This was a transformative offseason for the New Orleans Saints and a lot of people are feeling good, but not everyone. Andrew Podell, of CBS Sports, put the Saints near the bottom of his recent offseason rankings from around the league.
Here was his reasoning for putting the Saints as the rank No. 27 in his list:
The New Orleans Saints’ signing of Derek Carr to a four-year, $150 million deal (two years, $70 million in terms of money he’s definitely going to see) has likely locked them into the NFC South title in 2023, but there’s a ceiling here. New Orleans needs Michael Thomas to play ball in 2022 and serve as the No. 2 option in the passing game behind second-year rising star Chris Olave…
Plus, almost every key player on their roster has had their contract restructured, meaning the Saints are set to have about -$61 million in cap space entering the 2024 offseason, the lowest figure in the league according to OverTheCap.com. Since this is their reality, they had to let almost all of their starters on their defensive front… New Orleans utilized its first two draft picks on defensive linemen, but there’s no guarantee that they’re impact players right away…
For a salary cap-starved team like New Orleans, Williams’ money could’ve been better allocated to positions of higher value. The Saints roster is stacked up like a house of cards for 2023, but it could come tumbling down in 2024…
These sentiments seem to once again place far too much emphasis on the departure of the three defensive starters that we have heard about again and again. Marcus Davenport was almost a non-factor with just half a sack record, David Onyemata was just a run of the mill defensive tackle and Kaden Elliss was a third-string linebacker with a good season that the Saints were never going to pay.
The implication that paying Jamaal Williams $12 million over three years is what was keeping the Saints from making any major moves is just incorrect, as they are still in the middle of the league in available cap space.
Lastly, the wide receiver room could be deeper, but there was no mention of Rashid Shaheed’s breakout role as a UDFA as a potential wide receiver two no matter what happens with Michael Thomas. It’s hardly one of the biggest worries on the team.
The New Orleans Saints didn’t have an A+ offseason or anything, but saying that they had one of the worst is just plain wrong. They’re a much better team this year than they were last year, with an improving cap space situation to please the naysayers.
