There’s a lot of hand-wringing within the New Orleans Saints fanbase over the futures of tight end Juwan Johnson and linebacker Kaden Elliss, but the analysts at Pro Football Focus don’t see either player as the team’s top pending free agents: that recognition belongs to defensive linemen Marcus Davenport and David Onyemata.
Both Onyemata and Davenport were ranked within the top 50 free agents at PFF, where analysts Arjun Menon and Brad Spielberger predicted the landing-spots for all of those players set to hit the market. They see Davenport leaving for an AFC Super Bowl contender, but Onyemata ends up staying a little closer to home in the NFC South:
Marcus Davenport
PFF’s take:
2023 team prediction: Kansas City Chiefs
Frank Clark could end up being a cap casualty for the Chiefs, and if they release him, it would weaken their edge rushing room significantly. Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has tended to sign former first-rounders that didn’t pan out to short and cheap contracts — similar to what we’re projecting for Davenport. He would give the Chiefs some juice in the pass-rushing department while complementing George Karlaftis. Davenport has recorded at least 34 pressures in four straight years and has graded above 70.0 in every year of his career
David Onyemata
PFF’s take:
2023 team prediction: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs’ defensive line has been effective for years, but it is set to lose key pieces to free agency this year — Akiem Hicks, Rakeem Nunez-Roches and William Gholston along the defensive line. They need to add another big body alongside Vita Vea, and Onyemata could be that piece. Onyemata has tallied at least 30 pressures in every year of his career since his rookie year and at least 20 defensive stops in all but two years of his career.
Analysis
It would be frustrating to see Davenport leave for a title contender, but to be blunt his entire career has been frustrating to this point. When he hasn’t been missing games with injuries he’s played at an annoyingly inconsistent level, and it shouldn’t escape notice that he was benched for the final few games of 2022. The Saints had better options on their roster at that point and probably will continue to do so. Years of injuries outside his control (not to mention the amputation of a finger last summer) has to have done some damage to the young man’s self-confidence.
But losing Onyemata to a divisional opponent would be a gut-punch; for one thing, the Buccaneers are in the middle of an even unhealthier salary cap situation than the Saints are. On top of that, Onyemata is a player New Orleans scouted, developed, and invested a second contract in, and he’s experienced a lot of success for them. It shouldn’t be hard to cut a deal for him to finish his career in black and gold. Seeing him in those red-and-pewter eyesores would be unpleasant at best, but maybe the Saints can get some compensatory draft picks out of it.
