The New Orleans Saints have made some very productive strides to get out of cap space purgatory this offseason. New Orleans began the offseason over $60 million over the cap limit, but now it has a few million dollars to spare.
Still, some voices around football don't agree with all the moves made by the Saints over the last few months.
Alex Kay of Bleacher Report recently listed the Saints' three-year, $51 million signing of Chase Young as the worst contract given out this offseason.
"The New Orleans Saints are making some head-scratching decisions this offseason," Kay wrote. "One of their biggest blunders is committing more than $50 million to Chase Young over the next three years.
"While the 25-year-old hasn't been a poor edge defender, he's no longer the force he was prior to a career-altering knee injury in 2021. He's been rather average since signing with the Saints last offseason, collecting 5.5 sacks and 31 tackles—including eight for a loss—while playing 742 defensive snaps in 2024."
In the Saints' defense, Young is still 25 years old. He has plenty of time to continue to find his footing in the NFL, though he may never live up to his draft expectations because of the aforementioned knee injury.
Either way, this signing shouldn't be seen as a head scratching decision. If Young is able to tally 15 to 20 sacks over the course of his three-year deal, it would be hard to argue that it wasn't worth it for the Saints.
But if his play takes any sort of step backward, Kay will be proved correct in his criticism of this deal.
Saints Predicted To Acquire Dynamic 17-Sack EDGE To Pair With Chase Young
The New Orleans Saints re-signed Chase Young, but that alone won't solve their defensive woes.
While the Saints ranked in the middle of the pack as a team with 39 total sacks, they were 30th in pass-rush win rate at 31 percent. They also ranked 30th in run-stopping win rate at 28 percent, so teams could pretty much beat their defensive line however they wanted.
Young is now getting paid big money on a team with payroll issues (three-year contract for $51 million), so finding someone to pair with him on the edge would be a good objective for the Saints to tackle in the upcoming NFL Draft.
One NFL writer believes they can land college football's national sacks leader with their first selection.
In a recent mock draft, Ryan Fowler of The Draft Network predicted that the Saints would draft Marshall defensive end Mike Green with the number-nine pick in the first round.
"As good as Mike Green is as a pass rusher (59 pressures and 17 sacks in '24) with an advanced repertoire, his ability as a run defender is what moves the needle and remains a really underrated part of his game," Fowler wrote.
"Don't base your evaluation on the decal on his helmet... he's the complete package at the position."
Green, who was only a sophomore in 2024, ended the season with 81 total tackles, nearly double his total from the 2023 campaign. He's got a wiry frame at 6-foot-4, 248-pounds, so he might become even more dynamic as he continues to fill out.
The only slight question is competition, because the offensive lines Green was facing at Marshall weren't particularly close to NFL quality. But if the Saints believe he can become a difference-maker, it's tempting to take this swing to create a dynamic pass-rush duo with Young.
