New Orleans Saints Receive Worst NFL Offseason Grade from ESPN

The ESPN insider admits most of his criticism of the team comes from how they handled the Derek Carr situation. New Orleans had the opportunity to cut Carr early in the offseason and save $30 million, but the Saints opted to restructure the veteran quarterback's contract, making it fully guaranteed.

New Orleans has been manipulating the cap for years, but guaranteeing Carr's deal was questioned by all fans when it happened. Despite announcing their intentions to compete in the NFC South in 2025, the Saints are going through a rebuild. Walder buffs this by saying, "Even if the $10 million was a sunk cost (it wasn't quite), was Carr worth $30 million to the Saints in 2025? He shouldn't have been." Resigning their veteran quarterback was counterproductive and would have cost the team more money in the future.

Luckily for the Saints, Carr announced his retirement a month before the draft and gracefully declined to take the guaranteed money from New Orleans.

ESPN also noted its displeasure with the Saints' re-signing of defensive end Chase Young. Walder mentions himself as a fan of Young, but feels New Orleans only made the move to avoid dead cap hits if the former first overall pick were to leave.

Walder's criticism of the Young signing feels contradictory, however. The young pass rusher is only 26 years old, and despite the lack of sacks in 2024, was top-10 in quarterback hurries. The Saints believe the former Washington Commander and San Francisco 49ers pass rusher can be a meaningful piece of their young core going forward and secured him on a deal. The consensus is that the team overpaid for Young, but the 26-year-old edge rusher's contract barely ranks in the top 20 per year, ranking 18th among all pass rushers.

Among other offseason moves mentioned by ESPN were Juwan Johnson's three-year $30 million extension and the signing of Justin Reid. Similarly to the Young signing, Walder likes the moves, just not the fact that the Saints made them.

New Orleans is going through a rebuild. With a first-year head coach and the realistic expectation that the team would be starting a rookie quarterback, it was always going to be hard for the team to put out an impressive offseason with the limited resources they had. Despite the limits, the Saints have added plenty of promising and proven coaches to their staff and went out to get players that will make life easier for their young signal caller.