The New Orleans Saints didn’t exactly move mountains to accommodate Derek Carr, but it’s tough to look at some of their free agent signings and not think that it was a move to help make him happy. Some of Carr’s favorite targets have followed him from the Las Vegas Raiders to New Orleans, and one of them is hoping to reestablish himself as a playmaker in the NFL.
But who is Bryan Edwards? He’s fallen far from a breakout 2021 season with Carr and the Raiders, and this might be it for his pro career if he can’t bounce back with the Saints. Let’s get to know him a little better now that he’ll be wearing black and gold:
Edwards was rated as a four-star recruit coming out of Conway High School in South Carolina, choosing to stay in-state with the Gamecocks over offers from Clemson, Duke, and Georgia. It was a good decision; he immediately played as a freshman, catching 44 passes for 590 yards in 2016 while pushing future pros Deebo Samuel and Hayden Hurst for targets, and he only improved on those numbers over the next three seasons. Edwards led South Carolina in receiving in 2017 and 2019, trailing Samuel by just 36 yards for the team lead in 2018.
Edwards weighed in at 6-foot-2 3/4 and 212 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine, though he did not complete athletic testing and the COVID-19 pandemic canceled South Carolina’s pro day. The Raiders selected him in the third round at No. 81 overall, and it didn’t take long for him to impress his coaches in Las Vegas. Edwards will celebrate his 25th birthday in November.
Edwards quickly earned a role in the Raiders offense as a rookie in 2020, totaling 259 snaps (23% of the total) while appearing in a dozen games, but he missed four games with an ankle injury and returned to a lighter workload. But he broke out in a big way the next season, catching 34 passes for 571 receiving yards (16.8 yards per reception), particularly standing out on contested catches — Pro Football Focus charting had him with 10 grabs on 19 contested targets. For context, Michael Thomas and Chris Olave led the Saints with 8 contested catches each last year.
The Raiders traded Edwards to the Atlanta Falcons in 2022 in a surprise move, upgrading their 2023 seventh-round pick to a fifth rounder in the process. It was the first of a series of puzzling personnel decisions by head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, who quickly got to work recruiting anyone who may have conceivably made a coffee run for Tom Brady when they were all together with the New England Patriots (and now Brady is becoming a minority owner of the team, of course).
As for Edwards: he initially performed well at Falcons training camp but was slowed down by a preseason injury, and ultimately appeared in just seven games for Atlanta, catching 3 passes for 15 yards as an afterthought in their offense. Atlanta cut Edwards in November and he spent December on the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad, only to be released before their Super Bowl run in January.
So what are realistic expectations for Edwards in 2023? The Saints have a crowded receiving corps with a good mix of veterans (Tre’Quan Smith, James Washington, Keith Kirkwood, and Kirk Merritt) as well as some promising first-year pros (A.T. Perry, Shaquan Davis, and Malik Flowers) and Edwards needs to outplay all of them to make the team.
He only signed at the veteran’s minimum and the Saints can release him without much salary cap impact if he doesn’t work out. Hopefully he can be as effective a run-blocker as he was in college and with the Raiders to help his case, buying opportunities to show off what he and Carr can do together as a quarterback and receiver who know each other well.
