HEADLINES

Zack Baun

Eagles LB Devin White On Track For Starting Role?

July 1st, 2024 at 3:11pm CST by Adam La Rose

Linebacker was a position of weakness for the Eagles last season, with Zach Cunningham and Nicholas Morrow spending much of the year in a starter’s role. The position will look different in 2024, in large part due to the addition of Devin White. 

The former Buccaneers top-five pick was connected to a trade request stemming from his desire for a market-topping extension. The 2023 campaign did not go according to plan for him, though, and his free agent value suffered considerably. White took a one-year deal with the Eagles which carries a base value of $4MM.

Reaching incentives on the pact will allow the 26-year-old to earn up to $3.5MM extra, and seeing a notable role on defense will obviously play a key role in that. White operated as a starter during spring workouts, as noted by Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia. He did so alongside Zack Baun, another free agent signing. The former Saint made 62 appearances and 14 starts across the past four years.

White’s Buccaneers tenure included a Super Bowl victory in 2020 and a Pro Bowl nod the following year. The LSU product has frequently filled the statsheet, racking up 566 tackles and 23 sacks in five Tampa Bay seasons. Issues related to coverage and inconsistent play led to him losing his starting job to K.J. Britt down the stretch last season, and as a result it came as no surprise when he departed on the open market. White’s play in Philadelphia will play a key role in determining his value on a new Eagles pact or one sending him to a third team.

Of course, the fact that White and Baun logged starter’s reps in the spring means highly-touted 2022 draftee Nakobe Dean has ground to make up during training camp. The latter was a central figure in Georgia’s national title-winning teams, but he hardly saw any defensive usage as a rookie. Things changed last season when Dean started four games until injuries limited him to only five appearances. The 23-year-old has two years remaining on his rookie contract and his workload in 2024 could be tied to how White and Baun perform in padded practices once training camp opens.

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/11/24

March 11th, 2024 at 10:51pm CST by Ely Allen

On the busiest transaction day of the NFL year, here are a few moves that maybe didn’t make the headlines:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Jacksonville Jaguars

Kansas City Chiefs

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

Philadelphia Eagles

Woerner is probably one of the bigger names on this list. After serving as a reliable run-blocking tight end with the 49ers for the duration of his rookie contract, Woerner earns a new three-year deal worth up to $12MM to head to Atlanta, according to ESPN’s Michael Rothstein.

Brandel may be the next biggest deal on this list. After making five starts in 39 game appearances with the Vikings during his rookie deal, Brandel earned a new three-year, $9.5MM contract to remain in Minnesota. Quessenberry joins him as a depth lineman sticking around.

Lewis also gets to stick around on a multi-year deal, signing a two-year, $4MM deal to remain in Buffalo. A valuable special teamer, Lewis has done a good job of getting himself worked into the rotation on defense a good amount over the course of his rookie deal.

Olszewski earns another year in New York after solving a big issue on punt returns for the Giants last year. Baun heads to Philadelphia as a strong backup after starting 14 games for the Saints during his first four years in the league.

Saints Activate C Erik McCoy, LB Chase Hansen

December 17th, 2022 at 9:57pm CST by Adam La Rose

In a move foreshadowed earlier in the week, the Saints have brought back a key member of their offensive line. The team announced on Saturday that center Erik McCoy has been activated from IR.

The 25-year-old was designated for return on Wednesday, opening his 21-day activation window. He had missed the past four games, as required by injured reserve rules, but a return to action along this timeline is encouraging for his health outlook down the stretch. The same holds true of linebacker Chase Hansen, who has played exclusively on special teams to date.

With McCoy back in the fold, New Orleans will once again have their full-time starter in the middle of their o-line. McCoy played every snap of the 2022 season before going down in Week 9 with a calf injury. He dealt with a similar issue the year before, which caused him to miss games for the first time in his four-year career. The former second-rounder graded out in the top-five amongst all centers as a rookie, earning a 78.0 rating from PFF. 2022 has, however, continued his emerging trend of grades in the mid-60s, which have placed him mid-pack at the position.

The move will allow Cesar Ruiz to return to his usual right guard spot. That should help the team’s offensive front in their attempts to improve on the ground during their late-season playoff push. The Saints rank 21st in rushing yards per game with 110, and sit 28th with an average time of possession of 29 minutes. Improvement in those areas could spark a December turnaround and keep the team in contention for the NFC South title.

In a corresponding roster move, New Orleans placed linebacker Zack Baun on IR. The 2020 third-rounder has, similarly to Hansen, been used on special teams far more than defense. The former will now miss the remainder of the regular season after being sidelined for just one contest over the course of his first two years in the league. Hansen will likely re-take a significant third phase role in his absence, beginning on Sunday for New Orleans’ divisional contest against the Falcons.

Saints Notes: Winston, Sherman, Baun

July 4th, 2021 at 11:57am CST by Rory Parks

The biggest question facing the Saints this offseason is whether Jameis Winston or Taysom Hill will be the team’s starting QB come Week 1. Mike Triplett of ESPN.com believes Winston may be the frontrunner given that he is younger and has more upside, but the turnover and accuracy problems he had as a member of the Buccaneers are still major issues that he will need to clean up.

Of course, the club has been publicly complimentary of both players, and it was Hill — who also offers dynamic ability as a runner — who got the nod during Drew Brees‘ injury-related absence last year. Hill and Winston will be eligible for free agency following the 2021 campaign, so in addition to the starting gig, there is a lot of money riding on the outcome of this battle.

New Orleans selected former Notre Dame passer Ian Book in the fourth round of this year’s draft, and Book will learn behind Winston and Hill before perhaps getting a chance to throw his hat in the ring in 2022.

Now for more from the Big Easy:

  • The Saints’ record-setting extension for RT Ryan Ramczyk cleared about $5.5MM off their books, leaving them with $10-11MM of cap space. That number could increase if the club extends franchise-tagged safety Marcus Williams, a proposition that we recently discussed. Triplett believes New Orleans will put that money to use by signing a veteran or two, and he suggests that a big name like corner Richard Sherman — who has been connected to the team this offseason — remains a possibility.
  • GM Mickey Loomis is often credited as the man behind the Saints’ aggressive manipulation of the salary cap, and while Loomis has final say over the club’s transactions, Triplett also shines a light on a less recognizable member of the New Orleans front office. In examining the team’s use of backloaded contracts, restructures, and void years, Triplett describes vice president of football administration Khai Harley as one of the most innovative pioneers of those types of cap machinations, and he suggests that Harley could become a GM candidate in the future.
  • Linebacker Zack Baun, who generated some first-round buzz in the 2020 draft before ultimately falling to the third round, played in just 82 defensive snaps in his rookie season. But a hamstring injury suffered in training camp and the lack of a true offseason program hindered his development, and he will have the opportunity to make a bigger impact in 2021. As Sam Shannon of the team’s official website writes, Baun is transitioning from strongside linebacker to the weakside, which will require him to perform well in coverage. His projected ability to thrive in space is what led the Saints to draft him in the first place, and he will compete with second-round rookie Pete Werner for snaps alongside middle linebacker Demario Davis.

Browns Trade Pick No. 74 To Saints, New Orleans Takes Zack Baun

April 24th, 2020 at 9:08pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

The Saints reportedly were looking to trade up in the second-round, and they just moved up in the third. They’ve acquired the 74th pick from the Browns, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.

Cleveland is also sending the 244th pick in the seventh-round, while they’ll get back number 88 and a 2021 third-rounder. As Yates notes in his tweet, this is the first time in this draft that a 2021 selection has changed hands. New Orleans’ willingness to give up future draft capital makes sense, given they’ve been heavily signaling that they’re going all in on one last Super Bowl run with Drew Brees in 2020.

They’ve signed some aging vets, and are trying to get as much out of this draft as possible. The Saints used the 74th pick to take linebacker Zack Baun from Wisconsin, who some thought had a good chance of getting drafted in the first-round. Linebacker had been a relative position of weakness for New Orleans, which explains why they wanted to move up to get the surprising faller. As a senior with the Badgers Baun had 19.5 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks, earning first-team All-Big 10 honors.

LB Zack Baun Submitted Diluted Sample

April 14th, 2020 at 1:22pm CST by Sam Robinson

One of the top linebackers in this year’s draft, Zack Baun received word he tested positive for a diluted urine sample at the Combine, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter).

The Wisconsin alum notified all 32 teams of this, blaming the positive drug test on drinking too much water in advance of his weigh-in, Schefter adds. Under the NFL’s new PED policy, Baun will not enter the NFL with a strike against him. Teams do not believe this will affect his draft status much, Schefter tweets. Baun rates as Mel Kiper Jr.’s No. 3 linebacker going into the draft.

This happened to a Big Ten defender three years ago at the Combine as well; Jabrill Peppers tested positive for a diluted sample and also blamed it on water intake. He was not suspended to begin his career and went in the first round. The Michigan product did, however, enter the NFL with a drug-related strike against him.

Baun weighed in at 238 pounds at the Combine, coming in on the slightly lighter end of the spectrum for his position. The ex-Badger broke out in 2019, registering 12.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss en route to second-team All-American acclaim. He’d collected just 2.5 sacks in his college career going into last season. He is expected to go off the board in the first or second round next week.