It’s been a long time since a player joined the New Orleans Saints with as much fanfare as Tyrann Mathieu. The hometown hero returned to New Orleans with lofty expectations as the crown jewel of their free agent class — and after some early-season frustrations, he met them. Now he’s an integral piece of their defense moving forward.
So how do you grade Mathieu’s first season with the Saints? Are those initial struggles worth holding against him, and did he do enough later in the year to make up for them? Let’s review his 2022 season in our free agent report card: