Predicted 53 Roster
 

DE: Cam Jordan, Will Smith, Akiem Hicks, Kenyon Colemon, Tom Johnson, Tyrunn Walker- I know this is a lot of DEs, but who can you cut? This is Smith's last year in New Orleans and I think Hicks will be his replacement, maybe as soon as this year. Colemon brings a vet with 34 experience and Walker and Johnson have too much potential and special teams ability.
DT: Brodrick Bunkley, John Jenkins- This may as well be 1a and 1b. Jenkins will get as much and maybe more PT than Bunkley.
LB: Victor Butler, Curtis Lofton, Jon Vilma, Junior Galette, Martez Wilson, David Hawthorne, Kevin Reddick, Chase Thomas, Rufus Johnson- I think this will be the group. I think Thomas and Reddick were undrafted steals that will outplay the likes of Chamberlain and Herring for jobs on special teams with Thomas having a threat to steal a starting job very soon. Johnson I feel was a reach and I think he will be lucky to make the team, but Payton may love his potential and if not, I think Herring or Humber gets the spot for special teams.
CB: Keenan Lewis, Jabari Greer, Patrick Robinson, Corey White- I think this is how it pans out depth wise. Duncan thinks that Davis may have the inside track to be the 5th corner, but there are a host of undrafted rookies who could snag that spot. I'm gonna predict that the Saints keep only 4 because of Kenny Vaccaro's ability to play the nickel corner. The depth at safety is too good to not keep 5.
S: Kenny Vaccaro, Malcolm Jenkins, Jim Leonhard, Rafael Bush, Isa Abdul-Quddus- Dropped the bomb, Roman Harper is gone. People will dispute this and say what they will, but Vaccaro is no doubt Roman Harper's replacement in my opinion. He does everything that Harper can do in run support and he can actually cover. Plus, his playmaking ability is already an upgrade over Harper's. A vet like Leonhard who has had very good success is someone who could come in and play safety with Jenkins if Vaccaro is in the nickel corner spot. Quddus and Bush showed some flash at safety and are great on special teams.
K: Garrett Hartley- Would love to see an upgrade here, but we are cap strapped here and Hartley has been OK, but not great.
P: Thomas Morstead
LS: Justin Drescher

New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

QB - Brees, Griffin - Griffin simply outshines the vets. Payton has no problem with a rookie backup.
RB - Thomas, Ingram, Sproles, Cadet
FB - Collins
WR - Colston, Moore, Stills, Morgan, Toon - Only 5 because Graham is used as a WR and Cadet plays special teams.
TE - Graham, Watson, Higgins
T - Strief, Armstead, Smith, Brown
G - Evans, Grubbs, Lelito - Lelito is a small school guy who will shine.
C - De La Puente, Mealer - Mealer can play every line position and could be the starter next year if DLP leaves in free agency.

DE - Jordan, Smith, Hicks, Coleman
DT - Jenkins, Bunkley, Walker
OLB - Butler, Wilson, Thomas, Hawthorne, JR - Thomas beats out Herring mainly because he's cheaper.
ILB - Lofton, Reddick, Vilma, Humber
CB - Lewis, White, Robinson, Greer
S - Jenkins, Harper, Vaccaro, Quddus, Leonhard - Jenkins and Vaccaro can drop down and Leonhard can play everything.

K - Hartley
P - Morstead
LS - Drescher

PS - Johnson, Sweeting, Martin, Tiller, Jones, Fayson, Foster, Milton, Alston.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

I like it but something tells me the Sencea Wallace makes the team and Griffin's on the practice squad and just going by our track record with receivers we bring Henderson back and someone goes on IR. I hope thats not the case with WR because I think if they can stay injury free these could be the best in the league combine when you put Graham in the mix.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

I too see a more experienced backup QB & Griffin on the practice squad

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

My thought process was simple. As most of my thoughts are. LOL. Griffin outplays them. He's cheaper. And a vet like McNown or Wallace can be picked up at any time. If Brees goes down, the running game will be more of a focal point of the offense with Payton managing the game from the sideline. Griffin can handle that as well if not better than the scrub vets. He's played more football than them the last four years for sure.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

We will keep RG1 ...

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

I can't say that I agree with the lists entirely, and I'd just like to point out that the Saints are probably not going to be cutting players under contract left and right. For example, Chamberlain has about 800K of dead money associated with his contract and Herring probably has some as well with his new 1-yr contract (for which I couldn't find the details to). So, I do think someone like Chamberlain is more safe than someone like Humber (25K dead money), and with the safety background Chamberlain could potentially play the other ILB position or the WOLB position, or at least provide veteran depth there.

While we are not talking about huge sums, the Saints are probably looking to add as little dead money to their salary cap as possible, since they are already quite low on the cap.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

But don't you think they're looking to only keep the best they have and just deal with the dead money issue? If they do it this year then they're done with it right? That will set them up better next year?

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

I predict Eric Martin will make the team.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

Sure, but in the case of f.e. Chamberlain - they'd only save 600K by cutting him and dealing with the dead money. I don't know how well Chamberlain has recuperated from his injury last preseason, but he certainly looked like a much much better player before that injury than what you could ordinarily get for 600K. If Chamberlain is back to what he was going into last preseason - I would hands down want to keep him on the roster. Also, he probably has one of the better sets of hands out of all of the LBs and that is always an added benefit.

I'm not saying that they'll end up keeping all of the players that are currently under contract - just that it's not as simple as just cutting everyone you don't necessarily like and, furthermore, claiming that the biggest reason for doing it being the automatic savings in money that would incur from cutting a vet and replacing him with a rookie.

Herring will be out of contract next year and Chamberlain will enter his last year with a $1.5M cap hit - not exactly high rollers when it comes to potential cap savings for next season.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

Chamberlain looked good last year. I hope he comes back and gets some playing time.......I could care less about Herring.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

Don't quite understand the whole dead money thing. That's why I keep you guys around:-)

This is going to be an interesting year as we have a bunch of guys coming back from injuries and those who played were caught in a system set up for failure. On top of that we have quite a few kids coming into their second and third year who haven't been given the chance to play balls out. My thinking is we really don't know what we have here. We could be sitting much prettier than we ever imagined.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

I also do not understand thing either, and I don't care about it. But I do care about players that can play and one's that can't. I feel this year some of those sentimental veterans will be beat out right at their positions but because of money a player that would be much cheaper and much better will be let go. Because of this type of money a scrub will be playing at a position that he has not earned, sad, purely sad!!

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

Sean's on a mission this year like never before. He's not going to let that happen.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

When we are talking about "dead money" it's referring to the guaranteed portion of the salary still owed to the player in question - usually in the form of the prorated signing bonus - which the team will still be on the hook if they cut the said player before his contract is up.

The term "dead money" comes from the fact that it directly reduces the salary cap by the same amount while not providing anything of substance in return, or at least that is how I've understood it.

For example, in the case of Chamberlain, when he signed the 3-yr contract with the Saints prior to last season, it included a $1.2M signing bonus. While Chamberlain immediately received that full amount to his bank account as soon as the ink had dried on the contract; the team is afforded the luxury of prorating that signing bonus into equal portions to count against the cap for each of the years on the said players contract. Signing bonuses are always guaranteed because the nature of the transaction doesn't allow for the money to be taken back once it's paid to the player signing the contract. So, when Chamberlain signed a 3-yr contract with a $1.2M signing bonus, it meant that the prorated amount of it would be $400K for each of the three years. He has been paid (from an accounting perspective) $400K of that $1.2M during last season, which still leaves $800K of guaranteed money on his contract. So, if the Saints were to cut him now - they'd still be on the hook for that remaining $800K (= dead money). If they decide to keep him around for this coming season, but cut him before next season - they'd end up saving $1.1M in cap as opposed to just $650K this offseason.

That probably ended up being an overcomplicated and unnecessarily long-winded explanation, but what can you do? ;-)

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

Can a team choose how long to prorate the bonuses?

And thanks by the way - a little less dirt in the water.

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

The signing bonus is prorated for the length of the contract; so the longer the contract the less you pay per year...

Getting the player to agree to a longer contract becomes the issue here...

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

Seer1 I really hope you are right!!

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

Never knew that, thanks. I've never got into the money thing, only mine!!

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

There's just something in the way he's clenchin' his jaw...

Re: Predicted 53 Roster
 

QB: Brees, Ryan Griffin
RB: Ingram, Thomas, Sproles, Khiry Robinson (R)
FB: Jed Collins
WR: Colston, Moore, Morgan, Toon, Kenny Stills (R)
TE: Graham, Watson (FA), Keavon Milton (R)
OT: Terron Armstead (R), Brown, Strief, Jason Smith (FA), Jones
OG: Evans, Grubbs, Tiller, Tim Lelito (R)
C: de la Puente
DE: Jordan, Hicks, Walker, Kenyon Coleman (FA)
DT: Bunkley, John Jenkins (R), Aaitui (FA)
OLB: Wilson, Galette, Victor Butler (FA), Chase Thomas (R), Rufus Johnson (R)
ILB: Lofton, Hawthorne, Vilma, Kevin Reddick (R)
CB: Keenan Lewis (FA), Greer, White, Robinson, Rod Sweeting (R)
S: Jenkins, Harper, Kenny Vaccaro (R), Bush, Quddus
P: Morstead
K: Hartley
LS: Drescher