Tag: Zack Baun

4 New Orleans Saints trade candidates ahead of 2023 roster cuts

With roster cuts swiftly approaching, other teams may come calling. 4 New Orleans Saints trade candidates who could be moved | @southexclusives

With roster cuts swiftly approaching, it’s only a matter of time until teams come calling to see if they can get the New Orleans Saints to trade away some players on the roster bubble — and even those who are seemingly positioned to make the team. If the offer is compelling enough, the Saints could choose to lean on their depth at some position groups and part ways with talented players to recoup some value through draft picks or player swaps. It’s happened before.

But who could be on the move? More likely is that other teams may be interested in snatching up a player before the Saints waive them, avoiding the anxious wait-and-see process as waiver claims are processed around the league. With that said, some speculation is already linking a Saints veteran or two to other teams around the league. Let’s explore the four highest-profile Saints trade candidates before the preseason wraps up:

Badger Countdown: Former number 56 entering fourth NFL season

The much anticipated return of college football is on the horizon and Luke Fickell and his Badgers are now 56 days away from their opener.

The much anticipated return of college football is on the horizon and Luke Fickell and his Badgers are now 56 days away from their opener against Buffalo. Zack Baun, a former Badger linebacker and current member of the New Orleans Saints is entering his fourth season in NFL.

Baun spent four years with Wisconsin from 2015-2019, racking up 152 tackles, including 15 sacks over 34 games. His senior season in 2019 in particular was an impressive one, compiling 75 tackles, including 12.5 sacks, while intercepting a pass and forcing two fumbles.

His final campaign in Madison certainly boosted his draft stock and Baun went on to be selected in the third round (74th overall) in the 2020 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints.

Although he’s only produced 58 tackles over his first three professional seasons, the 26-year-old could become a full-time starter at strong-side linebacker in 2023.

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7 New Orleans Saints returning from injuries in 2023

High-profile players like Michael Thomas and sleepers like D’Marco Jackson and Smoke Monday are among 7 New Orleans Saints returning from injuries in 2023:

The New Orleans Saints have an interesting mix of high-profile starters and sleeper talents returning from injuries in 2023. We’re not counting new additions and rookie draft picks like running back Kendre Miller (meniscus) or others dealing with health challenges (such as tight end Foster Moreau), only players who were on the team last year and who have been brought back for the upcoming season.

Some of them are going to vital to the team’s overall success. Let’s recap each situation with organized team activities on the horizon:

1 veteran player on roster bubble at each position group for the Saints

Some training camp competitions are brewing for the Saints: Here’s one veteran player on the roster bubble at each position group to watch closely this summer:

Some training camp competitions are brewing for the New Orleans Saints, who signed a number of veteran free agents before spending seven draft picks and investing in 13 undrafted rookies. The end result is that some of their more-experienced teammates are going to feel pressure for their job, or be the target of poaching by other squads.

Here’s one veteran player on the roster bubble at each position group to watch closely this summer:

4 Saints players who could be traded before Week 1

With a logjam developing at corner, it could make sense for the Saints to explore trading Bradley Roby or Paulson Adebo before Week 1. Teams may call on other players, too:

The NFL offseason is relentless. Free agency’s biggest moves are behind us. So is the 2023 NFL draft. A new wave of veteran signings and tryouts at minicamps is spreading around the league, and it’s a safe bet that more changes are in store for the New Orleans Saints. Normally buyers, could they instead be sellers as the trade market begins to develop? Which players could be on the move for greener pastures before Week 1 in September?

It’s not as easy as saying the Saints should trade (insert underperforming player of the moment here); fans may be unhappy with someone like, say, Tre’Quan Smith or Payton Turner, but there needs to be a reason for another team to have interest in acquiring the player. If a guy is a regular source of negative plays in New Orleans, why would a competitor want to trade for him?

Something else to consider is that the trade value for veteran players (especially those without a lot of strong game tape) tends to be weak. Take that with the minimal salary cap savings involved and the Saints are probably better off holding onto any trade candidates other teams are sniffing around.

With that in mind, here are four names we’ll be watching closely over the summer as position battles take shape:

Saints’ 2020 draft class entering make-or-break season in 2023

The Saints’ 2020 draft class is entering a make-or-break season in 2023. Cesar Ruiz, Zack Baun, and Adam Trautman can still change the narrative, but they’re running out of time:

Much of the attention on the New Orleans Saints’ 2020 NFL draft class has centered on right guard Cesar Ruiz, and for good reason — the former first-round pick struggled mightily through the first two years of his career before turning things around last season, and now he’s going into what could be a career-year with plenty of momentum behind him, despite an unfortunate season-ending injury in rearview. If the Saints don’t choose to exercise his fifth-year option after this year’s draft (which would cost them more than $14 million in 2024), he’ll be a free agent next year.

His other 2020 draftmates don’t have the luxury of a fifth-year option ahead of them, and they also haven’t quite met expectations up to this point. At the time of the draft, general manager Mickey Loomis and the team’s decision-makers like assistant GM Jeff Ireland told us they were going for a quality-over-quantity approach by drafting just four players, and trading up for three of them — linebacker Zack Baun, tight end Adam Trautman, and quarterback-turned-tight end Tommy Stevens. That strategy was met with skepticism at the time, and history hasn’t exactly justified the idea there.

Stevens was waived and kicked down to the practice squad within six months, and the Saints cut him for good 199 days after they picked him. Baun has been limited to special teams for most of his Saints career. Trautman hasn’t developed as hoped and the team was actively looking for his replacement in hosting Foster Moreau on a free agent visit.

So the way things stand right now, it’s hard to look at the 2020 class as anything but a failure. The Saints either took the wrong approach, picked the wrong prospects, or had the wrong vision in mind for them. Draw your own conclusions there.

That’s not to say there isn’t a scenario where things turn around. If Ruiz continues playing well and earns a long-term extension with the Saints, that does a lot to salvage the 2020 draft for New Orleans. So too would Baun taking a step forward in the role Kaden Elliss flourished in last season. He excelled as a pass rusher in college but the Saints overcomplicated things by making him play out of position and off the line of scrimmage. Elliss lined up closer to the ball and experienced great success because of it. Maybe that’s the proof-of-concept the coaches needed to let Baun do what he’s done best.

But that’s still just two players out of an entire draft class, and they each need to meet those expectations. Whether they can change the narrative or not is undetermined. Let’s hope they can go the distance. These players haven’t met expectations yet, but there’s still some time left on the clock for them to get there.

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Saints file a series of roster moves before kickoff vs. Falcons in Week 15

The Saints filed a series of last-minute roster moves before kickoff against the Falcons, calling up WR Kirk Merritt and activating several players from injured reserve:

The New Orleans Saints filed a series of last-minute roster moves before kickoff in Week 15 against the Atlanta Falcons, calling up wide receiver Kirk Merritt from the practice squad and sending linebacker Zack Baun to the injured reserve list. Here’s what you need to know about each transaction:

Who is on the Saints’ roster bubble entering the preseason finale?

Who is on the Saints’ roster bubble entering the preseason finale? Breaking down the list on offense and defense:

It’s going to be tough to make the New Orleans Saints’ roster. Just 53 of the 80 players under contract right now are going to make the cut, and many of those roster spots are already accounted for – by my count, as many as 46 players should be safe bets to make the opening-day depth chart (granted, three of them are specialists in the kicking game). 

Everyone else is on the roster bubble. A strong performance on Friday night against the Los Angeles Chargers could be what they need to win a job for Week 1, but falling shy of expectations could send their career in another direction. There’s a lot on the line for many of these guys. With that in mind, here are the players likely on the bubble going into the preseason finale:

Presenting the cases for and against Saints trading LB Zack Baun

Should the Saints trade away Zack Baun? They’re signing free agents off the street to get reps ahead of him in practice. At this point, they risk wasting everyone’s time:

Is the end of the line in sight for Zack Baun and the New Orleans Saints? Nothing from him or head coach Dennis Allen would suggest that — they’ve been busier joking about cheese curds in post-practice press conferences than sharing much insight on his role with the team — so I’m hesitant to go too far down this rabbit hole, but something’s not right here.

With Pete Werner sidelined by a groin injury, it’s been free agents signed off the street like Eric Wilson and Jon Bostic who are getting first-team snaps next to Demario Davis, not Baun. That’s hardly what you’d expect to see from a former third-round draft pick who the Saints traded up for.

Instead, Baun has been running with the special teams units, and to his credit making some big plays covering punts and kickoffs. That’s one area he’s excelled in New Orleans. He did lead the team in special teams snaps played last year, getting on the field for return and coverage units as well as the field goal block squad. It just isn’t what was expected of him. To be fair, those initial expectations never made much sense.

The Saints spent a 2021 third rounder to move up from No. 88 and pick Baun at No. 74 overall in the 2020 NFL draft; before that, he was an undersized pass-rush specialist with the Wisconsin Badgers who starred in multiple sports as a recruit out of the Milwaukee suburbs. When New Orleans called his name on draft day, they made the curious decision to convert him from his college role as an edge rusher to an off-ball linebacker. We’re three years into that project without much to say about it. If anything, it’s been a lesson in putting players in a position to use their strengths.

Baun was in and out of practice during the week leading up to New Orleans’ first preseason game with a hamstring injury, but it’s behind him now and he participated fully in both of their joint practices with the Packers in Green Bay. Playing in front of a friendly home crowd has to be good for his confidence, but the Saints need real results from the third-year pro.

And that brings us back to the point. Is Baun going to suddenly flip the switch and become a force player running alongside Davis? Likely not. The Saints haven’t shown much interest, if any, in letting him rush the passer like he did at Wisconsin (it doesn’t help that he’s about 50 pounds underweight for their prototype at defensive end, assuming everything’s accurate on their online roster). If his ceiling in New Orleans is a career special teamer, fine, but that’s disappointing for a former top-75 selection — though maybe the Saints are comfortable with that outcome. That’s what their words and actions show us, anyway.

There’s a very real chance this turns into a Rob Ninkovich situation where Baun goes to a new team and thrives because they’re letting him do what he does best and rush the passer, rather than line up off the ball and try to cover and learn new run fits. If the Saints aren’t happy with Baun’s progress in learning those new skills, why not let him try something he’s better at? And if they won’t do that, why don’t they stop wasting everyone’s time and trade him somewhere else?

Why not see if another team is interested in trading for Baun and trying him out in a pass-rush role? Find another team that uses more odd fronts and undersized edge rushers than New Orleans and roll the dice. Maybe you could get a draft pick out of it, or a player at a position of greater need. If Baun isn’t going to get into the lineup any time soon with the Saints and likely leave in a year as a free agent, it could be better to write things off as a loss, get some compensation, and let him pursue another opportunity.

So here’s the counterpoint. At best, the Saints could hope to recoup a draft that’s significantly less valuable than what they invested in Baun in the first place. Recently, the Miami Dolphins traded former second round selection Adam Shaheen and a seventh round pick for a future sixth rounder (though that deal was nullified by Shaheen’s failed physical), and the Las Vegas Raiders traded their 2021 fourth-round pick, Tyree Gillespie, for a conditional seventh rounder in 2024. The New England Patriots swapped 2019 first rounder N’Keal Harry for a 2024 seventh-round choice, too. The trade market just isn’t very active right now, but like Baun most of the players being moved are former high-round draftees who didn’t meet expectations.

What about a player-for-player trade? In that case, you’re looking at something like the Philadelphia Eagles-Seattle Seahawks swap, which saw J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (an Eagles second-round pick in 2019) exchanged for Ugo Amadi (a Seahawks 2019 fourth rounder), straight up. That’s basically sending out a backup and getting the same in return. Is it worth punting on Baun’s career if this is all you’re getting back?

Probably not. There’s still time for Baun to elbow his way into the lineup on defense, and there’s a lot to be said for making a career out of your efforts on special teams. It’s not ideal, but few things are. I’d rather keep giving Baun opportunities to justify the high draft pick the team spent on him than part ways prematurely and get next to nothing in return. Giving up on him to recoup a late-round draft pick two years from now or a player likely to be cut in a few weeks isn’t worth it. Let’s see if they agree.

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Pete Werner lands on NFI list, should Saints re-sign Kwon Alexander?

With Pete Werner landing on the non-football injury list, should it lead the Saints to re-sign Kwon Alexander?

This isn’t ideal: the New Orleans Saints designated Pete Werner to the non-football injury list on Wednesday, sidelining one of their starting linebackers for the early days of training camp. So it didn’t take long for fans to start calling for the team to bring back Kwon Alexander.

It makes sense given how popular Alexander has become after landing with New Orleans (his background as a former LSU Tiger helped), but a minor injury to Werner shouldn’t rush the Saints into a reunion with a player they’ve chosen to move on from. Dennis Allen declined to share details on what Werner is dealing with, but he downplayed the severity by saying, “Hopefully it’s nothing that will keep him out too long.”

And this is an opportunity for a couple of backups to get snaps with the first-string defense. Kaden Elliss and Zack Baun have both played bit parts in the rotation, and the only way they’ll improve enough to get into the starting lineup in the fall is by making the most of these reps in July. With Werner sidelined they’re both getting more looks next to Demario Davis. It feels redundant to spell it out like this, but it’s tough for players to get better without practicing.

So while a reactionary Alexander signing would appease some impatient fans, it’s in the Saints’ interest to take Werner’s absence as a chance to see where Baun is at in his third season. They invested a couple of draft picks in acquiring him not that long ago, envisioning a plan to convert him to weakside linebacker — the exact role that Alexander and Werner have filled instead. Whether that was a good plan or not is behind us. Now that both of those players aren’t in his way, it’s time for Baun to give it his best shot and show his coaches what he can do.

It’s not like the Saints need a starter this Sunday, in which case a known quantity like Alexander would be preferred. Giving Baun the first-string snaps for a few days or maybe a week (or however long Werner is expected to be sidelined; Allen suggested it won’t be long, and he’s already doing conditioning work on his own in practice) is the way to go.

Again, Baun won’t become a known quantity (for good or for bad) until he puts enough snaps on film for the team to better evaluate him. Embrace that opportunity, and once Werner is healthy, use what you’ve learned to reset the depth chart appropriately. That’s the best path forward right now.

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