Saints establishing new leadership with splash signings

By Ross Jackson

The New Orleans Saints offseason has seen its fair share of loss throughout free agency. Linebacker Demario Davis, long the heart of the team, has departed to the New York Jets. Defensive end Cameron Jordan, a leader with the club since 2011 and a franchise cornerstone remains unsigned. Tight end Foster Moreau, a New Orleans native, was a megaphone for the standard in the facility. He is now a member of he Houston Texans.

Despite the losses though, New Orleans has found a way to maintain staple leaders by bringing in a new crop of players that can establish and maintain the expectations of the team. 

Offensive lineman David Edwards has experienced the trials and tribulations of the NFL. From a 10-game rookie starter to a lengthy concussion recovery and time as a backup and jumbo offensive line option, Edwards eventually returned to a multi-year starting role with the Buffalo Bills.

He now arrives, after all of that, in New Orleans as the top available guard in free agency and ready to assume the team’s starting left guard position.

But beyond that, he has a desire to curate relationships with the players along the line and on offense as a leader that can strengthen the bond of the unit.

“It starts with being around each other,” Edwards said in his introductory press conference. “There’s a difference, I think, between being in the building with each other, and then also when you’re at each other’s houses having dinner. So, how can we spend as much time as we can with each other? On and off the field, so that there’s no gray area in anything and you’ve got a great foundation in your friendship that you can challenge each other when it comes to being on the field or in the weight room or anything like that.”

On the other side of the ball, linebacker Kaden Ellis is returning to the Saints locker room. The former Idaho linebacker was a seventh-round selection by New Orleans during the 2019 NFL Draft. Since then, he went on to pioneer the Atlanta Falcons defense on three different systems under three different defensive coordinators. 

Elliss highlighted that roster changes are inevitable when coaching staffs shift like they did in Atlanta this offseason. He’s now ready to bring that learning experience back to the Crescent City in the hopes of rebuilding a winner. 

“It broke my heart how I ended there,” he said. “Head coach, GM, Terry (Fontenot), who was here. Me and a lot of the guys have to disperse and go somewhere else. But that’s kind of what happens when you don’t win, right? You don’t make the playoffs, things don’t happen the way you want. So, it sucked and I take personal accountability for that. I was captain on the team. We didn’t make it happen, so I won’t let that happen again.”