The NFL offseason is nearly upon us, as the only thing standing in the way between teams and beginning their roster management is the Super Bowl, held in New Orleans. This gives us a little bit of time to look back in retrospect and cover the New Orleans Saints free agent signings from 2024, but also take a look at those players they let walk.
One of the more intriguing players they let go was defensive tackle Malcolm Roach, who was an exceptional run defender with them, but they chose not to pay and he would move on to the Denver Broncos. Here is how things have played out for his career so far:
Free agent contract
Given the price tags on some of the premier defensive line talents across the league in recent years, Roach signed for a pretty good contract all things considered. He is on a two-year $7 million deal, $3 million of which was guaranteed at signing, and the remainder will come in the form of bonuses and incentives.
He was able to hit one of his performance incentives in 2024, playing more than 40% of snaps which gave him an extra $250,000 this year as well.
Snap counts
The snap counts for Malcolm Roach have been extremely consistent throughout his career, as he is predominantly a run defending rotational defensive tackle who gets on the field in late down scenarios. Here are his snap rates by season, only including games he played in:
- 2020: 37% (233)
- 2021: 42% (193)
- 2022: 37% (315)
- 2023: 37% (290)
- 2024: 42% (489)
2024 season review
2024 was a strong season for Roach, as he would accrue his highest snap total of his career, while also posting career highs in total tackles (43), tackles for loss (5), forced fumbles & fumble recoveries (1 each), sacks (2.5), and QB hits (8). Funny enough, he actually had one pass come his way as the closest defender, and it was an incompletion 13 yards down the field, pretty impressive. Overall a good year for the former Saints undrafted free agent.
Report card grade
Grading this loss is relatively easy. The Saints lost a run-stopping defensive tackle who had the best year of his career, while they had one of the worst run defenses in the early half of the year and never fully recovered. Roach was a player that in retrospect they absolutely should have retained, and especially so at the price tag he received.
Saints grade for allowing the departure: D-
