The cap-strapped Saints are so desperate to shed expensive veterans that they’ve already traded away tight end Jimmy Graham and guard Ben Grubbs, and they’ve tried to trade receiver Kenny Stills. But that’s just the start of it.
According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the Saints are shopping everyone, with the exception of quarterback Drew Brees and last year’s first-round draft pick, wide receiver Brandin Cooks. If you’re an NFL general manager and there’s a player on the New Orleans roster you like, give the Saints a call. They’ll probably trade him to you.
In addition to Graham, Grubbs and Stills, the Saints cut Pierre Thomas and Curtis Lofton to get their expensive contracts off the team’s books. And of the expensive veterans who won’t be traded or released, many have agreed to contract restructurings: Marques Colston, Junior Galette and Jairus Byrd have all had some of the cap hits on their contracts pushed out of 2015 and into future years.
The Saints are in such a rebuilding mode that maybe they should even trade Brees and go into a complete Philadelphia 76ers-style tanking mode. Brees’s contract is structured in such a way that that would be difficult, and the fans would probably revolt if the Saints sent Brees packing, but that’s how complete a roster overhaul the Saints are making this offseason.
In any event, for all of the talk about the craziness that has gone on in Philadelphia this offseason, the turnover in New Orleans may be even more significant when all the dust settles. The Saints are having a fire sale.