The New Orleans Saints didn't exactly jump into the deep end of the 2025 free agency pool, but they did address some clear needs.
A veteran safety to line up next to Tyrann Mathieu? Check. A veteran WR? Check. Upside players locked in at tight end and defensive end? Check and check.
But where does new head coach Kellen Moore land on the current look of the Saints roster? Saints sideline reporter Jeff Nowak and WWL Sports Director Steve Geller broke that down, and the head coach's, top comments from this week's owner's meetings on the latest episode of the Audacy original Inside Black & Gold podcast.
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"I feel like we’ve done a nice job of adding real value to our team," Moore said, "and obviously it’s the beginning process of the whole offseason where you’re continuing to try and acquire guys throughout this whole process, so I feel like we’re heading in the right direction.”
Here's a list of the new players signed this offseason by the Saints:
- S Justin Reid (3 years, $31M)
- WR Brandin Cooks (2 years, $12.5M)
- CB Isaac Yiadom (3 years, $9M)
- OL Dillon Radunz (1 year, $2.2M)
- RB Velus Jones Jr. (1 year, $1.5M)
- OL Will Clapp (1 year, $1.4M)
- TE Jack Stoll (1 year, $1.3M)
- DE Jonah Williams (1 year, $1.2M)
And here's the list of players brought back from last season's roster:
- DE Chase Young (3 years, $51M)
- TE Juwan Johnson (3 years, $30M)
- OL Landon Young (1 year, $2.3M)
- WR Dante Pettis (1 year, $1.3M)
- DB Ugo Amadi (1 year, $1.2M)
“When you go through free agency, players have a choice and I think that’s an important aspect of free agency is they have a choice as well and we feel really excited that a number of guys really had a high desire to come back, come back to New Orleans and be part of the team, be a part of the community," Moore said, "and so it was really cool to get to know those guys in a short period of time as they’ve gone through their process as well.”
The Saints' biggest departure is that of cornerback Paulson Adebo, who signed a 3-year, $54 million contract with the Giants. As of this moment the Saints are projected to land a 4th round compensatory selection in the 2026 draft, barring additional moves. Those won't become official until midway through next offseason.
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The next big opportunity for the Saints to add players will come in the 2025 draft, in which the Saints currently hold nine selections. With that in mind, here are the top five quotes from Kellen Moore this week.
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How has the scouting process gone?
“It’s been great, [scouting director Jeff Ireland] is a rockstar. His ability to connect that scouting department, connect the coaches. We’ve done a ton of work over the last week, week and a half of just kind of teaming up on this scouting process as we’ve gone through this college cycle here and so starting mid-week this week we’ll start going through the readings of the draft prospect from a coaches perspective and kind of truly teaming up with the scouting department and I’m really excited about that.”
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Philosophy on investing at the QB position
“I think every team in the NFL is always trying to bring in quarterbacks and develop them under any circumstance and so everyone does homework every year on quarterbacks. It’s a very valuable position and so obviously we feel like we have some – we have Derek [Carr], who’s played a ton of football and we feel great about, and then we have, certainly our organization has invested in quarterbacks the last few years with Spencer [Rattler], Jake [Haener] and then Ben [DiNucci], and so we have a number of guys that we’re excited to develop as well.”
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Thoughts on Chris Olave and Brandin Cooks
“Chris is a phenomenal player, a phenomenal player. He’s had a huge impact on this team. He’s gonna have a huge impact. From the medical side, on my side it’s just education, understanding the circumstances he is in. Obviously we feel very comfortable with Chris, understand that he’s been through a lot the last, you know, year or two, and so you know, we feel like there’s a plan in place to, you know, continue to let him progress and certainly I get the feeling that he’s really, really excited about this opportunity.”
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“I had never met Brandin. Our circles were very close, him being a northwest guy playing at Oregon State and then obviously going to Dallas at one point as well. Phenomenal leader, phenomenal player. I think that combination is very valuable for us. He can still run, he can still play. He had kind of an unfortunate season last year, just with the injuries and the setback in relation to that, so his targets and catches and stuff were down. If he plays a full season they probably look really, a heck of a lot different. We feel like he’s still got the player in him and the leader that he’s going to be, will be hugely valuable for our entire team.”
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Expectations for Juwan Johnson
“Obviously we’re really, really excited to team up with him again. I think that was one of those ones that we talked about, free agency they have a choice and we were really, really excited that he chose us to come back, to be back in the city of New Orleans, you know, that’s a huge aspect to us and so he’s been a really good player in this league. We’re excited with where he can go. Certainly his ability with the ball in his hands is critical, it’s very valuable. His ability to play in the second and third level, a little deeper passing game concepts with the tight ends. Not all the guys can stretch the field that much vertically and we feel like we can and so I feel like some of the stuff that we’ve done in the past with these tight ends that we’ve had in some other stops, we feel like we can add to his game.”