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New Orleans Saints News & Rumors

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/26/20

September 26th, 2020 at 4:55pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Saturday’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Buffalo Bills

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Denver Broncos

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Las Vegas Raiders

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Football Team

Michael Thomas To Miss Another Game

September 25th, 2020 at 4:10pm CST by Sam Robinson
  • The Saints will continue to be patient with Michael Thomas. The high ankle sprain the All-Pro suffered will keep him out of Sunday night’s game against the Packers. This will mark just Thomas’ second missed game since his 2016 rookie year and will leave Emmanuel Sanders and Tre’Quan Smith as Drew Brees‘ top receivers.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/21/20

September 21st, 2020 at 6:01pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Chicago Bears

Denver Broncos

Las Vegas Raiders

New Orleans Saints

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/19/20

September 19th, 2020 at 4:57pm CST by Ben Levine

Recent practice squad notes from around the league:

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

  • Signed: WR Hakeem Butler
  • Released: S T.J. Green, T Aaron Monteiro

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

Pittsburgh Steelers

  • Signed: OL Brandon Walton

Of course, the big news here surrounds Callaway. Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reports (via Twitter) that the wideout has earned an additional four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. This means he’ll be eligible to return to the field in Week 8.

Callaway will continue to sit on the Dolphins’ practice squad suspended list, per Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com. The 23-year-old will still be allowed to attend meetings, but he can’t practice with the squad until his suspension ends.

The talented wideout out of Florida fell to the Browns in the fourth round of the 2018 draft thanks in part to a 2016 four-game suspension from former head coach Jim McElwain. Callaway immediately contributed in Cleveland, hauling in 43 receptions for 586 and five scores during his rookie campaign. However, the receiver was suspended for the first four games of the 2019 season after violating the substance-abuse policy, and he underwhelmed in the four games following his return (eight receptions, 89 yards).

He was slapped with a 10-game ban late last year, and the suspension was supposed to last through the third week of the 2020 season. Thanks to the latest suspension, Callaway won’t see the field through the first seven weeks of the season.

Saints Rule Out Michael Thomas For Week 2

September 19th, 2020 at 3:10pm CST by Zachary Links

SEPTEMBER 19: The Saints will be cautious with their All-Pro wide receiver. They have ruled Thomas out of their Week 2 game against the Raiders. Thomas did not practice this week, and his status for Week 3 should be considered in doubt based on the information that has surfaced.

SEPTEMBER 18: Doctors told Michael Thomas that he’d miss several weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain. However, the Saints wide receiver “felt fantastic” at Thursday’s practice and there’s a “little glimmer of hope” he can play on Monday night against the Raiders, a source tells ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter).

It’s still unlikely that Thomas will suit up in Las Vegas, but it’s promising news nonetheless. Saints officials, who wanted to place Thomas on IR to sideline him for a minimum of three weeks, were pleasantly surprised by his early progress.

The 27-year-old has missed only one game since entering the league in 2016. Over the last five years, he’s racked up 473 catches for 5,529 yards and 32 touchdowns, cementing himself as one of the league’s very best offensive weapons. Last year, he led the NFL with 149 catches and 1,725 yards while matching his previous career-high of nine scores.

The Saints topped the Bucs 34-23 in the season opener, despite Thomas registering just three catches for 17 yards. Of course, in the long run, Thomas would be sorely missed. If Thomas winds up on IR, he’ll miss the next three games against the Raiders, Packers, and Lions at the minimum.

2020 NFL Cap Space, By Team

September 17th, 2020 at 3:02pm CST by Zachary Links

Cap management has been extra complicated in the NFL this year. After ~70 NFL players opted out of the 2020 season, teams were left with holes and plenty of available dollars to fill the gaps. At first, the ongoing uncertainty over next year’s salary cap had teams nervous about large-scale commitments. Now, it seems like we’re getting back to business as usual.

Recent deals for Saints star Alvin Kamara, Vikings running back Dalvin Cook, Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey, and others demonstrate the league’s long-term confidence. In turn, we’ve seen cap figures change dramatically in September.

Here’s the rundown of each team’s estimated cap space for the 2020 season, via Over The Cap:

  1. Cleveland Browns – $33.4MM
  2. New York Jets – $28.6MM
  3. Dallas Cowboys — $27.5MM
  4. New England Patriots – $26.3MM
  5. Washington Football Team – $25.8MM
  6. Denver Broncos – $25.7MM
  7. Jacksonville Jaguars – $25.2MM
  8. Philadelphia Eagles – $20MM
  9. Detroit Lions – $18MM
  10. Miami Dolphins – $16.7MM
  11. Baltimore Ravens – $14.2MM
  12. Los Angeles Chargers – $11.8MM
  13. Cincinnati Bengals – $11.6MM
  14. Arizona Cardinals – $11.4MM
  15. Indianapolis Colts – $11.3MM
  16. San Francisco 49ers – $11.2MM
  17. Pittsburgh Steelers – $10.9MM
  18. Chicago Bears – $9.9MM
  19. New York Giants – $9.6MM
  20. Houston Texans – $9.6MM
  21. Tennessee Titans – $9.4MM
  22. New Orleans Saints – $8.8MM
  23. Green Bay Packers – $8.7MM
  24. Los Angeles Rams – $7.7MM
  25. Las Vegas Raiders – $7.4MM
  26. Carolina Panthers – $6.9MM
  27. Kansas City Chiefs – $6.6MM
  28. Buffalo Bills – $6.5MM
  29. Seattle Seahawks – $6.2MM
  30. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – $3.7MM
  31. Atlanta Falcons – $3.3MM
  32. Minnesota Vikings – $2MM

Saints’ Michael Thomas To Miss Time

September 15th, 2020 at 8:26pm CST by Zachary Links

The Saints will be without Michael Thomas for a while. The star wide receiver will be sidelined for several weeks with a high-ankle sprain, according to NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero (Twitter link). 

[RELATED: Saints Sign LB Demario Davis To Three-Year Extension]

The Saints want to put Thomas on injured reserve, but he’s pushing back in hopes that he can return inside of three weeks. Based on the diagnosis, Pelissero senses that an extra-speedy recovery is unlikely. The 27-year-old has missed only game as a pro and zero since 2017.

Needless to say, losing Thomas for a month or more would be devastating for the Saints. Thomas is fresh off of a record-shattering 149-catch season in which he finished with 1,725 yards and nine touchdowns. It was an unbelievable encore, even by Thomas’ standards. In the previous season, Thomas set Saints records with 125 catches and 1,405 yards while adding nine TDs. He was wildly efficient, too – Thomas’ catch rate of 84.5% was the highest of any NFL receiver since at least 2001.

But, on the flipside, the Saints did manage to down the Buccaneers on Sunday despite an uncharacteristically quiet game from Thomas. For now, Drew Brees will look to newcomer Emmanuel Sanders for increased support and likely send additional targets towards running back Alvin Kamara and tight end Jared Cook.

Saints Sign LB Demario Davis To Three-Year Extension

September 13th, 2020 at 6:49pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Alvin Kamara isn’t the only Saint with a big new deal. New Orleans has signed linebacker Demario Davis to a three-year extension, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets. (FOX’s Erin Andrews was first to report the news).

Rapoport notes that the deal has a base value of $27MM, with $18.35MM of that being guaranteed. He’ll also have Pro Bowl incentives of $500K in each of the three seasons. Davis signed in New Orleans on a three-year, $24MM deal back in March of 2018, and had been scheduled to become a free agent after the year.

As Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets the Saints recently tweaked defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins’ deal to clear up $4MM in cap space, perhaps helping to facilitate this deal. A third-round pick of the Jets in 2012, Davis spent the first four years of his career in New York, then spent a year with the Browns, then went back to the Jets.

A first-team All-Pro selection last season, Davis has never missed a game in his eight-year career. In 16 starts last year he had 111 tackles, four sacks, an interception, and 12 passes defended. New Orleans’ defense looked pretty good against Tom Brady in Week 1, and Davis will be a big part of that unit moving forward.

Bears Were “In The Running” For Tom Brady

September 13th, 2020 at 9:04am CST by Rory Parks

It seems like just yesterday that the Tom Brady free agency rumors were dominating the NFL news cycle. And while Brady will be making his much-anticipated debut for the Buccaneers this afternoon, perhaps he instead could have been suiting up for the Bears in their Week 1 matchup against the Lions.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, the Bears — who took a look at every QB available on the market before swinging a trade for Nick Foles — made an offer to Brady. It’s unclear what that offer looked like, but Rapoport says Chicago was indeed in the running, though Brady was not particularly keen on signing with a cold-weather club.

Ultimately, the Florida sunshine and Tampa’s loaded receiving corps helped lure Brady to the Bucs. The Bears, despite the trade for Foles and the reworked contract they gave him, have elected to kick off the regular season with embattled signal-caller Mitch Trubisky under center.

Rapoport — along with Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington of ESPN.com — adds that there was mutual interest between Brady and the Saints when it was unclear if Drew Brees was going to retire or not. We already wrote about the New Orleans-Brady connection back in June, so this is not exactly news.

Interestingly, though, Jeff Duncan of The Athletic says that the Saints were Brady’s preferred landing spot if Brees had elected to head to the broadcasting booth in 2020 (Twitter link). Duncan adds that Brees was closer to retirement than many realize, so instead of seeing the two 40-something QBs battle each other today, we might have seen Brady in black-and-gold taking on Brees’ new backup and former Tampa starter Jameis Winston.

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