The New Orleans Saints have made a couple good acquisitions this summer. New Orleans began the offseason by signing head coach Kellen Moore, but it wasn’t the only change they made.
A surprise transaction that no one saw coming could be the Saints’ most significant personnel move this offseason. Earlier this summer, the Saints struck a deal with the New England Patriots to acquire defensive tackle Davon Godchaux in exchange for a seventh-round choice.
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport recently called the Godchaux trade the “smartest move of the offseason” for the Saints.
“The Saints came into free agency with the worst salary-cap situation in the NFL.” Because of the paucity of cap space, they weren’t able to make many large moves on the open market,” Davenport wrote. “However, New Orleans was able to boost its defensive interior by acquiring veteran lineman Davon Godchaux from the New England Patriots for a seventh-round draft pick. Last season, the Saints had one of the league’s weakest run defenses. Godchaux told reporters that he plans to put an end to that by 2025.
With the Saints struggling against the run in 2024, signing Godchaux makes sense. He’s an excellent run defender, which allows the Saints to focus on a different position in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Rather than aiming to draft Mason Graham with the ninth choice in the first round, the Saints might seek a player like Will Johnson to address a far larger defensive void. Trading for a veteran option such as Godchaux provided a great deal of versatility.
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