![\"jul.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/jul.jpg\")
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The New Orleans Saints<\/a>‘ secondary took a hit on Tuesday when three-time Pro Bowl safety Tyrann Mathieu<\/a> announced his retirement<\/a> at 33 years old. However, the Saints worked quickly to bring in a replacement. According to NFL Media<\/a>, New Orleans is signing former Indianapolis Colts<\/a> safety Julian Blackmon<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last season, Blackmon signed a one-year extension with Indianapolis and recorded 86 combined tackles, four passes defensed and three interceptions while fighting through a shoulder injury. Blackmon has recorded seven interceptions over the past two seasons after picking off just three passes in his first three NFL<\/a> seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Saints DB Tyrann Mathieu announces NFL retirement, ‘Honey Badger’ ends 12-year pro career<\/p>\n \n Will Backus <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n A third-round pick out of Utah in 2020, Blackmon has yet to play a full season due to injury, but the 16 games he appeared in last year marked a career high. Blackmon tore his ACL in the 2019 Pac-12 title game, and tore his Achilles during a practice session in his second NFL<\/a> season back in 2021. In 66 career games played, Blackmon has recorded 300 combined tackles, 21 passes defensed and 10 interceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n In New Orleans, Blackmon joins a safety room that’s headlined by free-agency addition Justin Reid<\/a>, third-round pick Jonas Sanker<\/a>\u00a0out of Virginia and Jordan Howden<\/a>. Last season, the Saints finished 5-12 — marking the most losses they have suffered in a season since the 3-13 campaign back in 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was a season headlined by injuries, as New Orleans became the first team in NFL history to lose seven straight games after winning its first two contests by 20-plus points. The defense allowed 379.9 yards of total offense per game, the third-most in the NFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The New Orleans Saints‘ secondary took a hit on Tuesday when three-time Pro Bowl safety Tyrann…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,7,2004,392,2381,1765,20415,6990,13095,55,6,8530],"class_list":{"0":"post-229260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-colts","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indianapolis","11":"tag-indianapolis-colts","12":"tag-indianapoliscolts","13":"tag-jonas-sanker","14":"tag-jordan-howden","15":"tag-julian-blackmon","16":"tag-justin-reid","17":"tag-new-orleans-saints","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-tyrann-mathieu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114901695001769609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Saints](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/adobe-express-file-2025-07-22t151616-474.jpg\")
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