The Saints have agreed to sign James Hurst, according agent Jack Bechta (on Twitter). The former Ravens offensive lineman will head to New Orleans on a one-year deal. 
[RELATED: Saints DE Noah Spence Tears ACL]
The Ravens released Hurst in March, wiping his $5.25MM cap hit off of the books for 2020. In February, Hurst was hit with a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances. Before the ban, Hurst was already on the roster bubble. After the suspension came down from the league office, his fate was pretty much sealed.
The suspension means that Hurst won’t be available for his new team in September. But, come October, Hurst could be a worthwhile reserve, one that offers starting experience at both tackle and guard. In six seasons with the Ravens, Hurst was first-string for 44 of his 90 games. He was mostly a reserve last year, but he started in all of his games between 2017 and 2018.
In New Orleans, Hurst will have the opportunity to learn from one of the league’s best O-Lines, a unit that allowed only 24 sacks in 2019. On the outside, they’ll start Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk. In the middle, they’ll deploy Andrus Peat, Erik McCoy, and rookie Cesar Ruiz, now that veteran Larry Warford is out of the picture.
The Saints re-signed defensive end Noah Spence in March, but the former second-round pick is likely done for the season.
New Orleans placed Spence on its reserve/non-football injury list Tuesday. This would only shelve him for the first six weeks of the season, but Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that Spence suffered a torn ACL while working out independently. The Saints would have been unable to place Spence on the NFI list in a normal offseason, with Rapoport noting the injury occurred during the OTA window.
Spence does not count against the Saints’ 90-man offseason roster, having been moved to the NFI list to make room for recently added linebacker Anthony Chickillo.
Spence caught on with the Saints late last season but did not play in any games with the team. After the Buccaneers waived him following the preseason’s conclusion, Spence landed with the Redskins. He played seven games with the team, registering one sack.
A Bucs draftee in 2016, Spence has 7.5 career sacks. He recorded 5.5 of those as a rookie. He was expected to compete for a depth spot with the Saints.
Taysom Hill is expected to be “the guy” at quarterback for the Saints whenever Drew Brees decides to retire, as Jay Glazer of The Athletic writes. Brees has already signed a post-career deal with NBC Sports, and the 2020 season may or may not be his final year in the NFL, so Hill could be in line to become New Orleans’ starter as soon as next year. The drawbacks on Hill are apparent: he’ll be 31 years old when the 2021 campaign gets underway, and he’s only attempted 13 passes over the course of his career. But the Saints have nothing but shower with him praise in addition to extending him on a two-year pact that includes nearly $17.5MM in guaranteed money and a $16.1MM cap charge in 2021. Per Glazer, New Orleans isn’t attempting a “smokescreen” — the club is comfortable will Hill under center if Brees hangs up his cleats.
The Saints have agreed to sign free agent linebacker Anthony Chickillo to a one-year deal, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
A sixth-round pick in the 2015 draft, Chickillo had spent his entire career with Pittsburgh until being released earlier this year. After completing his rookie contract, Chickillo inked a two-year, $8MM contact with the Steelers in 2019 despite receiving free agent interest from the Patriots. Pittsburgh decided to cut bait halfway through the deal, saving $5MM in the process.
Chickillo, 27, spent most of his Steelers career as a reserve (65 games, nine starts). His most productive campaign came in 2016, when he made seven starts and played on roughly a third of Pittsburgh’s defensive snaps. Last year, Chickillo played in 11 games, racking up a half-sack and 19 total tackles.
Chickillo has spent a great deal of time on special teams duty (at least 67% playtime in each of the past four seasons), and that’s likely what he’ll do for the Saints. New Orleans is projected to start Demario Davis, Kiko Alonso, and Alex Anzalone in base sets, with Craig Robertson and rookie Zack Baun in reserve, so Chickillo isn’t even necessarily guaranteed a place on the Saints’ final roster.
When we ran down the longest-tenured head coaches in the NFL, we found that less than half of the league’s current coaches have been in their positions for more than three years. That’s not quite the case with general managers, but there have been plenty of changes in recent years.
A handful of general managers have gotten to take their coats off and stay for a long while. Among coaches, Bill Belichick had joined his team prior to 2003. Here, you’ll see that five GMs have been with their teams since before ’03 (Belichick, of course, is also on this list). Two of those five – Jerry Jones and Mike Brown – are outliers, since they’re team owners and serve as de facto GMs. But the Patriots, Steelers, and Saints, have all had the same general managers making their roster decisions for well over a decade.
Here’s the complete list of the NFL’s longest-tenured GMs, along with the date they took over the job:
- Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys): April 18, 1989[1]
- Mike Brown (Cincinnati Bengals): August 5, 1991[2]
- Bill Belichick (New England Patriots): January 27, 2000[3]
- Kevin Colbert (Pittsburgh Steelers): February 18, 2000[4]
- Mickey Loomis (New Orleans Saints): May 14, 2002
- Rick Spielman (Minnesota Vikings): May 30, 2006[5]
- Thomas Dimitroff (Atlanta Falcons): January 13, 2008
- John Schneider (Seattle Seahawks): January 19, 2010[6]
- Howie Roseman (Philadelphia Eagles): January 29, 2010
- John Elway (Denver Broncos): January 5, 2011[7]
- Les Snead (St. Louis Rams): February 10, 2012
- David Caldwell (Jacksonville Jaguars): January 8, 2013
- Steve Keim (Arizona Cardinals): January 8, 2013
- Tom Telesco (San Diego Chargers): January 9, 2013
- Jason Licht (Tampa Bay Buccaneers): January 21, 2014
- Ryan Pace (Chicago Bears): January 8, 2015
- Chris Grier (Miami Dolphins): January 4, 2016
- Bob Quinn (Detroit Lions): January 8, 2016
- Jon Robinson (Tennessee Titans): January 14, 2016
- John Lynch (San Francisco 49ers): January 29, 2017
- Chris Ballard (Indianapolis Colts): January 30, 2017
- Brandon Beane (Buffalo Bills): May 9, 2017
- Brett Veach (Kansas City Chiefs): July 11, 2017
- Marty Hurney (Carolina Panthers): July 19, 2017
- Dave Gettleman (New York Giants): December 28, 2017
- Brian Gutekunst (Green Bay Packers): January 7, 2018
- Mike Mayock (Oakland Raiders): December 31, 2018
- Joe Douglas (New York Jets): June 7, 2019
- Eric DeCosta (Baltimore Ravens): January 7, 2019[8]
- Ron Rivera (Washington Redskins): January 1, 2020[9]
- Andrew Berry (Cleveland Browns): January 27, 2020
- Bill O’Brien (Houston Texans): January 28, 2020
Footnotes:
- Jones has been the Cowboys’ de facto general manager since former GM Tex Schramm resigned in April 1989.
- Brown has been the Bengals’ de facto GM since taking over as the team’s owner in August 1991.
- Belichick has been the Patriots’ de facto GM since shortly after being hired as the team’s head coach in January 2000.
- Colbert was initially hired as the team’s director of football operations and received the newly-created general manager title in 2011.
- Spielman was initially hired as the team’s VP of player personnel and received the GM title in 2012.
- While Schneider holds the title of GM, head coach Pete Carroll has the final say on roster moves for the Seahawks.
- Elway was initially hired as the team’s executive VP of football operations and received the GM title in 2014.
- In 2018, the Ravens announced that DeCosta would replace Ozzie Newsome as GM for Ozzie Newsome after the conclusion of the season. The Ravens’ ’18 season ended with their Wild Card loss to the Chargers on 1/6/19.
- Technically, the Redskins do not have a GM, as of this writing. Rivera is, effectively, their GM, working in tandem with Vice President of Player Personnel Kyle Smith. Smith may receive the GM title in the near future.
Details on a couple of recent NFL deals (Twitter link via ESPN’s Field Yates unless otherwise specified):
- Aaron Colvin, CB (Redskins): One year. Veteran salary benefit. $910K base salary, $137.5K signing bonus.
- Ty Montgomery, RB (Saints): One year. Veteran salary benefit. $910K base salary, $137.5K signing bonus.
- Patrick Omameh, OL (Saints): One year. Veteran salary benefit. $1.05MM base salary, $137.5K signing bonus.
- Chris Thompson, RB (Jaguars): One year. $1.05MM base salary. $250K signing bonus, $100K available in roster bonuses.
Things move fast in today’s NFL and the old adage of “coaches are hired to be fired” has seemingly never been more true. For the most part, teams change their coaches like they change their underwear. 
A head coach can take his team to the Super Bowl, or win the Super Bowl, or win multiple Super Bowls, but they’re never immune to scrutiny. Just ask Tom Coughlin, who captured his second ring with the Giants after the 2011 season, only to receive his pink slip after the 2015 campaign.
There are also exceptions. Just look at Bill Belichick, who just wrapped up his 20th season at the helm in New England. You’ll also see a few others on this list, but, for the most part, most of today’s NFL head coaches are relatively new to their respective clubs. And, history dictates that many of them will be elsewhere when we check in on this list in 2022.
Over one-third (12) of the NFL’s head coaches have coached no more than one season with their respective teams. Meanwhile, less than half (15) have been with their current clubs for more than three years. It seems like just yesterday that the Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury, right? It sort of was – Kingsbury signed on with the Cardinals in January of 2019. Today, he’s practically a veteran.
Here’s the list of the current head coaches in the NFL, ordered by tenure, along with their respective start dates:
- Bill Belichick (New England Patriots): January 27, 2000
- Sean Payton (New Orleans Saints): January 18, 2006
- Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh Steelers): January 27, 2007
- John Harbaugh (Baltimore Ravens): January 19, 2008
- Pete Carroll (Seattle Seahawks): January 9, 2010
- Andy Reid (Kansas City Chiefs): January 4, 2013
- Bill O’Brien (Houston Texans): January 2, 2014
- Mike Zimmer (Minnesota Vikings): January 15, 2014
- Dan Quinn (Atlanta Falcons): February 2, 2015
- Doug Pederson (Philadelphia Eagles): January 18, 2016
- Sean McDermott (Buffalo Bills): January 11, 2017
- Doug Marrone (Jacksonville Jaguars): December 19, 2016 (interim; permanent since 2017)
- Anthony Lynn (Los Angeles Chargers): January 12, 2017
- Sean McVay (Los Angeles Rams): January 12, 2017
- Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco 49ers): February 6, 2017
- Matt Nagy (Chicago Bears): January 7, 2018
- Matt Patricia (Detroit Lions): February 5, 2018
- Frank Reich (Indianapolis Colts): February 11, 2018
- Jon Gruden (Las Vegas Raiders): January 6, 2018
- Mike Vrabel (Tennessee Titans): January 20, 2018
- Kliff Kingsbury (Arizona Cardinals): January 8, 2019
- Zac Taylor (Cincinnati Bengals): February 4, 2019
- Vic Fangio (Denver Broncos): January 10, 2019
- Matt LaFleur (Green Bay Packers): January 8, 2019
- Brian Flores (Miami Dolphins): February 4, 2019
- Adam Gase (New York Jets): January 11, 2019
- Bruce Arians (Tampa Bay Buccaneers): January 8, 2019
- Ron Rivera (Washington Redskins): January 1, 2020
- Matt Rhule (Carolina Panthers): January 7, 2020
- Mike McCarthy (Dallas Cowboys): January 7, 2020
- Joe Judge (New York Giants): January 8, 2020
- Kevin Stefanski (Cleveland Browns): January 13, 2020
The Saints will add to their running back room by signing Ty Montgomery. The former Packers, Ravens and Jets back agreed to a deal with New Orleans on Friday, Nick Underhill of New Orleans.Football tweets. The Saints announced the move.
Montgomery has experience as a wide receiver and running back and operated as the Jets’ kick returner last season. He will join Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray with the Saints.
Being permitted to wear No. 88 despite switching to running back years ago, Montgomery profiles as an interesting utility piece for a team that has gotten considerable mileage from this type of player in recent years. The former third-round pick out of Stanford moved to running back in 2016 — his second NFL season — and averaged 5.9 yards per carry that year. He also caught 44 passes for 348 yards in 2016. However, Montgomery has not contributed much statistically beyond that season.
The Packers interestingly opened the 2017 season with Montgomery starting ahead of then-rookies Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams but traded Montgomery to the Ravens after a fumble on a kick return led to a Green Bay loss to the Rams. And he saw little time with Baltimore. Last year, the Jets gave him 32 carries.
That said, Montgomery is still just 27, has a career 4.6 yards-per-carry average and posted a 900-plus-yard receiving season in college. Montgomery compiled back-to-back 61-reception seasons to close his Cardinal career. The Saints, who also did not draft a wideout, are listing Montgomery as a running back.
It would seem likely New Orleans views Montgomery as more of an offensive weapon, considering the team just saw Deonte Harris become an All-Pro returner last season. Harris, whom the Associated Press named as its All-Pro punt returner, functioned as the Saints’ kick returner as well.
In a corresponding move, the Saints waived tight end Mitchell Loewen.
Patrick Omameh has re-signed with the Saints, as Greg Auman of The Athletic tweets. Financial terms of the deal are not yet known.
Omameh has spent time with a number of teams, but he’s perhaps best known for his ill-fated free agent deal with the Giants in 2018. After two years with the Jaguars, the G-Men inked him to a three-year, $15MM deal. Dave Gettleman saw something in the former undrafted free agent that didn’t quite surface in New York, but he wasn’t alone. Other clubs were in on the bidding and the advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus positioned him as the No. 36 qualified guard in the NFL just one year earlier. In other words, Omameh wasn’t a first-rate blocker, but his $5MM AAV wasn’t outlandish.
Unfortunately, Omameh struggled in his first fall with the Giants. He was cut in November of that year; at the time, PFF had him just 61st out of 75 qualified guards. After finishing out the year with his old friends in Jacksonville, Omameh joined the Saints in the summer of ’19. Now, he’ll return to reprise his interior depth role.
Last year, Omameh appeared in 14 games for the Saints with just one start. For his career, Omameh’s suited up for 81 games with 57 starts, mostly coming with the Bucs and Jaguars.