The New Orleans Saints have been relatively active in the early stage of free agency, trading for defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, re-signing Chase Young and Juwan Johnson, and also bringing safety Justin Reid back to his home state of Louisiana. While some analysts criticize the Saints for handing out money when they should be rebuilding, it’s hard to argue New Orleans isn’t getting better.
However, the Saints still have plenty of more work to do. Of course, the real contenders reveal themselves during the season, but even on paper, New Orleans has several holes that it still needs to address. With a ton of free agents still available, here are some important areas the team must target in the next wave of free agency.
Saints must rebuild their cornerback room
The cornerback room has been hit hard, dating back to the mid-season deadline trade of Marshon Lattimore. Losing Paulson Adebo to the New York Giants in free agency only made things worse. Fortunately, New Orleans did draft Kool-Aid McKinstry in the second round of last year’s draft, and he and Alontae Taylor are still on the roster.
However, they aren’t enough. The Saints need to rebuild the depth of this room in free agency, and possibly find a starting caliber corner, as the team needs a guy to play in the slot as well.
Wide receiver depth is still a concern for New Orleans
The good news for the Saints is Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed are both on track to be healthy next season. The bad news is New Orleans still doesn’t have much after them in the wide receiver room. Everyone is saying the team should select Tetairoa McMillain in the first round of the draft, and while that would be great, the Saints can’t bank on that happening.
New Orleans needs to find a veteran receiver to complement its two young wideouts, and enter the draft with the freedom to go in any direction with the No. 9 pick.
Saints still need to address their offensive line
The only position group in New Orleans that had more injuries than the wide receiver unit was the offensive line. The Saints’ season started to decline once offensive linemen started getting hurt, because the team didn’t have good depth. It’s still early in the offseason, but not much has changed. New Orleans needs to find a starting left guard, and the team also needs to add adequate reserves for each spot on the line.