Andrus Whitewing

Photo credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

By Steve Palazzolo | PFF

The Saints have built a well-rounded roster in recent years and are once again among the best teams in the NFC. The past three seasons have ended in playoff disappointment — whether through miracles, missed calls or untimely turnovers — but New Orleans has the pieces to be right there in the mix as long as the players stay healthy. The roster is strong in the right places, as the Saints can pass the ball, stop the pass and rush the passer. Now it’s just a matter of some of those breaks going their way in crunch time. Time may be running out on quarterback Drew Brees’ career, and the Saints’ attempt to win one more Super Bowl with him under center is one of the big stories of the 2020 NFL season.

ADDITIONS/SUBTRACTIONS
Additions/players brought back:

QB Drew Brees (re-signed for two years, $50 million)
QB Taysom Hill (first-round tender)
S Malcolm Jenkins (signed for four years, $32 million, $16.25 million guaranteed)
DI David Onyemata (re-signed for three years, $27 million)
G Andrus Peat (re-signed for five years, $57.5 million)
WR Emmanuel Sanders (signed for two years, $16 million)
RB Ty Montgomery
OT James Hurst
QB Jameis Winston

Losses:

S Vonn Bell
CB Eli Apple
LB A.J. Klein
G Larry Warford...

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AP Photo/Bill Feig

Glenn Guilbeau | Lafayette Daily Advertiser

BATON ROUGE — The New Orleans Saints' season opener may be more than a month away, but defensive end Cam Jordan has his game mouth on.

The Saints are scheduled to host Tampa Bay and new free agent quarterback Tom Brady at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 13 on FOX in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome to open the 2020 season. Brady, 43, will play his first NFL game as a member of a team other than New England, where he played since 2000 and won six Super Bowls.

"I do know we have to step up our game," Jordan said on "Good Morning Football" on the NFL Network Tuesday morning. "They've got the second-greatest quarterback of all time, right behind Drew Brees. And now we've got a head-to-head two times a year."

Brees, 41, will be entering his 15th season with the Saints and 20th in the NFL. He has won one Super Bowl, but he leads Brady in career passing yards and career touchdown passes. Brees is No. 1 in NFL history in passing yards with 77,416 from 2001-19. Brady is second with 74,571 from 2000-19. Brees is also No. 1 all time in touchown passes with 547. Brady is right behind with 541. ...

Full Story - Daily Advertiser

By John Sigler | Saintswire

The NFL is continuing to adjust to the realities of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, with the latest change being a new rule that delays some salary cap accounting for players who are opting out of the 2020 season. Unfortunately for the New Orleans Saints, this doesn’t offer them much breathing-room.

Base salaries for those opt-outs are pushed ahead to the 2021 bookkeeping, and the NFL has decided that prorated signing bonus payments will follow them. But there’s just one snag: neither of the Saints players who have opted out of 2020 had signing bonuses written into their contracts to begin with.

Backup tight ends Cole Wick ($750,000 cap hit for 2020) and Jason Vander Laan ($675,000) each opted out, taking their one-year contracts off the books until 2021. Vander Laan’s contract didn’t qualify as a top-51 salary cap hit anyway, while Wick’s absence promoted a lesser-valued deal into its spot (2019 draft pick Saquan Hampton, who counts for $723,988). ...

Full Story - Saintswire - USA Today

By John Sigler | Saintswire

Few NFL players enjoy chopping it up with the media more than Cameron Jordan. The New Orleans Saints defensive end appeared on “Good Morning Football” this week on NFL Network to preview the 2020 season and lay out his expectations, starting with a Week 1 kickoff against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“They’ve got the second-greatest quarterback of all-time, right behind Drew Brees, and now we’ve got a head-to-head two times a year,” Jordan said, via NFL.com. “We’ve got our work cut out for us and then they have an addition, you bring in Rob Gronkowski and LeSean McCoy, you already had two 1,000-yard receivers in (Chris) Godwin and Mike Evans.

“This is a team that’s fighting for second place.”

That’s bold talk, which isn’t new for Jordan (who famously shipped bottles from Jordan Winery to Cam Newton after his Saints swept Newton’s Carolina Panthers). But will the Saints defense show up in Week 1? ...

Full Story - Saintswire - USA Today