The New Orleans Saints have been among the most active teams through the first few days of the new League Year. They re-signed edge rusher Chase Young to a three-year, $51 million contract and traded for New England Patriots defensive tackle Davon Godchaux on the first day of free agency. To facilitate their additions, they also had to restructure Derek Carr’s contract.
However, as a team mired in annual salary cap purgatory, they also lost some key contributors, including cornerback Paulson Adebo to the New York Giants and former first-round pick Payton Turner to the Dallas Cowboys.
Multiple reports suggest that the Saints appear to have locked down yet another starter in free agency, with a need in the secondary following Adebo’s departure.
New Orleans Saints Land Former Kansas City Chiefs Safety Justin Reid in Free Agency
According to a myriad of sources, including ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Saints have agreed to terms with former Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid to a three-year deal. The contract will be worth up to $31.5 million, with $22.25 million fully guaranteed.
With Tyrann Mathieu sticking around in 2025 on a reworked contract, New Orleans now has a pair of high-quality safeties to build their defensive scheme around. With former Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley running the defensive unit next year, it makes sense that he’d want elite players at that position after coaching Derwin James.
Reid ranked 14th on PFSN’s Top 100 NFL Free Agent Rankings, which was first among all safeties and third among defensive backs (behind D.J. Reed and Byron Murphy Jr.).
Reid has been a starter for all seven seasons since entering the NFL in 2018 but is still just 28 years old. Reid played at least 90% of the snaps in all three of his seasons with the Chiefs, and he’s never played fewer than 13 games in a season.
The two-time Super Bowl champion had nine passes defended, his most since his rookie season, and multiple interceptions for the first time since 2021. Reid was versatile enough to line up in the box, the deep half, or as the single-high safety in Steve Spagnuolo’s system, and figures to maintain that flexibility with Staley and the Saints.
Last season started hot for New Orleans, as the Saints went 2-0 and scored 91 points in the first two weeks. Unfortunately, things quickly went south for Carr and the Saints, with the QB suffering an oblique injury in Week 5 and the team losing seven straight games. They finished 5-12 and tied for last in the NFC South.
In 2024, they finished 19th in the NFL in scoring defense (allowing 23.4 points per game) and 30th in total defense (379.9 yards allowed per game). They also finished 19th in PFSN’s Defense+ metric, the worst New Orleans has been since the metric began in 2019.
It was clear that they needed to focus on retooling that unit with the few resources they had, and they’ve done that so far by bringing back Chase and bringing in Reid and Godchaux.
With first-year head coach Kellen Moore now at the reins of the franchise, expect New Orleans to keep tinkering ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, where they possess the No. 9 overall pick.