Saints' Demario Davis addressed his contract status at minicamp

Davis, 33, began his career with the Jets in 2012. He was a full-time starter by his second year, and remained a significant contributor throughout his tenure. After a single season with the Browns, he was traded back to the Big Apple in 2017. He led the league in solo tackles that year, also setting a new career-high in sacks with five.

That production led to a three-year, $24M contract with the Saints during the subsequent offseason. He remained as consistent as ever during that span, earning First-Team All-Pro honors in 2019. That led to a three-year extension worth $27M. He received a Second-Team nod in 2020, after compiling 119 tackles and four sacks. After that season, the Arkansas State alum was one of several Saints veterans who re-worked their contracts to create immediate cap space for the team.

As a result, his 2022 base salary is just $1.1M, coupled with a cap hit of just under $5.9M. However, those figures are set to jump to $8.5M and $13.2M, respectively, next year. That leaves another extension as a possibility, though the team would see a small financial gain from his release after the 2022 campaign. Davis addressed his contract status at minicamp, his first on-field participation with the team this offseason.

“We’ll see,” he said, via Jeff Duncan of NOLA.com, while speaking about the potential of a new contract. “I have nothing but love for the city. And I have a lot of love for this organization. But at the end of the day, it’s still a business. We’ll see how it goes.”

The Saints have a number of other options to succeed Davis as a starter in the near future, though none of them have established themselves as full-time starters in New Orleans. Depending on his level of play in 2022, then, another new contract could be beneficial for both parties.