The New Orleans Saints have traded HB Alvin Kamara, OG Cesar Ruiz, QB Jameis Winston, and CB Paulson Adebo for MLB Christian Harris and the 2nd overall pick in the draft.
Coach Burn had a tough call to make with his aging expensive roster. After the resign stage, the Saints were left with 41 players and -10 million cap space. The initial play for the Saints was to acquire picks and get depth in the draft, however, the coach of the Texans came with a proposal that Burn couldn’t refuse. The money checked out and the trade was able to be made, taking each franchise on opposite paths. The Saints got rid of their aging expensive players, while the Texans were able to bolster their roster with high overall veterans.
Let’s take a look at a deeper breakdown of this trade to see who really got the better deal. The Saints gave up 4 players, two older, and two younger including two SSXF players. Coach Burn believed that all four players were expendable with what they had on the roster and what they could get in the draft. Winston would be replaced by the quarterback that was chosen with the second pick in the draft. Non superstar offensive lineman are a dime a dozen so Ruiz could easily be replaced by someone already on the roster or in the draft. Adebo was a special player who earned his abilities after the superbowl, however, his abilities were not the greatest. He had return man and reinforcement. These are return and run defensive abilities that won’t be missed. Kamara was a huge part of the Saints offense last season and he will surely be missed, however, he lacked the speed that coach Burn likes in his offense. Burn planned on taking a faster running back in the draft. The Saints received Pick 2 in the draft and MLB Christian Harris. Pick 2 will give Coach Burn his choice of CJ Stroud and Bryce Young. Both of these players could result in becoming a superstar quarterback. Harris is a young 90 speed linebacker who will learn from Davis and be the anchor for the Saints defense for the rest of the cycle.
These moves left the Saints still in the negative, due to their picks costing a lot as well as the penalties that were attached with moving each player. The move however will give them over 25 million in cap space for next season. They will go from the most cash strapped teams to one of the teams with the most cap space. More importantly, this makes the Saints team age average go down significantly.
Coach Burn knew he had to do something with this Saints rebuild. Getting younger and cheaper was always the plan for the future, however, he didn’t think that it was possible in the first offseason. This plan will depend on the players picked in the draft but right now this trade gets an A + for both sides.
