We've got questions. Do the Saints have answers?

Good morning, and welcome to the Saints Insider Newsletter for Wednesday, July 19. Let's have an existential conversation, shall we? 

A brand new Carr?

Wednesday morning, we launched the first part in our five-part series taking a look at the biggest questions facing the Saints organization at the moment. The answers, however they play out, may indicate what direction the franchise's arrow is pointed.

First up: Let's consider the case of Derek Carr, who has a lot of people within the organization excited about 2023's possibilities. But make no mistake, the Saints did make a bit of a gamble when they committed $150 million to Carr, who has to prove there is more to his game than the Raiders allowed him to be. 

This Saints Insider's take: I think we're going to see the best version of Derek Carr this season, but I'm not yet convinced that is enough to make the Saints a legitimate contender. We shall see. 

We'll be posting these throughout the week over at nola.com, with new stories launching daily around 7 a.m. 

Camp duels

We are officially less than a week away from the start of training camp, which of course means it's time to dig into the juiciest morsels of that pre-camp period: Position battles. 

The Saints should have their fair share of them during camp this year, which in my (correct) opinion, is a good thing — unless, of course, it's a competition between two or more who probably shouldn't be starting NFL players. 

That shouldn't be a problem with this group: Beat writer Terrin Waack leads off her camp battles series with a look at a pretty deep Saints offensive line ... as long as they're healthy.

The last "holdout" ends 

Do you ever long for the halcyon days of rookie holdouts during training camp? Yeah, me either. 

When the NFL reached a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2011, with it came a new rookie wage scale that locks drafted players into four or five years of affordable contractual control, effectively ending rookie holdouts. 

And the Saints officially don't have to worry about it again this year: Defensive end Isaiah Foskey, the last remaining unsigned member of the draft class, officially signed his deal Wednesday. 

Saints trivia

So many of y'all nailed last week's trivia question that I figured I'd make this one a little harder for you and not have it feature a Saints Hall of Famer. 

In 52 days, the Saints will open their 2023 season against the Tennessee Titans in the Superdome. In honor of that, who is the last Saints player to wear a No. 52 uniform in a regular-season game at the Superdome? 

Two clues to this admittedly deep cut. 

• He earned All-American honors during his college career at Auburn.
• He appeared in just five games with the Saints before another team plucked him off the Saints practice squad.

We'll have an answer to that question in tomorrow's newsletter.

Cheers,

Luke Johnson