It's not the cap that would make us let him go. There's enough reserve left to open about $30 million in 2023 cap. We can sign him to a deal with near vet minimum in the first year if he wanted to stay. The main issue is that he wants to start now. That's not going to happen here.

Who should be starting ahead of him?

He had a really good year and he's earned his payday... and playing time.

Saints 2022 Year-In-Review: Kaden Elliss

An injury to a key New Orleans defender opened the door for the Saints best breakout player of 2022.

When Werner suffered an ankle injury early in a Week 9 game against Baltimore, it opened the door for the 27-year-old Elliss to flourish.

Elliss finished with 7 sacks, 11 pressures, two passes broken up, and 7 tackles for loss among 78 total stops. All were career best numbers. Six of his sacks, along with 63 tackles, came in the last nine games. He was not only disruptive against the run and as a pass rusher, but also showed vast improvements in coverage, thought to be a weakness in his game.

Despite not seeing full-time duty until the mid-season point, Elliss was second on the team in sacks, third in QB hits, and fourth in total tackles and tackles for loss. His 2022 statistics dwarfed the combined numbers he had over his first three NFL seasons.

In the last nine games with Elliss in full-time duty, the Saints gave up an average of less than 15 points and 309 yards per contest while recording 29 sacks. Elliss was as disruptive as any of the more highly publicized New Orleans defenders over this stretch.

An unrestricted free agent entering the offseason, Elliss should be a top priority for the Saints to re-sign. His emergence, along with Werner's development and the elite presence of Davis gave New Orleans one of the league's best trio of linebackers.

Full article

Demario Davis and Pete Werner. Which one of those two would you propose we bench? The Nickle is our base defense these days so we almost always have only two LB's on the field. On occasion we only have one LB out there. When you total up all defensive snaps for the Saints LB's (2458) it comes out to slightly more than twice the total of all defensive plays (1132) on the the season. That means we average slightly more than two LB's on the field at any given time over the entirety of the season.

That would be great if we played a 4-3 defense. We don't. We field a 4-2-5 the vast majority of the time. Don't get me wrong, I would love it if we keep him, but I really think he wants to go somewhere that he can be the fulltime starter. It's not so much about the money, but more so the playing time.

In that specific alignment, no I would not start Eliss above either. Key word is specific. As our 3rd LB'er, he still can be considered a starter. A team needs more than 2 linebackers and there's plenty of snaps available for all three. Let's not forget Davis is 34 years old.



But we do. Our base is a 4-3.

Speaking of LB's, Bobby Wagner was just released by the Rams.

Once again, I hope we can keep Elliss, but it's not going to be about the money. The key is playing time. If he gets an offer elsewhere as a three down backer this season he's gone.