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The New Orleans Saints aren’t good enough at tight end right now. Adam Trautman was overwhelmed in his second season, his first year as a starter in the NFL, while Nick Vannett added too little too late after missing a lot of time with an injury. Playmaking backup Juwan Johnson was a healthy scratch at times on game days, and he’s a free agent as is veteran reserve Garrett Griffin. Ethan Wolf and Dylan Soehner round out the depth chart but aren’t much to write home about.
Enter Kyle Rudolph, who just became a salary cap casualty for the New York Giants. He still intends to keep playing (his 33rd birthday is coming up in November), and he makes a lot of sense for New Orleans if they want to upgrade the position. For one, it gives Rudolph an opportunity to make amends for his uncalled push-off against P.J. Williams on a playoff game-winning touchdown catch for the Minnesota Vikings against the Saints a few years back.
But let’s be serious for a moment. Signing Rudolph won’t break the bank the way it would to go after a high-profile free agent like Mike Gesicki or Dalton Schultz. The Giants judged his $7.4 million cap hit as too much for the player and let him go, and he’s going to be more affordable for any teams looking for experienced help at the position.
Sure, he’s coming off of an unimpressive 26-catch campaign (totaling just 257 receiving yards). He’s also not going to provide a shot in the arm the way a Gesicki or Schultz pickup would. But is it realistic for the Saints to go after one of those blue chip players anyway given their cap situation? If they still feel Trautman has untapped potential as a receiver, maybe adding a more proven commodity like Rudolph to take on the blocking assignments he struggled with makes sense. Rudolph is widely respected across the NFL and could be exactly the kind of influence Trautman needs to figure some things out.
And here’s an interesting angle: signing Rudolph won’t count against the 2023 compensatory draft pick formula the way another free agent would. Because the Giants are releasing him from his contract, he won’t factor in to negate any corresponding losses the Saints take. For example, let’s say that the Saints lose linebacker Kwon Alexander to another team paying him about $8 million per year — that’s likely going to bring back a fifth round pick in 2023. Signing an unrestricted free agent tight end could cancel out that pick. But bringing in another team’s cap cut like Rudolph would keep it in play. New Orleans has prioritized those type of moves lately, and it’s helped them get three compensatory selections in 2021 with three more projected for 2022. That matters.
Of course you’ve got to wonder if the Saints are even interested in upgrading their tight ends. They signed Vannett to a multiyear contract. Trautman is still on his rookie deal and obviously has a lot of growth potential given his error-filled 2021 season. Plus, New Orleans inked Taysom Hill to a long-term deal late last year — they could view that investment as impacting their plans at both quarterback and tight end, and consider the dollars he and Vannett are owed as equal to what a veteran like Rudolph would be earning. With so many other fires to put out on their roster, this just may be too low of a priority. But let’s hope not.
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