The New Orleans Saints have a handful of contributors from last year’s squad heading into free agency, but the one that got the highest Pro Football Focus grade is not someone anyone would expect.
PFF’s Bradley Locker recently went through each NFL team’s impending free agents to find the players that received the best marks last season. For the Saints, it was wide receiver Dante Pettis at 70.2. That isn’t a great grade, but that does say a lot about how New Orleans performed last season.
This is what Locker had to say about the season:
As the Saints dealt with a slew of wide receiver injuries, Pettis received a makeshift opportunity and made the most of it. His 69.3 PFF receiving grade was his highest since 2018, and he also had zero drops on 24 targets. However, Pettis’ other advanced numbers, such as yards per route run (1.21) and yards after catch per reception (2.9), were lackluster.
Pettis had just 12 catches for 120 yards and a touchdown in 2024. It wasn’t much, but it was his first recorded stats since 2022 and actually the third-best campaign of his career.
With Shaheed hurt, the veteran also stepped in to a bit of a return specialist role at times as well. He had 90 total punt return yards and 96 from kickoffs. He also had a huge return for a touchdown called back after it was ruled he went out of bounds. It wasn’t much, but he did have a couple of big plays.
The 29-year-old receiver will likely be off to another new team next year, perhaps he did enough late to earn a chance at a real role. He does have a big fan in interim head coach Darren Rizzi, who values Pettis on special teams. If Rizzi is named the full-time head coach he could choose to keep Pettis around.
