Saints: Linebackers hit hardest by canceled preseason finale

The New Orleans Saints were supposed to face the Arizona Cardinals in both teams’ preseason finale on Saturday afternoon but the game was canceled due to Hurricane Ida. This was absolutely the right decision for the safety of everyone involved with both teams but it’s hard not to feel bad for the fringe-roster guys who needed this game to try and keep their jobs.

One position hit incredibly hard by this canceled game was at linebacker, where the competition to make the final 53-man roster was stiff.

John Sigler of Saints Wire did a final roster projection and it was obvious that he had a hard time cutting any of the linebackers on the team. He ended up parting ways with Andrew Dowell, Wynton McManis, and Shaq Smith, with the latter being the “easiest” option to cut.

The other two names, however, have really impressed for the Saints this offseason and it’s crushing to see them potentially as options to cut but that’s how stacked this group is. Kaden Elliss and Chase Hansen have also played well and would definitely deserve to make the team if that’s how things really played out.

New Orleans Saints linebackers can’t further prove themselves

The preseason finale was supposed to serve as the final opportunity for these guys to make a strong statement as to what they could do for this team. We saw McManis flash tremendous potential against Jacksonville and fans started to imagine what kind of impact he could have for this defense.

Now, however, that opportunity isn’t there for McManis, Dowell, Smith, or any of the other fringe-roster guys. The Saints went from having a questionable linebacker group to now having an incredibly difficult situation ahead of them as far as who to cut.

No matter who the Saints opt to keep and cut, there are always going to be people wondering if things would have been different if the preseason finale had taken place.