Week 18 of the 2025 NFL season has concluded for the New Orleans Saints, and while their win streak did come to an end, it did help them maintain the No. 8 pick for the 2026 NFL Draft. With quite a bit of work to do to build a competent offense around Tyler Shough, it will be intriguing to see how the Saints handle their selections there, but also their free agency plans.
With quite a few players set to hit the market this spring, they have decisions to make on who to keep around and who to let walk in favor of another option. One would assume that this late winning streak, fueled by Shough, will ensure that the team will spend some money and bring in some priority players, but who knows? Regardless, here is a look at the final list of free agents set to test out the waters this spring, and what category they fall into. Note that the snap counts will only count from Week 1 to Week 17.
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Exclusive rights free agents
WR Ronnie Bell: 0.2% of snaps
WR Samori Toure: 0.0% of snaps
LB Isaiah Stalbird: 6.2% of snaps
CB Rejzohn Wright: 0.2% of snaps
TE Mason Pline: 0.0% of snaps
TE Zaire Mitchell-Paden: 10.8% of snaps
P Kai Kroeger: 28.9% of snaps
EDGE Fadil Diggs: 5.0% of snaps
There are not a ton of interesting names here, other than Fadil Diggs and Isaiah Stalbird. Diggs didn’t make a huge impact in his rookie season, spending much of it on the practice squad developing and improving his game. Stalbird got a decent amount of playing time on special teams and could be a long-term player there. As for Kai Kroeger, he will likely be replaced after a pretty tough rookie campaign.
Restricted free agents
As of this moment, there will be no restricted free agents for the Saints in 2026. The only one who had remained later in the year was kicker Blake Grupe, who was cut and moved on to the Indianapolis Colts mid-season, leaving New Orleans with no decisions to make here.
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Unrestricted free agents
S Julian Blackmon: 6.4% of snaps
RT Landon Young: 0.0% of snaps
IOL Dillon Radunz: 59.8% of snaps
CB Alontae Taylor: 95.9% of snaps
C Luke Fortner: 57.8% of snaps
IDL Jonathan Bullard: 30.0% of snaps
C Will Clapp: 0.0% of snaps
CB Ugo Amadi: 0.1% of snaps
TE Jack Stoll: 19.8% of snaps
CB Michael Davis: 2.1% of snaps
DL Jonah Williams: 26.5% of snaps
S Terrell Burgess: 10.7% of snaps
WR Dante Pettis: 5.9% of snaps
EDGE Chris Rumph II: 31.0% of snaps
IDL John Ridgeway: 4.7% of snaps
In the unrestricted category, there are a ton of players to sort through, with the most notable being Alontae Taylor, and then the second category being Julian Blackmon, Dillon Radunz, Luke Fortner, and Chris Rumph II. Taylor will be an interesting piece to see whether or not they wish to bring him back, but at a pretty high projected price point, they may look to just go elsewhere at the slot position. Radunz is not likely to return unless in a depth role, Fortner should be retained in that type of position behind Erik McCoy, and Rumph II would be a good lower roster piece.
Voiding contracts
LB Demario Davis: 98.2% of snaps
EDGE Cameron Jordan: 53.4% of snaps
TE Foster Moreau: 24.0% of snaps
QB Taysom Hill: 17.7% of snaps
These four names have remained the same throughout the campaign, and will all be key to the offseason cap maneuvering that always occurs with New Orleans. They would each carry a dead cap hit of their own if they were to leave the Saints this spring, with those numbers being the following; $14.29 million for Davis, $18.76 million for Jordan, $1.4 million for Moreau, and $13.723 million for Hill.
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While Hill is likely to retire unless something changes soon, it would be hard to believe Davis and Jordan won’t be targeted to return on a new contract just to soften the blow of their numbers for another year, especially with how both performed in 2025.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Which Saints players are set to hit free agency in the spring of 2026?