SmashMouth

Nothing fires up an NFL fan base like the offseason signing of a big-name free agent.

Many New Orleans Saints fans would have been over the moon had the team inked Jimmy Graham or Ndamukong Suh after pursuing both a couple of months ago. Smartly, the Saints set a ceiling price on each player and Graham and Suh hopped on with the Packers and the Rams, respectively.

Building a roster by overspending on street free agents costs plenty of dollars and lacks plenty of sense for a successful formula of the modern NFL. The more a team can lean on younger players -- a.k.a. cheap labor -- for a longer period of time, the better off that team will be on the field.



It seemed clear while watching a Saints organized team activities session a couple of days ago how far the Saints have come in landing and leaning on young players as the team's recipe for success.

Five of the players in one seven-on-seven drill with the first unit were either on a rookie contract or an undrafted rookie deal: Marshon Lattimore, Ken Crawley, Marcus Williams, Vonn Bell and Alex Anzalone.

And five of the team's primary defensive linemen walk into 2018 still on rookie contracts: Sheldon Rankins, Tyeler Davison, David Onyemata, Marcus Davenport and Trey Hendrickson.

This isn't to say Drew Brees shouldn't rake in a healthy chunk of the salary cap. But Brees' cap number for 2018 clocks in at $24 million. The combined 2018 cap numbers for the following Saints players add up to about $24.8 million:

Peat, $3.6 million
Rankins, $3.5 million
Lattimore, $3.5 million
Davenport, $2.5 million
Ramczyk, $2.0 million
Davison, $2.0 million
Marcus Williams, $1.4 million
Michael Thomas, $1.4 million
Bell, $1.1 million
Alvin Kamara, $878,000
Anzalone, $826,000
Onyemata, $766,000
Crawley, $632,000
Wil Lutz, $630,000
Much of the Saints defense is made up of young players under thrifty contracts. That's not the case on offense. Seven of New Orleans top salary cap figures come from the offense, including five of the top six contracts (Brees, Armstead, Larry Warford, Max Unger, Mark Ingram).

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