It’s never easy to go turncoat in this rivalry. Legendary New Orleans Saints punter Thomas Morstead managed to play for the Atlanta Falcons for a spell last year, but he bolted for the Miami Dolphins at the first opportunity. Lance Moore couldn’t wear that jersey for more than a day before he decided he’d rather retire altogether.
Still, the Falcons aren’t entirely unsalvageable. There are some good players on that roster who deserve better than to play in front of a couple dozen fans inside their admittedly-nice soccer stadium. So our staff here at Saints Wire made our picks for which pros we’d most want to see saved from Atlanta’s rebuild and join the Saints:
Cordarrelle Patterson
Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael has been one of the most innovative offensive minds in the NFL next to Sean Payton during the last decade and a half. He’s helped to design plays around versatile offensive weapons like Darren Sproles, Jimmy Graham, Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill. Imagine what he could do with a chess piece like Patterson. Everything Saints fans loved about Kirk Merritt this offseason, Patterson has been doing his entire career. Runner, returner, receiver; the former Tennessee Volunteer can do it all. — Ross Jackson
Kyle Pitts
I’m not buying the Saints’ plans at tight end — if Adam Trautman and Juwan Johnson were going to break out by now, they probably would have. Taysom Hill is coming off an injury-plagued season and now he’s in a role where he’ll face even more contact. Pitts just posted a generational rookie stat line with more receiving yards (1,026) than any other tight end not named Mike Ditka (1,076) has had in their first pro season. He’s exactly what they need at the position as a special athlete with established NFL production. If not Pitts, I’d love to see Grady Jarrett wrecking things next to David Onyemata at defensive tackle. — John Sigler
Grady Jarrett
If I could add one player from the Falcons’ roster to the Saints, steering away from the obvious, it would be Grady Jarrett. Pairing him with David Onyemata would be a nightmare for opposing interior linemen. Teams wouldn’t be able to focus solely on either defender like they do now and it would open up great opportunities for both of them. The Saints defensive line has good depth, but could use another surefire piece on top of the depth chart to be truly elite. — Dylan Sanders
Grady Jarrett (again)
This is probably a need-based pick, but that’s really what free agency is for – at least in this exercise. The Saints lost a lot of depth along the defensive line dating back to the 2020 offseason, particularly Sheldon Rankins, Malcom Brown, and Trey Hendrickson. Jarrett lacked the productive numbers last season but had to play a whopping 889 snaps on Atlanta’s defensive line. For comparison’s sake, the highest snaps for a DT on the Saints last season was Shy Tuttle with 503. And Garrett beats out Tuttle’s production per snap in solo tackles (37), as well as his 4.4% total QB pressures rate. Plus, it’d be taking away the Falcons’ best pass rush weapon. — Maddy Hudak
