The New Orleans Saints entered the offseason seemingly like a team that was about to lose important pieces due to its rough salary cap position.
New Orleans had some key players from the 2025 season heading to the open market as well as question marks about expensive internal guys, like Derek Carr and Cam Jordan. Somehow, the Saints' front office figured things out. It pushed financial issues to the future and has been one of the more aggressive teams in free agency.
One move the team made was re-signing 25-year-old EDGE Chase Young. He spent the 2024 season in town and had 5.5 sacks in 17 games. New Orleans brought him back on a three-year, $51 million deal but it hasn't been universally praised. Sports Illustrated's Gilberto Manzano shared a column in which they discussed the best and worst-value deals of the offseason. Young's deal fell in the worst category of the two.
"Chase Young, edge, New Orleans Saints (three years, $51 million)," Manzano said. "Young has overcome his durability issues, but the Saints overpaid for a player who only lined up for 63 percent of the defensive snaps last season. Young went from being a dominant No. 1 edge rusher—before the injuries—to a reliable rotational player in obvious passing down situations.
"The Saints had no business committing long term to Young, knowing all their salary cap obstacles. The better route would have been to let Chase walk in free agency and draft an edge rusher to play next to Carl Granderson."
