of the draft. LISTEN IN! WHO DAT?

It's one of the biggest questions asked every year in the lead up to the NFL Draft: What are the chances our team will land its next franchise QB if it trades significant draft capital to move up and draft one of the top 3 QB's in the draft? After this episode (and thanks to some impressive analysis by our resident-stat/numbers guru, Nick), we have your answer. It may be what you're thinking, but the actual chance of such a move solidifying your QB of the future may surprise you.

Applying the question to this year's draft: Unless you've been living under a rock, it's common knowledge at this point that the top 3 rated.QB's in the 2024 draft are widely predicted to go off the board with the top 3 picks. As Saints fans not so "enamored" with our current QB (to put it nicely) and unsure of the future of the position beyond next season, a lot of talk is out there about the Saints "trading up" to get a QB in the 1st round - some even mentioning into that top 3, knowing it'll cost a serious price in future draft picks..

BUT - as good as Caleb, Jayden, and Drake may seem to be, can an investment in any of them provide even a coin-flip of a chance that - if drafted - they'll even be worthy of signing a second contract with the team?

In this episode, we go in-depth through every QB drafted in the first round over the past 10 years and vote whether we'd have given that QB the going-rate QB extension deal after his rookie contract is up. What percentage of those did we give the nod to? What percentage of that were QB's drafted by a team who gave up significant draft picks to go get them? This episode will give you all the answers, and very well may have DEFINITIVELY answered the question of whether it is ever a good idea to trade up to the top end of. the draft for a QB, regardless of how good he's rated coming out of college.

This was definitely a fun episode to record and an absolute must listen. WHO DAT?!

With the NFL Free Agency legal tampering/signing period beginning, Nick, Max, and Corey discuss potential free agent targets for the Saints, preview the free agent signing period as a whole, and offer some predictions on who they think the Saints will look to bring in. The guys also offer their thoughts on the Lattimore trade rumors and how that could potentially affect the Saints free agent moves. What are the biggest needs to fill in free agency and who’s the highest on our wish lists. Some interesting names come up. LISTEN IN! WHO DAT?!

NFL Draft conversation is in full swing, and who the Saints might pick - or should pick - at No. 14 is on the mind of the Who Dat Nation. With the NFL Combine having just wrapped up in Indy, Max, Nick, and Corey get into who they thought stood out and whose performance at the Combine should cause the Saints to pay closer attention to them. We also get into the idea of the Combine as a whole. We love it as fans, especially when there isn't a whole lot else going on in the football world; but, how much does it actually matter to an NFL team's evaluation of a player in the long run? How much stock should we put in it as Saints fans? Listen in to get our takes on this year's combine and how we think it will factor into the Saints draft plans. WHO DAT?!

On this "Part 2" of what turned into a marathon episode about the Klint Kubiak hire and Saints offensive revamp, we continue the discussion of what draft prospects could help the Saints fill some of those "signature" or typical offensive positions we've seen highly utilized by the "Shanahan Offenses", i.e. the types of players that Klint Kubiak would like to have at his disposal when calling plays.

Our conversation also shifts into a pretty in depth discussion about the Saints defensive personnel heading into next season, We get into which players can continue to bring value to the team and which ones seem like they should be on the outs or those the team should part ways with. Of course, with that comes the question of who should we look to bring in via free agency and/or the draft. We all agree that a pass rusher is an obvious "must" on the defensive side of the ball. Ultimately we wrap things up by getting back to Kubiak and discuss who this hire puts the most pressure on for the 2024 season. LISTEN IN! WHO DAT?!

The Saints finally made it "official official" and have hired our MUCH needed new OC in Klint Kubiak, and he's bringing his own cavalry with him. Max and Corey talked last episode about the potential, in a very general sense, of bringing Kubiak on board when it was mostly still rumored that he was the guy (pre-Super Bowl); but in this episode we dive deep into specifics on how Kubiak - and the new offensive staff he's bringing in - can hopefully bring about a significant improvement in the Saints offense. That said, do we think he will actually have full autonomy or will DA still try to hold the reigns as HC and dictate game flow/ball control? What offensive skill guys on the team now seem to fit the scheme that Kubiak and Co. will bring to the Saints this upcoming season?

Also, this episode is actually a "Part 1" of this whole discussion, as our recording ended up going a solid hour and a half, much longer than the intended 35-45 minute goal. So, next week (Ep. 65) will bring you "Part 2", in which we get into the impacts on the draft the Kubiak hire brings and the random/tangent 35 minute discussion we have on the defensive outlook for next year as a whole. But first, LISTEN IN to Part 1 of our most recent work of Saints-podcasting art. WHO DAT?!

Damn it feels good to have some POSITIVE Saints news to talk about. After numerous OC interviews, anxiety about how long things were taking, and doubts/concerns that the process was all a front to bring in Jon Chucky Gruden, it appears that the Saints got their guy as the new Offensive Coordinator in Klint Kubiak. Of course, we agree that we don’t trust anything until we see the news made official, which by rule can’t come until after the Super Bowl. But, with the expectation that he’s in, Max and Corey talk what the hire would mean for the offense next year and what we like about the move. (Nick had to sit this one out due to a trip to “Guam”, as he claims, for the Prestige Worldwide Catalina Wine Mixer Preview Party).

We also talk about the significance of the Saints moving on from Doug Marrone, if anything a welcome sign that the team is making room for their guy to bring in his own people.

Also, for some BONUS CONTENT, we tackle a very important mailbag question: What’s Max’s take on the announced battle between The Rock and Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania?? Listen in to hear his answer.

WHO DAT?!

Here it is, the Official 28 to 3 Podcast 2023 Saints Season Recap Episode. We look back on the season that was, in detail, position-by-position - PLUS - and most importantly - we review our OWN 2023 Season Predictions, which we laid out in our Season Preview Pod, Episode 23. In this one, we treat yall to a mash-up of clips of our bad takes, our good takes, and we end the episode by leaving you with our #FearlessPredictions, which in hind sight were...well, we'll let you be the judge. This one is a long one - feel free to split up your listening (don't blame you at all there), but it's definitely a MUST LISTEN before the Saints' offseason gets going in earnest. Enjoy this farewell to the Saints 2023 Season, 28 to 3 Podcast style. WHO DAT?!