It wasn't all that long ago when rumors swirled over a possible relocation of the New Orleans Saints.  Their stadium was raveged, they were playing a full season essentially on the road, and their main weapons on the offensive end were a pair of 33-year olds in Joe Horn and Antowain Smith. 

In an interview prior to the Super Bowl, Saints running back Reggie Bush admitted to not wanting to play in New Orleans after being selected second overall in 2006.  Who can blame a college star at the top of his game for not wanting to leave sunny Los Angeles where he would have to take a trip across the country and call New Orleans "home."  Four years later, Bush and his teammates wouldn't likely have it any other way.

Thanks to the key additions of Drew Brees, Jonathan Vilma, Jeremy Shockey and Darren Sharper coupled with the 2006 draft that provided Bush along with Roman Harper and Marques Colston, the Saints went from one of the worst franchises in the league to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in less than half of a decade. 

While this gives hope to the teams that are currently among the worst in the NFL, most should think of this as the exception more than the norm.  The teams that select early in the first round this season are St. Louis, Detroit, Tampa Bay, Washington and Kansas City.  While this is not looking to be a salary capped season, these five teams have consistently been drafting earlier in the past years, meaning that a lot of money is tied up in bonuses and contracts.  The Saints took to the draft in 2006 and left with four players who are currently starting today. 

Those that are cash-strapped will also not be going out and acquiring Drew Brees, Jonathan Goodwin and Scott Fujita in the free agency market.  They're likely to hold on to their draft picks instead of trading them for Jonathan Vilma and Jeremy Shockey. 

Perhaps what teams are likely to do is not what they should be doing, if the road map which has been laid out by the Saints is any indication.  New Orleans addressed their needs quickly and with impact players.  They used early round selections to draft starters and used several second-on-down selections to either trade up in the draft or trade for current pros who were no longer desired by their respective former teams. 

There is no telling what the current futile bunch of the NFL will do to resurrect their standing in the league, but if the Saints proved anything, it is that it takes a very careful balance of drafting and free agent acquisitions.  The quarterback is a position that many like to address via the draft, developing talent.  The Saints opted to go big with a risky free agent acquisition.  Some prefer to take wide receivers early in the drafting process, where one of the Saints current starters was selected in the seventh round. 

Whatever these single-digit win total teams have in store for 2010 and beyond remains to be seen.  But if they learned anything from the New Orleans Saints, it is that they are running out of excuses with each year that passes.

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(Photo credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)