The New Orleans Saints saw their defensive line roster from 2022 bought away from them early on in free agency, leaving a lot of questions behind.
The defensive line now has to be rebuilt, particularly on the interior with DT David Onyemata headed to the Falcons and Shy Tuttle headed to the Panthers. But that was always going to be the case, explained Mike Triplett of NewOrleans.football this week on WWL Radio.
“I think they would’ve liked to have had those guys back, but those guys were gonna have to be part of a rotation. That is a position they wanted to upgrade," Triplett said. "And it’s not just stopping the run, which has been such a specialty for this team for so long and really, surprisingly fell by the wayside this past year. But they want to get some pass rush out of that 3-technique spot, too.”
Listen to the full interview with Mike Triplett in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Along with the two interior linemen, who each signed high-dollar, 3-year deals with their new teams, the Saints also saw Marcus Davenport agree to a 1-year deal with the Minnesota Vikings. The Falcons struck again with a 3-year, $21.5 million contract for breakout linebacker Kaden Elliss later in the day.
"I’m not surprised [the Saints] didn’t pay the prices that we saw those guys go for in the open market," Triplett continued. "But I do think the Saints are going to reinvest that money in new defensive tackles. I absolutely think they are going to invest at least one of their premium draft choices at defensive tackles as well.”
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In all, the four defenders collected roughly $40 million per season combined in their new deals on the first day of the NFL's legal tampering period. Free agent contracts can't become official until March 15. It was a day of big spending for the Falcons, who also brought in free agent safety Jessie Bates on a whopping 4-year, $64 million contract. But those big numbers are here to stay, particularly as the salary cap continues to increase, as Triplett explains.
“I think we’re all going to have to recalibrate what players cost at every position and it’ll be nice for the Saints because they’re gonna be getting out of salary cap deficits over the next few years now that we’re coming up back out of COVID," Triplett said. "But the salary cap is going to go up and up and up. … $35 million will now get you like the 16th-highest paid quarterback in the league. $30 million is what receivers are about to cost.”
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The Saints made their big free agent splash last week by signing QB Derek Carr to a 4-year, $150 million deal, but have otherwise settled for retaining their own players. The team has re-signed special team ace J.T. Gray, QB Jameis Winston, TE Juwan Johnson, DE Tanoh Kpassagnon, WR Keith Kirkwood and G Calvin Throckmorton.
Moves could be coming soon, however, with the team reaching cap compliance and having cleared a $69 million cap overage ahead of the Wednesday deadline. CB Marshon Lattimore, DE Cam Jordan and RB Alvin Kamara were the final three restructures executed to get there.