Former Patriots DPOY Now Makes Sense For Saints

The New Orleans Saints put Derek Carr on the reserve/retired list this week.

The move really doesn't free up too much cap space for New Orleans, but it does somewhat help. Right now, the Saints have over $28 million in cap space, per Over The Cap. With June 1st behind us, we should start to see some moves acros the league. June 1st is an important date in the NFL calendar because players released with June-1st designations come off the books -- or at least have some of their cap hits lowered depending on how the deal is structured.

New Orleans has plenty of cap space at its disposal and one guy out there who should be a target for the Saints is former AP National Football League Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore. He spent the 2024 season with the Minnesota Vikings and started 15 games, but his best years came with the New England Patriots. From 2017 through 2020, Gilmore earned three Pro Bowl nods, was named to the First-Team All-Pro twice, and was a DPOY.

Gilmore is a guy who can still play, as shown last year with the Vikings, and has accomplished pretty much everything a cornerback can in the NFL. The Saints have a young guy with talent right now in Kool-Aid McKinstry. Adding a guy like Gilmore would not only help the defense, but bring a potential mentor into the franchise. What's the worst that could happen?

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