Whew. The New Orleans Saints flew a dozen of free agents in for tryouts on Tuesday, per the daily update to the NFL transactions wire, focused on three position groups: wide receivers, defensive tackle, and the offensive interior, at guard and center.
It makes sense to highlight those spots after losing a couple of offensive linemen to injuries in Sunday’s preseason game; backup center Will Clapp is done for the season, while starting left guard Trevor Penning is expected to miss the rest of the preseason on the mend. Second-year wideout Bub Means is going to miss some time, too.
So which free agents did the Saints bring in? Let’s break it down by position group:
Wide receiversWR Roderick Daniels. Listed at just 5-foot-9 and 186 pounds, Daniels was a big-play threat at SMU who averaged 15.3 yards per catch in each of his last two seasons. He was also an asset in the return game for the Mustangs, averaging 10.3 yards per punt return with two touchdowns. NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill reports that Daniels signed after this tryout.WR JaVonta Payton. Payton, listed at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, played college football at Mississippi State and Tennessee; his pro career started with the Arizona Cardinals, but he’s best known for being part of a three-team trade in the XFL and winning a spring-league championship with the Arlington Renegades.WR Cornell Powell. A former fifth-round draft pick by the Kansas City Chiefs, Powell weighs in at 6-foot-0 and 204 pounds, and he’s one of the few players to win a championships in the NCAA (at Clemson), the UFL (with the DC Defenders), and the NFL (on the Chiefs).WR Justyn Ross. Ross was the biggest player in this group at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds. A two-time Super Bowl winner with the Chiefs, he’s come off the bench to catch 6 passes for 53 yards in 14 games, including the playoffs. Ross has dealt with medical concerns going back to his college career at Clemson after having surgery to repair a congenital spinal issue. He was also suspended for more than a month in 2023 after being arrested for domestic battery.
There’s a mix of body types and skill sets here, but the Saints went with someone who shares some attributes with players already on their roster.
Defensive linemenDT Thor Griffith. Like Saints backup right tackle Jonathan Mendoza, Griffith transferred to Louisville last year after playing three years in the Ivy League (at Harvard, though, not Yale), where he was teammates with Tyler Shough. He was a productive pass rusher in both stops and initially signed with the Seattle Seahawks earlier this summer.DT Tyler Manoa. Manoa was a regular in UCLA’s defensive line rotation from 2018 to 2021, mostly lining up over center at nose tackle. He tried out at left tackle for UCLA in 2022 but moved back to defense in 2023 after transferring to Arizona. He’s spent time with the Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders as a pro.DT Leonard Payne. Payne was college teammates with Jake Haener at Fresno State and finished his career at Colorado in 2023, but wasn’t drafted after turning pro and initially signed with the Miami Dolphins as a rookie free agent. He spent part of this offseason with the Green Bay Packers, who released him after the draft back in April.DT Jayden Peevy. Peevy is a big defensive lineman at 6-foot-5 and 308 pounds, though he’s spent most of his NFL career on various practice squads around the league; he’s made stops with the Tennessee Titans, Carolina Panthers (twice), Cleveland Browns, and Houston Texans after playing college football at Texas A&M. Underhill adds that Peevy signed after this tryout.
The Saints already have a ton of guys competing for a few roster spots at defensive tackle, so Peevy could have a hard time standing out. But they signed him for a reason. While they didn’t add any of these offensive linemen, New Orleans still brought in four veterans with a variety of experiences:
Offensive linemenC Nick Harris. A former fifth-round pick by the Cleveland Browns back in 2020 (out of Washington), Harris has almost exclusively snapped the ball himself at center after appearing in a handful of games as a rookie at right guard. The 26-year old played center and both guard spots in college.G Mike Panasiuk. Panusiak played defense in college at Michigan State, but he switched to offense after turning pro. He spent some time with the Raiders and Panthers early in his career but is best known for earning All-XFL and All-UFL accolades with the St. Louis Battlehawks (with a brief stint at Indianapolis Colts training camp last summer sandwiched in-between).C Scott Quessenberry. Quessenberry, 30, last dressed for an NFL game in 2022 with the Houston Texans as a starter at center. Before that he made sporadic appearances with the Los Angeles Chargers (who drafted him out of UCLA) from 2018 to 2021. His career was interrupted by a bad knee injury in 2023, but he spent last season on the Texans practice squad.G Cody Whitehair. The highest-drafted player on this list, Whitehair played college football at Kansas State and was picked in the second round back in 2016 by the Chicago Bears. Now 33 years old, he’s coming off a year as a backup at left guard with the Raiders. He’s logged well over 3,000 career snaps at left guard and center, with a couple of hundred game reps at right guard.
Update: They didn’t report his addition on the NFL wire, but Panasiuk was seen at practice on Tuesday evening wearing the No. 61 jersey. Expect his signing to become official when the wire updates again on Wednesday. Read more here.