Cameron Tom, guard/center

Tom’s year ended prematurely on injured reserve, but he was the team’s second-string center by the time training camp wrapped up. The Saints held a three-way competition to start at center between rookie draft pick Erik McCoy (who won), veteran free agent Nick Easton (who started six games at left guard instead), and Tom (who was Max Unger’s understudy the last few years). If he hadn’t been injured late in preseason, Tom would have gone into the season as the top backup at both center and guard.

So keeping him around is the obvious choice. It’s just unclear how the Saints should approach that. Tom was first promoted to the 53-man roster to keep him from being poached by other teams off the Saints practice squad back in 2017, so he’s probably still on other teams’ radar. Using either of the top two tenders may not be necessary, but the lowest-level tender could get him snatched up by another team (and because he went undrafted out of Southern Mississippi, the Saints would not get compensated). The best solution would be a low-cost contract extension similar to what Senio Kelemete once signed with the Saints (two years, $2.7 million).

Verdict: Sign him to a long-term extension.

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