New Orleans Saints News & Rumors

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 9/12/19

Today’s practice squad updates:

Buffalo Bills

Chicago Bears

  • Signed: DL Abdullah Anderson
  • Released: LB James Vaughters

Cleveland Browns

Green Bay Packers

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Washington Redskins

  • Signed: TE Donald Parham

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/10/19

Baltimore Ravens

Houston Texans

Kansas City Chiefs

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Redskins

 

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/9/19

Here are Monday’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Atlanta Falcons

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Pittsburgh Steelers

Saints Will Not Pursue Antonio Brown

  • Any team that signs Brown will guarantee 25% of his 2019 salary, per OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald (on Twitter), because of termination pay rules. However, if one of the other three teams playing on Monday night — the Texans, Saints or Broncos — sign Brown before their respective games (extremely unlikely), Brown’s salary would be fully guaranteed.
  • Count the Saints out, however, with Sean Payton quickly indicating (via NOLA.com’s Herbie Teope, on Twitter) his team will not pursue the volatile All-Pro. This figures to be a theme, but there will certainly be teams that investigate this situation for a possible free agent signing.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/5/19

Here are Thursday’s minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Denver Broncos

  • Released from IR via injury settlement: LB Joe Dineen

Los Angeles Rams

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Washington Redskins

NFL Cap Space By Team For 2019

With hours to go before the start of the 2019 NFL season, here’s a rundown of how much cap room each NFL team has (via ESPN.com’s Field Yates, on Twitter):

  1. Indianapolis Colts – $42.1MM
  2. Cleveland Browns – $32.7MM
  3. Miami Dolphins – $31.9MM
  4. Houston Texans – $29.5MM
  5. Buffalo Bills – $24.8MM
  6. Tennessee Titans – $24.1MM
  7. Dallas Cowboys – $22.3MM
  8. Detroit Lions – $19.2MM
  9. San Francisco 49ers – $18.7MM
  10. Chicago Bears – $17.3MM
  11. Carolina Panthers – $16.6MM
  12. Washington Redskins – $15.9MM
  13. Philadelphia Eagles – $14.8MM
  14. Cincinnati Bengals – $13.3MM
  15. Kansas City Chiefs – $12.4MM
  16. Oakland Raiders – $12MM
  17. Denver Broncos – $11.2MM
  18. Green Bay Packers – $10.8MM
  19. Los Angeles Chargers – $10.2MM
  20. Jacksonville Jaguars – $9.5MM
  21. New York Jets – $9.3MM
  22. Seattle Seahawks – $8.6MM
  23. Baltimore Ravens – $8.2MM
  24. Pittsburgh Steelers – $6.3MM
  25. New England Patriots – $4.9MM
  26. Arizona Cardinals – $2.7MM
  27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – $1.2MM
  28. Minnesota Vikings – $1.2MM
  29. Los Angeles Rams – $852K
  30. New Orleans Saints – $604K
  31. Atlanta Falcons – $493K
  32. New York Giants – $457K

NFL Workout Updates: 9/3/19

Here are today’s workout updates, all courtesy of Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter) unless otherwise noted. The Saints had several recognizable players in for workouts.

Arizona Cardinals (Twitter link via veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer)

Carolina Panthers (Twitter link via Balzer)

Cincinnati Bengals

Detroit Lions

New Orleans Saints

New York Jets

  • Brandon Hitner

Philadelphia Eagles

Washington Redskins (Twitter link via Balzer)

Saints Rookie Carl Granderson Released From Jail, Reinstated

The Saints signed defensive end Carl Granderson as a UDFA in May and gave him a hefty guarantee despite the fact that he had a pending trial for sexual assault charges in July. His attorney and prosecutors reached a plea deal whereby Granderson would have served one year of probation, but a Wyoming judge went against the plea deal and ordered that Granderson immediately begin serving a six-month jail sentence. The Saints subsequently placed Granderson on the Did Not Report list.

Granderson’s attorney moved the court for a reconsideration of the sentence, and as Herbie Teope of NOLA.com reports, a different judge granted the motion. Granderson has been released and will need to serve one year of probation, but he is allowed to join the Saints. Teope — who says the team did a great deal of due diligence on the matter before signing Granderson — also notes that Granderson was reinstated with an Exempt/Commissioner Permission designation. He will not count against the team’s roster for now, and New Orleans will have two weeks to decide what to do with him.

It seems likely that the club will find a place for him on the 53-man roster given the financial commitment to him and given his talent. He almost certainly would have been drafted if not for his legal situation, and he could become a useful part of the Saints’ front seven this year.

As Teope observes, Granderson is not subject to league discipline as the incident that gave rise to the assault charges occurred before Granderson was in the league.

NFL Workouts: 9/2/19

In the wake of all the cuts that have taken place over the past few days, there are a ton of players looking for new homes. Many teams are bringing guys in for tryouts, and we’ll keep track of all of today’s here, all courtesy of veteran NFL reporter Howard Balzer (on Twitter).

There were a few notable names, including former-first round pick offensive guard Joshua Garnett, who worked out for the Seahawks. The 49ers drafted Garnett 28th overall in 2016, and he started 11 games as a rookie. He then missed the entire 2017 season with an injury, and didn’t make any starts last year. The 49ers were able to save $1.7MM by cutting him, and they jumped at the opportunity. Perhaps he’ll be able to revive his career with an NFC West rival.

The Dolphins are hosting offensive tackle J’Marcus Webb, who has plenty of starting experience. After trading away Laremy Tunsil, the Dolphins are understandably looking for tackle help. Webb started 16 games for the Raiders as recently as 2015, and one for the Colts last season before being placed on IR. He’s been around since 2010, and spent his first three seasons as a starter with the Bears. As Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald quipped in a tweet, it’s “not optimal” that the Dolphins are potentially looking for a starting tackle six days before the opener.

The Bills appear to be looking for a punter, as they worked out a group of them today.

Here’s the full list:

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins

  • OT J’Marcus Webb

New Orleans Saints

Seattle Seahawks

New Saints LB Kiko Alonso Adjusts Deal

The Dolphins planned to release linebacker Kiko Alonso until the Saints agreed to a swap sending fellow ‘backer Vince Biegel to South Beach. Before the deal was finalized, Alonso agreed to an adjusted contract to facilitate the trade, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter) hears. 

The revised contract will give Alonso a fully-guaranteed $5MM – with no offsets – by next week. The Saints will pay $4MM of that sum while the Dolphins will kick in $1MM. Meanwhile, the last year of his contract remains untouched – Alonso is set to earn $6.4MM in base salary with an $8.2MM cap figure in 2020, though the Saints could escape that year with little financial consequence. Cutting Alonso before the start of the year would save $6.4MM against the cap with just $1.76MM in dead money.

Traditional metrics portray Alonso as a solid linebacker who can defend against the pass. But, despite his five interceptions over the last three years, he gets little love from the advanced metrics for his coverage ability.

Algorithms, schmalgorithms, is what the Saints say. Alonso’s help will be greatly appreciated in New Orleans while Alex Anzalone and Craig Robertson continue to heal up from injury.