By Ross Jackson
After either abstaining from or missing out on a trade for former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams, the New Orleans Saints are still in the wide receiver market, per The Athletics’ Senior NFL Insider Dianna Russini.
According to Russini’s report, the Saints are among the teams reaching out to the New York Jets with interest in wide receiver Mike Williams. The Jets did end up landing Adams after their Monday Night Football loss to the Buffalo Bills. Having acquired their new top wideout, it was believed that players like Williams and Allen Lazard may end up becoming available via trade. It looks like NFL clubs are under the same impression.
New Orleans certainly needs help at wide receiver. Star wideout Chris Olave will miss the team’s Week 7 matchup while working his way through concussion protocol. Meanwhile, explosive deep threat Rashid Shaheed is out for a currently undetermined amount of time as he heads to Los Angeles for meniscus surgery. Depending upon what is learned during that procedure, Shaheed could miss multiple weeks or potentially be out for much longer.
Adding another wide receiver sounds like the logical move. But many believe the Saints should focus internally by evaluating the young players in the building. The search starts there, but the Saints are simply running out of players at a certain point due to the onslaught of injuries.
A move for a player like Williams should not be one that costs much in terms of draft capital and potential for future investments. The former Los Angeles Charger has a base salary of just $1.255 million, some of which has already been paid out. Meaning he should be affordable both in terms of draft capital and salary implications.
While the move can be made, the Saints will have to decide if it should be made. They could choose to go the other route and evaluate what they have in rookie wide receivers Bub Means and Mason Tipton. But if they don’t make a move and lose another player to injury, things could get very uncomfortably tight after the trade deadline.
