There has to be another shoe about to drop on Malcolm Jenkins’ decision to retire from the NFL. Right now, the New Orleans Saints are running thin at safety; players under contract for 2022 include C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Marcus Maye, and special teamers J.T. Gray and Daniel Sorensen. It’s rough, and it should push the Saints to look again to free agency — starting with Tyrann Mathieu, the best safety available.
Gardner-Johnson has almost exclusively played over the slot for New Orleans, and while Sorensen has started before he’s playing on a minimum salary and shouldn’t be expected to get many minutes on defense. Maye is still recovering from Achilles surgery and could be suspended early in the season stemming from a DUI arrest last year. They need at least one more player.
Mathieu feels like an easy fit in New Orleans. Beyond his hometown hero status, he’s a three-time All-Pro who can fill many of the same play responsibilities that Jenkins has done. The Saints like to run two safeties together, and while Marcus Williams gave them enough range to patrol the top on his own Dennis Allen has expressed a preference for having two players with interchangeable skills sets. Mathieu and Maye could accomplish that as safeties with experience playing all over the field.
It’s not like the Saints don’t have enough cap space to go chase Mathieu. They’re under the salary cap by as much as $21.6 million, and losing both of their starting safeties in the same offseason is a good reason to invest in two of the best free agents available. We know that Mathieu has been on the radar for a few weeks now (and the feeling is said to be mutual). Allen could point to his two veteran safeties as a pair of capable starters who can right the ship in the secondary, keeping Gardner-Johnson in his best spot.
Some fans may worry about the impact a Mathieu signing would have on the 2023 compensatory draft pick formula, but the Saints have already shown us they aren’t prioritizing that by signing Andy Dalton to wipe out a projected third round pick. Signing Maye in the first place took a fourth rounder off the board, too. If the Saints aren’t planning on getting any comp picks anyway, they may as well lean into it and bring in Mathieu. Considering how dangerous things could get with such a major, unaddressed need on the roster going into the draft, they may not have a choice.
