The New Orleans Saints entered the offseason in a dire situation. Before anything, they had to fix their salary cap woes.

Thanks to some timely and strategic reworking of deals and other moves by general manager Mickey Loomis, the Saints were able to come out of the abyss. However, they still left plenty to be desired as far as what they brought in during free agency. 

Pro Football Focus recently went into explaining how the Saints could have done more on the open market and why they gave them a C+ grade for their moves during the offseason. 

Derek Carr to the Saints was a logical move that made sense for both parties. The Saints can contend in a weak division and conference without needing to rebuild, and Carr is valuable to a team that doesn’t need him to go toe to toe with the best quarterbacks in the game weekly. New Orleans hemorrhaged talent in free agency and didn’t restock it as aggressively as they often do because of the Carr signing. That put a lot of pressure on their draft.

The Saints lost veteran defensive tackles David Onyemata and Shy Tuttle as well as edge rusher Marcus Davenport in free agency. It was countered by bringing in Khalen Saunders and Nathan Shepherd plus re-signing Malcolm Roach. 

New Orleans was also able to sign running back Jamaal Williams and wide receiver Bryan Edwards. While these were respectable moves, the addition of Carr, from a financial standpoint hindered the Saints from possibly going after more high-end talent. 

In Bryan Bresee and Isaiah Foskey, their first two picks were spent on defensive linemen, and they will need both to play a lot as rookies. The rest of their draft was intriguing, with A.T. Perry a potential steal at receiver late in the draft and Jake Haener a quarterback prospect who many people loved as a player with the potential to buck the odds in the fourth round.

Perry is one of a plethora of extremely gifted players that dropped in this year's draft. At 6'3" with 4.47 speed and a big catch radius, it'll be interesting to see if he can carve out a role next to Michael Thomas and Chris Olave. Also, third-round running back, Kendre Miller, may have more on his plate than anticipated in 2023 depending on what happens with Alvin Kamara as far as his potential discipline from the league for his off-the-field matters. 

New Orleans is primed to regain supremacy in the NFC South now that Tom Brady is retired, and it might be a wave of rookies that helps them do so.