The folly of keeping Marcus Davenport and letting Hendrickson go

[Cajun Chat]

I think Davenport was the worst draft pick since Sedrick Ellis. Cost us 2 first round picks, Trey Hendrickson and had to use another 1st for Turner after it looked like it wasn't working out. Set our D line back years in terms of developing new talent.

Maybe the biggest miss of this organization in the last 20 years. Zack Baun is going to make the list as well. There has been a few.

 

[rlemieux]

I love the hypocritical take of we couldn't afford to keep him. We couldn't afford 140 million for Dereck Carr, we couldn't afford Jairus Bryd, etc. They have pushed back dollar after dollar to bring in free agents and you have a double sack guy on the team you don't even attempt to keep. They could have tagged him, they could have signed him but instead they spent multiple draft picks on a project DE that didn't pan out.

 

[Rouxble]

I love the hypocritical take of we couldn't afford to keep him. We couldn't afford 140 million for Dereck Carr, we couldn't afford Jairus Bryd, etc. They have pushed back dollar after dollar to bring in free agents and you have a double sack guy on the team you don't even attempt to keep. They could have tagged him, they could have signed him but instead they spent multiple draft picks on a project DE that didn't pan out.

Honestly, that was probably a year where we couldn’t afford him, at least not without letting Marcus Williams walk. We restructured practically every penny we could to get under that year and ended the year with $180k in cap space. That year we really kept Williams over Hendrickson since we needed to tag Williams before the league year started (which drained the funds we could have used to sign Hendrickson).

 

[solarbear88]

Seeing as Davenport was on a rookie deal, I've always kind of viewed it as a Hendrickson vs Jordan. In typical Saints fashion they went with the older player. But seeing as how Cam was still good and a fan favourite it was hard to fault them. They weren't willing to bet on Treys future with the 2-3 good seasons they might still get from Cam.

 

[SirLoinSaint64]

The Bengals paid him and he has played well when healthy. As a Saint, he was kinda healthy and flashed ability occasionally.

 

[Alan12]

Davenport was entering his 4th year of a 5-year rookie deal, his money was already accounted for due to the rookie pay scale agreed upon in the CBA. It's ridiculous that fans still don't understand this.

Hendrickson was entering free agency coming of a great season after 3 seasons of mediocre to average play and injury after injury where he missed ~40% (37.5%) of the total games possible during his first 3 seasons.

Marcus Williams also was scheduled to enter free agency after 4 seasons of above average play while also only missing only 4 games out of a possible 64 games. So they tagged him instead of Hendrickson.

While tagging Hendrickson would've been the right move in hindsight, what happens if they tagged him after his 13.5 sack breakout season and he promptly went back to a 2-4 sack season like his first 3 seasons? Would you still drop a massive contract offer to keep him hoping those other 4 seasons are the anomaly and not the singular 13.5 sack season? Because if not then you still lost him for nothing.

People also forget that for the first time since the introduction of the salary cap, that the 2021 salary cap DROPPED by $15.7M from where it was in 2020 due to COVID. That's not even including the additional ~$10M loss from what the salary cap was supposed to increase by without the pandemic occurring.

So before the 2020 season ever started and while Hendrickson had only 6.5 career sacks, the Saints FO was planning for and making roster moves with a projected 2021 salary cap of roughly $208M. The 2020 season comes and goes and after a season of empty to 20% filled stadiums, the actual 2021 salary cap is announced to be only $182.5M, a paltry amount compared to what was expected.

Roughly ~$25M the team was planning to have available for the 2021 season disappeared before it ever materialized. Tack on the additional $11.15M in dead money from Brees' retirement and that's why we didn't have the money to keep both Williams and Hendrickson. They tried to keep Williams and even that failed, had they tagged Hendrickson instead they would've simply lost him the following year too.

It was never about Davenport vs. Hendrickson. Anyone that continues to insist it was is simply ignorant to the facts.

Honestly, that was probably a year where we couldn’t afford him, at least not without letting Marcus Williams walk. We restructured practically every penny we could to get under that year and ended the year with $180k in cap space. That year we really kept Williams over Hendrickson since we needed to tag Williams before the league year started (which drained the funds we could have used to sign Hendrickson).

This post really needs to be pinned somehow as the first reply to every Davenport/Hendrickson thread because I'm tired of having to explain it as well. Salute.