The 2022 NFL season is officially in the books, which means every team in the league is already planning for the 2023 campaign. For the New Orleans Saints, they should have a very busy offseason, as they are still working on building themselves back into a Super Bowl contender.
After 16 years under Sean Payton, the Saints had a new head coach in Dennis Allen on the sidelines in 2022. In their first season under Allen, the Saints finished 7-10 and failed to qualify for the playoffs for the second straight year. This also marked their first losing record since 2016.
New Orleans will enter the offseason approximately $30 million over the salary cap, according to Spotrac. This gives the team the second-worst cap situation in the league, trailing only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With more than 20 pending free agents, the front office will have a lot of work to do. With that being said, here are four bold predictions for the New Orleans Saints in the 2023 NFL offseason.
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4. Saints go defense in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft
Since they have such a complicated financial situation, the 2023 NFL Draft could be an easier path for the Saints to address some of their needs. Less than a month ago, the Saints had no first-round picks as they traded their 2023 first-rounder to the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the 2022 NFL Draft, which ended up becoming the tenth overall pick in this year's draft.
Fortunately for New Orleans, the Denver Broncos brought Payton out of retirement to be their new head coach. Because the Saints still had his coaching rights, the Broncos ended up sending multiple picks to the Saints in a trade for his rights, with one of those picks being the 29th overall pick.
Now that they are armed with a first-round selection again, the Saints could go and bring in a player who can contribute right away. Although the team needs a quarterback, the top players for the position will likely be gone by the time they are on the board late in the first round here.
That will lead New Orleans to select a defender with their first-round pick. There are several spots the Saints could address with this pick, but it may be worth paying attention to the secondary, as cornerbacks Deonte Banks from Maryland or Cam Smith from South Carolina could be on the board in this range. Adding to the defense, though, seems like the best option for the Saints with their first-rounder
3. Saints DE Marcus Davenport leaves in free agency
Perhaps the Saints biggest pending free agent this offseason is Marcus Davenport. The defensive end is set to hit the open marker for the first time in his career and is considered one of the best players who could be available at his position.
In 2022, Davenport recorded 29 total tackles, with 16 being solo and two being for a loss. He also had eight quarterback hits but only 0.5 sacks. Although Davenport did not have a big season, it was not long ago that he had nine sacks in just 11 games back in 2021.
With Davenport being one of the top defensive lineman on the free agent market, he could earn a big paycheck, as some early projections indicate that he could make more than $20 million per season with his new deal. Since the Saints are in a tough place financially, they won't be able to give Davenport what he wants, and will end up leaving the team and signing elsewhere for more money.
2. The Saints will sign a new wide receiver
One of the lone bright spots in New Orleans last season was rookie wide receiver Chris Olave. Olave was the guy the Saints were working so hard to trade up for in the draft last offseason, as they ended up moving up again after their aforementioned trade with the Eagles to nab him with the 11th overall pick of the draft. It's safe to say it worked out in 2022, as Olave earned PFWA All-Rookie Team honors despite missing two games along the way.
Olave finished the season with 72 catches on 119 targets for 1,042 yards, all of which were the best marks on the Saints, while also adding four touchdowns as well. Only one other player on New Orleans surpassed 500 receiving yards, for what it's worth. With a bunch of question marks around Olave in the wide receiver room, the Saints could go after a new wideout to pair with him.
With that in mind, one of New Orleans' priorities this offseason will be to sign another wide receiver. Even though they aren't going out and add one of the best wideouts available, adding another dependable pass-catcher should allow Olave to get a breather every once in a while and provide more options for the team's offense to work with.
1. The Saints re-sign Andy Dalton
As we already saw, the Saints are seriously limited with what they can do this offseason thanks to being over $30 million above the salary cap. That will make addressing the biggest need on their roster in the quarterback position very tough to accomplish.
The Saints were originally linked to Derek Carr, but now that he's been released and is a free agent, getting him to New Orleans has become very nearly impossible. Carr is likely pursuing another valuable contract, and it might be too much for the Saints to afford.
Because of that, New Orleans will need to sign a quarterback to a team-friendly deal. In this scenario, re-signing Andy Dalton makes a lot of sense. He was the team's starter for most of the 2022 campaign and is already familiar with their offensive system.
Since the Saints can save about $4.4 million in cap space by waiving Jameis Winston, keeping Dalton around makes sense for several different reasons. This means that fans will need to wait at least one more year to see a new starting signal-caller for New Orleans, and while that's not exciting, it's also not the worst thing that could happen to them.
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