New Orleans Saints: Three biggest questions heading into the offseason
By Jason Reed
3. How will the front office address the secondary?
If you have not looked at the New Orleans Saints’ upcoming free-agent class then you might be surprised by how many members of the secondary are set to be free agents. While the two best players in the secondary — Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams — are still under contract, the front office has a lot of things to address this offseason.
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Eli Apple, P.J. Williams, Johnson Bademosi, D.J. Swearinger and Vonn Bell are all free agents this offseason. Some players will be easier to replace as they are simply depth options, but that is a big chunk of the secondary that might not roll over into next season.
The Saints’ defense had a run where it looked like one of the best in the league because of great play out of the defensive line and linebacker core. Lattimore and Williams did enough in the secondary carry that unit. Down the stretch, the Saints’ defense no longer looked that great and a big culprit was the secondary.
The team does have Janoris Jenkins, who was a late-season addition, but he alone is not going to fix the problem. The team will naturally re-sign some of these players but there will absolutely still be holes that need to be filled.
It will be interesting to see how the team looks to address this potential issue. Will the front office make it a high priority and spend multiple draft picks on it? Or, will the team accept the reality of the situation and just look to bolster the strong areas of the team?
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Williams and Lattimore are great, although Lattimore was rather inconsistent this season. Regardless, the New Orleans Saints have some work to do with the secondary.