The New Orleans Saints effectively have their top two linebackers, Kaden Eliss and Pete Werner, set. Despite that, second-year player and fan favorite Danny Stutsman has consistently popped up on the radar.
This all comes after he played only 53 snaps as a rookie in 2025, and despite that small number of plays, Stutsman was a hard player to miss. Now, 18 months after getting drafted, the former Oklahoma Sooner is even closer to achieving his dream of becoming a starting linebacker in the NFL.
Although, after the third day in pads, Stutsman acknowledged that it's something that's out of his control. "I got to put my best foot forward every single day I'm out here and really just do whatever I can," he said to the media. "I have to control the controllables, so when I'm out there I have to make plays. I have to show that I belong there and really prove myself."
Despite being a fan favorite, Saints LB Danny Stutsman won't have the job handed to him
Danny Stutsman might be one of the more popular players on the team, but that doesn't mean that he'll have the starting job handed to him. He still has some work to do for that to be the case, and thankfully that's something he already knows. His nose-to-the-ground mentality is hard to miss after all.
A week into training camp, Stutsman has been working primarily with the second-team defense. However, he must've made enough plays there, because he finally managed to get a significant amount of first-team reps on the ninth day of camp.
Hopefully for Stutsman and his fans, as the days and weeks of August move on, he'll get more opportunities to show that he's not all bark and no bite. But if Stutsman has proven anything so far, it's that he can use the eye test to his advantage.
When Stutsman on the field, he just always manages to do something worthy of that infamous Instagram caption. Not to say that for Werner or any of the other linebackers (Isaiah Stalbird, Jaylon Ford), but when Stutsman is on the field, the energy on the field goes up tenfold. In his sophomore year, he could see the field quite a bit more.
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