The draft is about to kickoff in a few hours, but as you can see with all the Aaron Rodgers drama, the rest of the league isn’t slowing down. The Saints are still taking care of other business, as they’ve exercised the fifth-year option on Marcus Davenport, a source told Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football (Twitter link).
With the changes in the new CBA, it means Davenport’s salary for 2022 is now fully guaranteed. Previously it would’ve been guaranteed for injury only. The UTSA product will now make around $9.55MM in 2022. New Orleans gave up a first-round pick to move up 13 spots in the 2018 draft in order to select Davenport.
He hasn’t lived up to those lofty expectations, but he has shown promise when on the field. He started 13 games in 2019 but was limited to only 11 contests this past year, and started just one of them. He had 4.5 sacks as a rookie, six as a sophomore, and then only 1.5 this past year.
Injuries are a concern, and he only played around 50 percent of the snaps when healthy in 2020. This one was far from a lock, and it’s a strong vote of confidence in a player who’s still only 24. He’s shown flashes of brilliance before, and the Saints are hoping he can fully deliver on that potential over the next two years.