Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The NFL announced key dates for the New Orleans Saints’ 2023 and 2024 seasons. Here’s everything you need to know, and every date to circle on your calendar:
We’re set to turn another page in the New Orleans Saints’ offseason calendar, with the NFL announcing a number of important dates for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons on Tuesday.
Here are the dates to mark on your calendar (you know, in addition to this year’s Saints games) for every month from Saints training camp in July to Super Bowl LVIII and the 2024 NFL draft:
It’s never too early to take a peek at what experts believe the Bears will do with their two first-round picks in 2024. Our mock round-up:
The 2023 NFL draft is in the books, and rookies are getting acclimated to their new teams with rookie minicamps underway.
For the Chicago Bears, they welcomed 10 new draft picks to the fold, including top offensive tackle Darnell Wright, along with a slew of undrafted rookies.
While we’ll be glad to give mock drafts a rest for the foreseeable future, there were some way-too-early 2024 mock drafts that surfaced after the 2023 draft. And since the Bears have two first-round selections in 2024, there’s already excitement for next year’s draft.
After the 2023 draft, we rounded up the early 2024 mock drafts, where experts make their first picks for Chicago — where edge rusher and wide receiver are popular picks.
Saints decline fifth-year option for right guard Cesar Ruiz, making him a free agent in 2024. He’s now entering a contract year:
The #Saints are not picking up the fifth-year option for OL Cesar Ruiz, source said. He now heads into a contract year for New Orleans.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 1, 2023
Well that’s disappointing. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that the New Orleans Saints are declining to exercise the fifth-year option for right guard Cesar Ruiz, their first-round pick in the 2020 NFL draft. He’ll now become a free agent in 2024 along with left guard Andrus Peat, whose contract was reworked earlier this offseason.
It’s not too surprising. Ruiz was a liability through his first two years in New Orleans, and though he made impressive strides last season he ended the year with a foot injury and needs to show he can rebound from it to continue playing at a high level.
Take that with the cost involved — if the Saints had picked up Ruiz’s option they would have been on the hook for more than $14 million in 2024 — and it makes more sense to see if a long-term contract extension at a lower rate isn’t the better move.
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Michael Thomas is betting on himself and his health in a big way. His new Saints contract will reward him for returning to form after three frustrating, injury-plagued years:
You’ll have a hard time finding a more unique contract around the NFL than the one Michael Thomas signed with the New Orleans Saints last week. While it’s technically a two-year extension tying Thomas to the Saints for 2023 and 2024, the deal is structured so that both sides will return to the negotiating table this time next year.
Per ESPN’s Katherine Terrell, Thomas will trigger future roster bonuses of $31.7 million, $28.7 million, and $58.6 million if he’s on the roster by a certain date next offseason — NewOrleans.Football’s Mike Triplett clarifies this as the third day of the 2024 league year, which would have been March 18 this year. That means the Saints have a deadline to circle back and either renegotiate this contract again or let Thomas go.
So they’re clearly hoping he and Derek Carr play well together in 2023, making the decision easier in 2024. Thomas is betting on his health in a huge way. Triplett added that he’ll receive contract incentives for being healthy and active each week as well as more bonuses tied to his performance, team accomplishments, and postseason honors:
So let’s run the math on this. If Thomas fully returns to form and produces like he did in 2019 — being active for every game, catching 149 receptions for 1,725 yards and scoring 9 touchdowns, while leading the Saints to the postseason and winning recognition as a Pro Bowler, All-Pro, and Offensive Player of the Year — he’ll cash in with $6.5 million through incentives. If Thomas performs closer to what we saw earlier in his career, he could still bring in an extra $4.5 million or so.
If he at least meets the incentives for being active on game days, Thomas will trigger a $3.74 million roster bonus in 2024 that’s due on the first day of the new league year, per Over The Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald. So that’s a soft deadline with the massive roster bonuses scheduled to hit a few days later. It’s all designed so the Saints have time to evaluate his performance in 2023 and decide whether he should be part of their plans in 2024.
But he’s got to get healthy first. It all starts with an upcoming physical, reported by Triplett to be on or about April 21, which Thomas must pass in order to receive a $5 million signing bonus and guarantee his $1.26 million base salary this season. He’s clearly betting on himself here. Hopefully it works out as Thomas and the Saints envision.
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LSU will kickoff 2024 on Sunday night yet again, this time in Sin City.
LSU has long bragged about Tigers playing on Sunday.
Usually, that has to do with the volume of former NFL players that found a home in the NFL. Now, it’s taking on a new meaning with the news LSU’s 2024 opener against USC will be the Sunday night game.
It will mark three straight Sunday night kickoff games for LSU. Last year, LSU faced Florida State in New Orleans on Sunday night and will do the same in Orlando this year. The USC game will take place in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium.
Both USC and LSU have high hopes this season. With both programs trending up, there’s a good chance the game has some playoff implications in 2024.
That will also be USC’s debut game as a Big Ten school with the Trojans set to move conferences following the upcoming season.
Sunday Night Football
LSU and USC will open the 2024 season on ESPN at 6:30 p.m. CT in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/mEtkNElJxs
— LSU Football (@LSUfootball) March 15, 2023
Assuming [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] and Lincoln Riley still lead both schools, it will pit the two most significant coaching changes of that hectic 2021-22 cycle against each other.
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Sean Payton will return to New Orleans with the Broncos in 2024:
How’s this for a long-range forecast? Sean Payton is going to the Denver Broncos in a blockbuster trade that brings multiple draft picks back to the New Orleans Saints, but he won’t have to wait too long to coach against his old team. Payton’s Broncos are scheduled to play an away game at the Caesars Superdome in 2024.
The Saints will host the Broncos and Raiders in New Orleans not this year, but the season after next while traveling to face their AFC West neighbors in the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers.
But right now our focus is on 2023. And the Saints have recovered a selection in April’s draft in trading Payton to Denver — it clocks in at No. 30 overall, though it’s technically the 29th pick in the 2023 draft with the Miami Dolphins forfeiting their pick after tampering with Payton last year. Ironically, Miami also once held this pick but traded it to the Broncos so they could acquire pass rusher Bradley Chubb. Small world, right?
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The New Orleans Saints and the NFL are discussing whether to host the Super Bowl in 2025 instead due to a Mardi Gras scheduling conflict.
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The NFL’s decision to expand its regular season to 17 games has resulted in larger changes for its schedule, and one of those could be hitting Saints fans close to home. NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill reported Thursday that the NFL has been in discussions with the Saints and the city of New Orleans about a scheduling conflict between the 2024 Super Bowl and that year’s Mardi Gras festivities.
That combination of mass events may be too much for the city’s infrastructure to support, so it’s possible that New Orleans could end up hosting the 2025 Super Bowl instead. The Saints won the bid to host the 2024 title game back in 2018, making it the eleventh Super Bowl to be played in New Orleans, more than any other American city.
There are a few upsides to postponing the year in which the Saints will host another Super Bowl. The Mercedes-Benz Superdome began extensive renovation work earlier this offseason as part of a yearslong effort to modernize the facility. Delaying its next Super Bowl appearance would do a lot to take pressure off the construction timeline. But the league and the city have not yet ruled out whether to keep the New Orleans-hosted 2024 Super Bowl in place as scheduled, and it’s unclear which city would host instead.
For the curious, here are the locations of the remaining Super Bowls that have been awarded:
Saints vice president of communications Greg Bensel later issued a statement to the media:
Statement from saints VP of communications Greg Bensel: pic.twitter.com/4A6GAIBcBY
— Sean FazendeFOX8 (@SeanFazendeFOX8) April 3, 2020
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