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This year’s NFL offseason promises to be as busy as ever, and rumors are already swirling about which players could be on the move. While the bulk of changes will come through free agency, there could be an active market as teams seek of offload veteran in trades, acquiring draft picks in the process. Those are conversations in which the New Orleans Saints should be paying rapt attention.
One name that is drawing attention is Darius Slay, the Detroit Lions cornerback who reached his third Pro Bowl in as many years in 2019. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that multiple teams have inquired about trading for Slay, and other franchises believe there’s a real chance he plays elsewhere in 2020. Trading the best player on the team would very on-brand for Lions coach Matt Patricia, who has thoroughly run Detroit into the ground with a 9-22-1 record after his first two years on the job (for context, Dave Caldwell finished with fewer than nine wins just once in the previous four years).
Slay, 29, led the league in interceptions (8) back in 2017 and now wants a new contract with one year left on his deal. He’s slated to earn a base salary of $10 million in 2020 with a salary cap hit of $13,368,750. That would be tough for the Saints to maneuver, but it’s possible they could cut late-year addition Janoris Jenkins to help do so, freeing up $11.25 million in the process.
But would acquiring Slay be worth it when the Saints already have a one-two punch at the position between Jenkins and Marshon Lattimore? They’ve already gotten a look at Jenkins in their system, which produced impressive results late in the 2019 season. The easier move would be to extend Jenkins and lessen his salary cap hit, which makes sense with Lattimore’s own payday on the horizon.
Alternatively: Slay is several years younger than Jenkins, and would theoretically have more to offer the Saints on a multi-year contract extension until Lattimore’s own deal is due in 2022 (assuming his fifth-year option for 2021 is picked up, which it should be). The math is a little fuzzy, but it’s more feasible than some of the more-outlandish suggestions you’ll see out there.
But what would it take to trade for Slay? The Lions probably want a first-round pick in return for him, but that’s not happening when he’ll be expecting a $15 million per-year salary from his new team. Maybe the Saints could pick him up by giving up next year’s second rounder and swapping third-round picks in 2020. If they can recoup a second-round selection for third-string quarterback Taysom Hill, it could end up being a valuable bargaining chip for trade talks surrounding Slay.
And we can’t rule it out altogether. Saints coach Sean Payton has doggedly pursued better options at cornerback in recent years, though some of the additions didn’t quite live up to the billing (like Brandon Browner, who was bad, and Patrick Robinson, who hasn’t bounced back well after a 2018 injury). Both Jenkins and Eli Apple were just recently acquired. That doesn’t even get into the numerous swings and misses at players like Josh Norman and Malcolm Butler.
The Saints would need to get creative to make it work, but there’s a possible scenario where Lattimore, Slay, and even Jenkins (on a lesser salary, and lining up in the slot) share the field in 2020. Whether the Saints will decide pursuing it is the best use of their resources is anyone’s guess.
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