Khalen Saunders is wearing a new jersey number in 2024. He’s the New Orleans Saints Player of Day 50 in our countdown to kickoff in Week 1’s matchup with the Carolina Panthers. Saunders wore No. 99 last year, his first season with the Saints, but he’s switching to No. 50 since Chase Young joined the team and took it from him.
What does a successful season look like for Saunders? Let’s put him under the spotlight in today’s feature.
- Name (Age): Khalen Saunders (27)
- Position: Defensive tackle
- Height, weight: 6-foot-0, 324 pounds
- Relative Athletic Score: 7.59
- 2024 salary cap hit: $4,400,000
- College: Western Illinois
- Drafted: Round 3 in 2019 (Kansas City Chiefs)
- NFL experience: 6 years
Saunders’ first season with the Saints could be characterized as good, not great. He didn’t have a sack but he did post the second-most quarterback pressures of his career (14), which is solid for a nose tackle. What really held him back was an underwhelming year in run defense. The Saints were vulnerable up the middle and they finished the year with the 11th-most rushing yards allowed. You’d expect a stronger impact from Saunders as a big body playing on running downs.
How can he improve in 2024? Better holding ground when teams run at him while pushing the pocket when given opportunities to make a play is what’s asked of every veteran defensive tackle. With Bryan Bresee looking to take a step forward and Nathan Shepherd on top of the depth chart, Saunders can’t afford to fall behind.
It’s interesting that the Saints restructured Shepherd’s contract, lowering his salary cap hit, but they didn’t do so for Saunders. That might make him expendable if another player steps up like rookie draft pick Khristian Boyd — releasing Saunders would save $1.4 million against the cap, while trading him could free up as much as $3.7 million. Hopefully he does well enough at training camp to where this isn’t a real consideration.
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