Few teams stay busy like the New Orleans Saints. Their unorthodox salary cap maneuvering means every move is part of a larger plan, with possible ramifications accounted for months and years down the road. And with 38 of the 90 players currently under contract headed for free agency after the 2022 season, via Over The Cap, it’s good to keep tabs on who may not be long for New Orleans.
Let’s remember that there are a couple of different free agent designations. The vast majority of players (including 28 of the Saints’ 38 pending free agents) will be unrestricted free agents at the start of the new league year. Those with three seasons’ worth of experience will be restricted free agents (including Saints players like wide receiver Marquez Callaway and punter Blake Gillikin), which gets a little complicated but typically means New Orleans will have the opportunity to match any offers from other teams. And those with two years or fewer behind them (like offensive lineman Calvin Throckmorton and running back Tony Jones Jr.) will be considered exclusive rights free agents, who the Saints can retain at non-compete minimum salaries.
Additionally, three players — defensive linemen Marcus Davenport, David Onyemata, and Tanoh Kpassagnon — are on track to see the void years written in through contract restructures expire in the spring. That will make them unrestricted free agents, unless the team signs them to extensions beforehand. And because the Saints restructured those deals they would leave behind a whopping total of $19.6 million for Onyemata ($10.1 million), Davenport ($7.6 million), and Kpassagnon ($1.9 million) in dead money that was previously moved around. So we should expect at least one or two of them to re-up with New Orleans before next March, which would help keep good players in the lineup and blunt any salary cap damage.
So with all of that said: here are the 38 Saints players who are on track to be pending free agents once the 2022 season is in the books.