Well this is a little uncharacteristic. The New Orleans Saints have no doubt been busy this offseason, adding new starting quarterback Derek Carr, running back Jamaal Williams, a pair of talented defensive tackles in Khalen Saunders and Nathan Shepherd along with a few other depth signings. Most recently, they added versatile defensive back Lonnie Johnson Jr. as well.
An active free agency period makes sense considering the losses of several players this offseason. With players like defensive tackles David Onyemata and Shy Tuttle as well as former starting quarterback Andy Dalton all headed to division rivals, the Saints had some holes to plug on their roster. But to the extend that they’ve spent is what’s unexpected.
According to Over The Cap, the Saints are the third-biggest spenders so far this offseason. Their $219,310,000 running tab is an impressive one. The number takes into account total funds spent over the lifespan of contracts agreed upon this offseason. Of course, most of that is the $150 million the team spent on Carr’s four-year deal to be their new signal caller. But so much for not making a splash.
New Orleans has also fronted the second-most guaranteed money this spring with $140,040,000, while coming in at No. 6 in first-year cash spent at just over $61 million. Classic contract structures for the organization.
If we’re honest, the Saints have been rather economical about their spending, though. Coughing up $100 million guaranteed for your new leader on offense, $4 million per year on the NFL’s rushing touchdown leader from a year ago and spending the equivalent of Onyemata’s deal with the Falcons on a pair of talented interior defenders are all rather effective uses of funds.
Spending the most money in an offseason doesn’t always translates to in-season success. However, 4 of the top-5 spending teams in 2022 all made last year’s playoffs. Of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets and Los Angeles Chargers, all but the Jets made the AFC postseason. While this may be more an exercise of correlation rather than causation, it’s worth remembering that the majority of the Saints offseason spending has been at the most important position on the field. So if that pans out, then every other cent spent is definitely worth it.
Oh and by the way, New Orleans is also top-10 in available cap space. They also still have several positions on both sides of the ball they can continue to address. So don’t expect them to be done just yet this offseason. With less than a $20 million gap between the third-place Saints and first-place New York Giants, who knows? New Orleans could end up atop the list by the time all is said and done.
