Here’s some much-needed clarity on the one-year contract between the New Orleans Saints and free agent safety Daniel Sorensen. NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill first reported that the Saints signed Sorensen to a one-year deal valued at $1.27 million, guaranteeing him only $500,000. Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson adds that Sorensen received a base salary at the veteran’s minimum for someone of his experience, $1.12 million, along with a $152,500 signing bonus.
From a financial perspective, this is about as low-stakes a signing as it gets. Because this contract carries such a low value it displaces another minimum deal for a less-seasoned player, ultimately costing the Saints just a couple hundred dollars against the salary cap (remember, at this stage in the offseason only the top 51 contracts are weighed against the cap). That’s good value for someone with eight NFL seasons behind them, having averaged a modest $2.6 million per-year with Kansas City.
And the Saints won’t be expecting Sorensen to start. He said that he and the team envision a role playing special teams and some defense during his introductory press conference, which is a role New Orleans has asked other veteran safeties to fill in recent years. Jeff Heath did it last season — totaling 318 snaps in the kicking game and just 73 snaps on defense. A year earlier, D.J. Swearing had a more-balanced workload with 90 snaps on special teams but 124 reps with the defense. But that was the plan with Marcus Williams playing every down.
Maybe the plan is different with Marcus Maye in the mix. He’s still recovering from Nov. 2021 Achilles surgery and could be suspended early in 2022 following a Feb. 2021 DUI charge. The Saints haven’t re-signed P.J. Williams yet, and it’s possible he leaves in free agency. Bringing Sorensen into the fold does add some veteran depth behind Malcolm Jenkins, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and J.T. Gray, but the Saints look a lot shakier at the position than they did just a few months ago.
