Zack Baun looks back on a tough four years with the New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints never figured out how to use Zack Baun throughout his rookie contract. Now that he’s playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, he’s starting to look back at what went wrong with the Saints.

Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein recently spoke with Baun about his time in New Orleans and those four years seemed incredibly tough for him:

“There were days in New Orleans where I just came home and cried,” Baun said. “I played with the ball; Now it’s my turn. I made a few mistakes and then I felt like I let myself and the organization down in that situation. Then they moved me to (strong linebacker) and then I was like, ‘Damn, they moved me.’ I must not be doing well.’ Then I would make another mistake.

“It crossed my mind that I felt like I wasn’t good anymore.”

In 15 games with the Eagles this season, he has 145 tackles with 3.5 sacks and 11 tackles for a loss. That’s more in every category than he had during his entire time with the Saints.

Although the talent was easy to see when New Orleans drafted him in 2020, there were immediate questions about fit. He was an All-American edge rusher with the Wisconsin Badgers, but the Saints just never took advantage of that. Due to their need for size on defense, they moved him to the off-ball linebacker role.

From 2020 to 2022, he had just 58 tackles, including two for a loss and no sacks. It was hardly used. Baun still only played 27% of defensive snaps in 2023, but started to break out in the second half of the season when they finally allowed him to get to quarterback.

The linebacker finished the season with 30 tackles with two sacks and four tackles for a loss.

The failure to adapt to the existing talent is a big reason New Orleans’ previous coaching regime is now defunct. Maybe the next group can learn from their mistakes and start modernizing on both sides of the ball.