Updating New Orleans Saints 2026 free agents after the trade deadline

Exclusive rights free agents

P Kai Kroeger: 29.1% of snaps

TE Zaire Mitchell-Paden: 16.2% of snaps

LB Isaiah Stalbird: 5.4% of snaps

CB Rejzohn Wright: 0.3% of snaps

QB Hunter Dekkers: 0.0% of snaps

OL Barry Wesley: 0.0% of snaps

TE Mason Pline: 0.0% of snaps

RB Audric Estime: 0.0% of snaps

These guys have limited options — if the Saints choose, they can bring ERFA’s back on a minimum contract, or let these players test the market. The free agents themselves have no say in the matter. ERFA’s are players with two or fewer accrued seasons (at least six games per year) coming off an expired contract. This year, that cost between $840,000 and $1,030,000 per player, depending on how many accrued seasons they had. That barely moves the needle in salary cap decisions.

Restricted free agents

K Blake Grupe: 31.3% of snaps

The Saints will have a couple of options with Grupe. They can choose to re-sign him on a minimum salary contract, or issue him an RFA tender that would give them the right to match any offers he gets from other teams. He hasn’t performed well enough to earn a tender that guarantees compensation if the Saints let him walk away, so there probably won’t be too much intrigue here. The choice is re-signing Grupe to the minimum ($1.1 million in 2025) or the right-of-first-refusal tender ($3.26 million in 2025). It doesn’t feel likely another team will try to sign him away, but you never know.

Unrestricted free agents

CB Alontae Taylor: 93.0% of snaps

EDGE Chris Rumph II: 35.0% of snaps

DL Jonathan Bullard: 26.6% of snaps

TE Jack Stoll: 26.0% of snaps

DL Jonah Williams: 21.4% of snaps

S Julian Blackmon: 11.1% of snaps

DL John Ridgeway: 2.7% of snaps

CB Michael Davis: 0.3% of snaps

CB Ugo Amadi: 0.2% of snaps

OL Will Clapp: 0.0% of snaps

OL Landon Young: 0.0% of snaps

This isn’t complicated. These are the players headed for the open market, where they’ll have the opportunity to weigh offers from other teams and choose where they go from here. And after trading Shaheed and Penning, the Saints are left with just one big name to consider re-signing: Taylor. Their interest in dealing him at the trade deadline suggests they’ve already made their decision, but a lot could change between now and then. If any of these players leave on a deal averaging more than about $2.5 million per year, the Saints could qualify for a compensatory draft pick in 2027.

Voiding contracts

LB Demario Davis (void): 99.3% of snaps

EDGE Cameron Jordan (void): 60.1% of snaps

TE Foster Moreau (void): 14.6% of snaps

QB Taysom Hill (void): 7.6% of snaps

These are basically the same as unrestricted free agents in that they can test the market and qualify for comp picks, but the difference is the Saints will take on some dead money should any of them leave, having previously restructured their contracts. That means charges of $14.29 million for Davis, $18.76 million for Jordan, $1.4 million for Moreau, and $13.723 million for Hill. Those numbers can be lowered by re-signing each of them. It’s just a matter of whether that’s worth it given how uncompetitive the team is, and expects to be.

For what it’s worth, the Saints already have the second-most dead money on the books in the 2026 at nearly $62.6 million. Letting all four contracts void raises that figure to a staggering $110,771,682. If the salary cap has the same jump in 2026 that it had from 2024 to 2025, the Saints would be paying 36.6% of their spending limit towards players not on the team.