Underhill article: “Saints moves are telling us what they felt the real problem with the team was last season”

Mickey and Dennis shot themselves in the foot from the get-go.

They chased Watson, and while not getting him was a nuclear bomb avoided, they showed Ceedy that even cap-strapped, they were willing to spend. They would go on and use the money on past-their-prime Winston and Jarvis Landry. The ROI was pathetic, relative to the names.

They flat out ignored Ceedy, who had earned at minimum a 5th year option and very likely a 2nd contract -- entering his 4th year as a drafted Saint, with paltry cap hits in his first 3 seasons ranging from $600K to $1.2M.

The facial he gave to Tom Brady in the 9-0 shutout game happened on December 19, 2021.

By April, 2022, he had been alienated by GM and HC, so he skipped voluntary mini-camp, and then vocally protested at training camp.

So the geniuses shot themselves in the foot again, subtracting him out of butthurt, and trading him to a conference rival who went to two Super Bowls with him and won one. He's now on year 2 of a 3-year deal that AAV's around $7M per year.

The Saints would've paid him more than that in a 2nd contract, but no more than $10M per year, and probably $8M/per year. It would not have been expensive to work this guy into the 2022-2024 cap.

Here's what the very top guys were paid as safeties in 2022: