The New Orleans Saints ruffled some fans’ feathers by including too many familiar names in a wave of players released at the start of training camp. The NFL’s new rules and procedures for managing the COVID-19 pandemic included a mandatory cut-down date of Aug. 16, when teams must thin their rosters down from 90 players to just 80. But the Saints were one team that got ahead of the curve.
And several of those players have already found new opportunities with other teams. Now, that doesn’t suggest the Saints released the wrong players by putting talented help out on the open market; instead, it illustrates just how much depth they’ve accumulated in recent years.