The New Orleans Saints announced a series of roster moves on Monday, following tryouts at rookie minicamp and a couple of other signings. One reported move they didn’t make official was the addition of defensive tackle Jack Heflin, but that should be finalized later this week.
With that said, here are the five roster moves the Saints completed to open up the workweek:
Saints waive WR Sy Barnett
This is a bummer — Davenport was a cool story to follow as the first player in Davenport University’s history to sign an NFL contract. But the Saints have a dozen other players at the position and he was squeezed out by other new additions.
Saints waive CB Vincent Gray
This is a bit of a surprise — Gray hung around on the Saints practice squad throughout his 2022 rookie season, and he was brought back for 2023 only to be waived after his first couple of practices. The team still has plenty of depth in the secondary, though.
Saints sign WR James Washington
This move was previously reported, and we’ve already explored the elements that Washington might bring to the offense as a vertical threat. He’s a good candidate to back up Rashid Shaheed as the primary flanker receiver, assuming he can stay healthy and fend off his competition for a spot on the depth chart.
Saints sign DB Adrian Frye
Frye is an undrafted rookie free agent out of Texas Tech, and he’s interesting. He fits the height-weight-length combination the Saints look for in the secondary and brings some versatility — most of his college career was spent lining up outside, but he’s taken a couple hundred snaps covering the slot and roving around at safety. He’s also played a lot of special teams coverage snaps and returned punts.
Saints sign RB Ellis Merriweather
Merriweather has great size by NFL standards at 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, though he lacks an extra gear to pull away from defenders in the open field. He’s been effective on a small sample size of passing downs as a receiver and blocker but he’s at his best running between the tackles. He saw the most production in 2021 while running for 1,130 yards and scoring 5 touchdown carries on just 219 attempts.
