Top Safety Free Agents For Saints To Replace Tyrann Mathieu | Reunion With Marcus Williams?

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Ross Jackson, LouisianaSports.net, joins Matt Musso to break down the shocking news of Tyrann Mathieu’s retirement and what it means for the New Orleans Saints moving forward. They discuss the legacy of the Honey Badger and how Saints fans will remember his career, from his LSU days to his All-Pro NFL run. The conversation then shifts to the Saints’ immediate options at safety, including rookie Jonas Sanker, who now has a massive opportunity to earn a starting role. Ross also covers the Saints’ salary cap implications following Mathieu’s retirement and whether the team should pursue a veteran safety like Justin Simmons, Julian Blackmon, or Quandre Diggs—or let the young guys take control. Plus, they discuss why Marcus Williams may not be the best fit for Brandon Staley’s defense and how this move impacts the Saints’ long-term defensive plans heading into training camp.

Photo Credit: Cooper Neill/Getty Images, Baltimore Ravens, Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports, Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times

Welcome to the AFR Saints channel where we provide you daily content on your favorite team, the New Orleans Saints. Do us a favor and hit that subscribe button. Be sure to leave your comments below and smash that like button. Who that? [Music] We welcome in Ross Jackson, of course, Louisiana.net, Locked on Saints. He’ll kick it around with us here. Ross, we appreciate the time as always, man. How are you? Hey, man. Always a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me. I’m glad to uh be here with you. Absolutely, man. We appreciate it, especially on short notice today. Uh but with the news, I mean, couldn’t not get you on. Let’s just start there. Immediate reaction you had when the Tyron Matthew news broke. Yeah, I mean it was it was certainly a reaction of of of you know, uh surprise first and foremost. Um, you know, there were some rumblings over the off season around when Tyron Matthew kind of had his contract redone and, you know, dropped that base salary down to like $1.5 million, kind of had this incentiveheavy deal. But most of the rumblings were just around that maybe there would be some changes to his playing time and things like that, you know, or bracing for a new role, those types of things, which are logical when a player, you know, makes that kind of decision with an organization. But, you know, retirement was not really a part of anything that was floating around in anyone’s mind outside of like a couple of people I talked to, maybe the league owners meetings and things like that who maybe pondered the idea. But for the most part, when it came down to everything around Tyron Matthew, the expectation was that he was going to, you know, be there and a part of this that kind of veteran presence for this team going through sort of this transitionary year. But, you know, look, I don’t think it’s a bad thing that he called it quits, you know what I mean? I I think he had a a phenomenal career, 12 years, highly decorated player, one of the best players that we’ve seen from the state of Louisiana and everything as well. Like, what an incredible story. So once you get past sort of the the surprise and the awe of it all, I think you you immediately get down to the appreciation of us getting to see him play at all um you know throughout his his really highly decorated career. That’s what I was going to kind of ask you next Ross because we we’ve we’ve all been so aware of Tyron Matthew here for so long whether it was St. Long obviously him bursting onto the scene at LSU as an underrecruited guy and and his journey at LSU and you know how it led to his success in the NFL and and the personal stuff in between there. How how will you remember Tyron Matthew? Yeah, I mean the the model of managing adversity, right? I mean, he was somebody that was um, you know, really successful young college player whose career was challenged a bit on something that many would probably call antiquated now and, you know, turned all of that into or or or really came out of all that instead of, you know, woe is me or, you know, kind of, you know, seeing it stifle his ability in the game or anything like that. you saw him turn that around and goes to, you know, these organizations where he becomes a a big-time, you know, contributor from Arizona to Houston to, you know, winning Super Bowl champions with the or winning Super Bowl championships, excuse me, with the, uh, Kansas City Chiefs. And then all of that to be able to bring it all back home and then finish after three stellar years, 10 interceptions, and over 200 tackles here in New Orleans. um you know it’s just a a model of adversity and or or model of really navigating adversity and kind of you know playing through those types of hardships and meeting the challenge and I think that he is just one of those guys that I hope that every young player whether they’re at his position or not looks at and says okay this is how you can keep going no matter what right and keep pushing and kind of be that guy that kind of blazes that trail for these players to say to be able to show them that you know the hard times aren’t the end times and So being able to, you know, continue to push the way that he did, I I I hope is an inspiration to a lot of players that want to do what he does. Absolutely. I mean, he’s one of the easiest guys to root for uh ever is Tyron Matthew. And it was awesome to be able to do that for so long. Uh Loki, what’s next? Let’s move there. I know it’s still pretty fresh here, right? obviously day of, but what does this mean for the Saints first in terms of salary cap with Tyron Matthew hanging it up both, I guess, for 25 and obviously he had all those void years on the back of his deal as well. Yeah. So, we’ll have to see exactly how all the cap numbers uh kind of, you know, settle out in terms of how all of this kind of processes and everything, but there will be some some, you know, cap amounts that end up accelerating when it comes to his deal. There will be some things that end up dropping off because a lot of the incentives that he had were playtime incentives and because he played so much of last season, he had a couple of games that you he got hurt and couldn’t finish those games. But for the most part, he was out there and so a lot of those incentives will be considered what are called likely to be earned. And so those likely to be earned incentives typically count against the salary cap in the present year, whereas not likely to be earned incentives are effectively accounted for after they’re earned on the next year’s salary cap. So they operate a little bit differently in that way. And so I think depending upon how some of those designations work out and what that, you know, what accelerates and all those other pieces that we could see, you know, a little bit of savings for the Saints, but then also a little bit of dead cap that’s going to accelerate for them. But the good news is that like they sit with still a pretty comfortable amount of salary cap despite all that. And so it helps them out a little bit to be able to absorb um a bit of that uh as you know, this continues to move forward for them. So, we’ll have to wait and see how everything kind of, you know, uh pans out for him or or or gets accounted for rather. Um and so that will that will end up making the the kind of designation there is what happens to the salary cap. Still have to wait and see. Obviously want to talk about the depth at the position remaining and and Mickey Lumis today when he met with the media in his in his in his own way said that yes, they’ll explore free agent options there. We’ll get to that. But in the immediiacy with training camp, the first practice tomorrow, how big of an opportunity is this for Yonas Sanker? Oh, it’s huge. It’s huge. I mean, this is a guy that they’re very excited about. This is a player that, you know, during his time at Virginia was a born and bred leader. He’s a born and bred leader in his own home as well. I mean, he’s got an incredible story behind him and everything. He’s got an incredible family unit behind him. And so him uh you know kind of walking into this newfound opportunity should be something that ignites him a little bit and and you know now getting the opportunity to potentially try to earn that position next to Justin Reed I think is a really really open opportunity for him and I would include u you know Jordan Hen in that in that measure as well. But I mean, I think the thing for for Yonas Sanker that makes it so exciting for him is that he’s so versatile and you can utilize him in a variety of different ways, which fits perfectly with Brandon Staley’s defense and the way that he wants to disguise him and Justin Reed can both cover. They can both play down in the box. They can both play in the slot. I mean, there’s just so much that these guys can do. And so I think that there’s a little bit of an advantage in Sanker’s case because of where when this happened uh and what opportunities he has in what the demands of the defense are going to be because he has such an eclectic skill set that he’s going to be a pretty exciting piece for Brandon Staley. So I think this is a massive opportunity for rookie Yonas. Do you think this is a a spot where the Saints really kind of push their chips into into that corner of it? like, okay, let’s let’s let Yonas Sanker go out there and win this job. And what we add in free agency is just a veteran depth piece in and hope that, okay, you know, you took Yank Jonas Sanker in the in the third round. They were excited to see him still be available when they got him at pick 93. Or is this go out get the veteran guy that we know could still come in and play? I think you you entertain the veteran market, but you’re not desperate in the veteran market. And so, you know, there are some of those veterans out there that they could potentially pursue, but I think right now with them starting training camp tomorrow, this is kind of what I was alluding to when I mentioned that like Sanker’s at a little bit of an advantage here because of the timing of all this, that, you know, you’re able to just kind of now roll right into training camp if you own a Sanker. And so, I think that they’ll get a good look at him early on here, but then I’m sure that they’ll be looking at the market, seeing what’s available. They’ve got him. They’ve got um Jordan Hen. They also signed Terrell uh Terrell Burgess earlier this off season. He’s another versatile safety guy with some experience with uh Brandon Staley. They’ve got Ugo Amati already in the building. They also added Elliot Davidson from the uh from uh who was UTSA coming as an undrafted free agent. they have some of these interesting sort of young safety pieces that they can get a look at early and then if those guys stand out and they feel really good about where things are headed there then you know they can continue to push forward uh with one of those young guys and potentially Jonas Sanker the rookie or uh if that’s not the case then you know they have the opportunity to go to the market and see what’s available there. Any names uh in the free agent market jump out to you that you could see the Saints have an interest in? Yeah, I think you know the first one that’s going to jump to mind naturally because they had interest in him last year. They brought him in for a visit and everything was safety Justin Simmons. He’s again available now. He didn’t have the he ended up signing with the Atlanta Falcons last year. Didn’t have the strongest season at Atlanta last year. And so, you know, maybe they’re not looking at him the way they looked at him last season, but he’s certainly a name to watch. Julian Blackman still available. Uh Cadre Digs just got former Titan safety just got cleared to play again. So, there are a few of these veteran players. a lot of pluses and minuses to each one of them and everything, but there are absolutely those players out there uh that they could potentially look at and and see about bringing in, whether just to get a look at him in training camp or or see if he could potentially take a starting role. No Marcus Williams reunion, Ross. Oh, maybe a Marcus Williams reunion, I suppose. I don’t know. I think Brandon Staley’s defense though is one that requires a little bit more disguise at the safety position, and Marcus Williams doesn’t really bring that. He’s kind of quintessential deep safety, not somebody you want playing down in the box. he’s had, you know, he’s had tackling woes his entire career and all those other things. And so I think with him kind of being a little bit of a little one-dimensional in terms of the way that he’s he’s been utilized, unless he’s grown in those other areas, which is perfectly perfectly possible. Uh I don’t know that he’s necessarily a fit for Brandon Stley’s defense. I was mainly kidding, but I do appreciate the uh I do I do appreciate the thorough answer, Ross. That’s why you’re the best. Like that’s that’s why we bring you on all the time, man. Right there. Uh yeah, we’ll see what they do. I look I I said it earlier. I I really hope that it is kind of like man Yonas Sanker go take hold of this and what they need to add is is is a depth piece to to kind of help him out there. So, uh I mean I think that’d be the for the immediiacy and the future of the the team in the franchise. I think that’d be honestly one of the best uh one of the best case scenarios. Um he is Ross Jackson. Louisiana.net. You can get him on Twitter X Rossjackson Nola of course locked on Saints. Go read his stuff. Go subscribe to the pod. He’s great and we appreciate the time as always, Ross. Thank you. Thanks, buddy. Thanks for having me on. You take care. Stay safe and I’ll talk to you soon. Hey, thanks so much for watching. Please leave your comments. I love to interact. And be sure to hit the red subscribe button below. [Music] With you. After you. [Music]