AsylumGuido

SmashMouth

In short, yes. Cap situation dictates it . Both are rookie contracts.

Danno

Olave - Definitely
Penning - Why not? He'd make a decent backup at worst.

BakoSaint

No they should not.

$15 million for Olave is too much given that he has had so many concussions and many were saying he should retire after his last hit. The Saints will not be one player away in 2026 and are not the beat team to gamble on a player with a scary injury history. The Saints control Olave for 2025 already and its possible he will retire in 2025 if he suffers more concussions. If Olave has a strong 2025 the Saints could still agree on a long term deal or get comp picks if he walks in free agency. If they wanted to retain him they might have to rip up the $15 million in 2026 to agree to a backloaded long term contract anyway. So its not worth guaranteeing him $15 million in 2026 when he might retire or never be cleared again in 2025 when there would be other ways to retain him anyway if we had to, and we might be better off getting a comp picks or tagging and trading anyway.

$17.5 million for Penning is a definite no. This is very high pay for a player who has never figured out half his role and is a league average player at best. It would be like giving $17.5 million to willie gay or juwan johnson. Its way more than granderson is making for gods sake.