5 Saints in-house replacements for pending free agents

Whether C.J. Gardner-Johnson steps in for Vonn Bell or Nick Easton replaces Andrus Peat, the New Orleans Saints have options in free agency.

Kiko Alonso for A.J. Klein

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Klein played well enough in 2019 while helping keep the linebacker corps functioning in the wake of injuries to Alex Anzalone and Alonso. However, he is set to be an unrestricted free agent, and it would probably require significant money to keep him around. The Saints appear to have identified that by trading for Alonso just before the 2019 season started.

Alonso is the ideal internal candidate to replace Klein’s production going forward. In 2019, Alonso was given a 69.5 grade by Pro Football Focus, which would rank him as the 32nd best linebacker in the league. In contrast, Klein was given a grade of 46.2, which ranked him 119th at his position. Of course Klein played nearly three times more  the amount of snaps than Alonso due to injury — he was slowed down by a quad muscle issue before tearing his ACL in the playoffs. The Saints would probably like to upgrade with Alonso over Klein, but he has to get healthy first.

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