Willie Snead IV says he’d love to retire with the Saints

Willie Snead IV says he’d love to retire with the Saints. He was teammates with Derek Carr on the Raiders and worked with Klint Kubiak on the 49ers.

Willie Snead IV has had an interesting NFL career. He broke out with the New Orleans Saints in a big way, catching 69 passes for 984 yards back in 2015, following up with 72 receptions and 895 yards in 2016. While he hasn’t met those numbers in the years since, he’s continued to hang around with the Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders, and most intriguingly, the San Francisco 49ers.

The former Saints wideout spoke with NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill and Mike Triplett about his experiencing working in Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers offense, also reflecting on his time in New Orleans and the most memorable plays he w as involved with. And he says, if given the chance, he’d like to finish his career with the Saints.

“If that black and gold starts calling, I would love to retire in those colors, if anything,” Snead said. “Because that’s where I started. It would only seem fitting and right to finish there, if you get what I’m saying.”

Snead is a player the Saints know well. He caught passes from Derek Carr for five games in 2021. His time with the Ravens didn’t overlap with Keith Williams, the Saints’ new receivers coach and Baltimore’s former assistant wideouts coach, but he was often in the same room as Klint Kubiak last year in San Francisco. Kubiak worked as the 49ers passing game coordinator in 2023 while Snead was on their practice squad.

Would Snead add much to the receiving corps? Maybe, maybe not. His early success with the Saints looks like more of a flash in the pan, but they do have a young group. Snead has appeared in more games (91) than any other  receiver on the roster and he could be a good veteran resource for his less-experienced teammates during training camp. The Saints brought a dozen receivers into training camp last summer but only have nine on the roster right now. They could be looking to add one more  to the group before kicking off camp in California next week.

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