The New Orleans Saints signed a new fullback, but he isn’t new to their coaching staff. Meet Zander Horvath, formerly of Purdue, whose addition was announced on Thursday’s update to the daily NFL transactions wire.
Horvath, 25, played college football at Purdue before turning pro with the Los Angeles Chargers, who picked him in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL draft. He measured out exceptionally well in the pre-draft process with a 9.83 Relative Athletic Score (a metric which often lines up with attributes the Saints value). He weighed in at 6-foot-2 and 228 pounds but has been listed at 232 and 235 with different teams.
Former Chargers running backs coach Derrick Foster worked with him closely in L.A., so there’s an obvious connection with Foster holding the same position on staff these days in New Orleans. Horvath was waived during roster cuts last August and briefly landed with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the Chargers brought him back to their practice squad to close out the season. He wasn’t re-signed after that.
He wasn’t the only player the Saints tried out on Thursday; the wire also reports 232-pound running back Qadree Ollison as a participant. He’s a former Atlanta Falcons draft pick (fifth round in 2019) who was teammates with Horvath on the Steelers for a few months last season. The Saints must have liked what they saw from Horvath better.
This might mean the end of the road for Adam Prentice. The incumbent Saints fullback is a restricted free agent but he’s coming off a down year with dropped passes, blown blocking assignments, and a very unfortunate fumble. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is going to be asking different things of his fullback than Pete Carmichael asked of Prentice last season, so they might look for someone else to push Horvath for the job in training camp.
