The New Orleans Saints have already addressed their biggest need this offseason. They needed to find themselves a starting quarterback and landed Derek Carr following his release from the Las Vegas Raiders.
With Carr now in the fold, it is time for New Orleans to start addressing some of the other holes on their roster. Unfortunately for them, there are a few of them but the salary cap space to aggressively upgrade is lacking.
The Saints were already in salary cap hell before adding Carr’s massive number into the mix, so they will have to get creative while addressing their other needs. More than likely, the team will have to go bargain shopping.
Arguably the biggest hole remaining on the team is in the trenches on the defensive side of the ball. The Saints had their top three defensive linemen hitting free agency in David Onyemata, Marcus Davenport and Shy Tuttle. All three have already departed in free agency, agreeing to deals with the Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings and Carolina Panthers.
A consolation was re-signing Tanoh Kpassagnon, but the team needs more talent along the defensive line. One player that would be a good fit for them in free agency is Jarran Reed.
Reed spent the 2022 season with the Green Bay Packers and was very productive. He had a career-high 52 tackles with five tackles for loss and 14 quarterback hits. Reed also registered 2.5 sacks while playing 68 percent of the defensive snaps last season.
According to Sports Info Systems metric, Reed was on par with Fletcher Cox when it came to production the last two seasons. He registered 24 points in 2021 and 18 in 2022 while Cox had 24 and 19.
When taking that into regard, Reed may be more expensive than originally thought. However, he doesn’t look to be a player that will be signed in the first wave of free agency, which will increase the chances of the Saints being able to eventually land him on an economical deal.
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