It looks like the New Orleans Saints are joining in on the party. Tuesday saw several teams in the NFL make headlines with announcements that they would be cutting big names from their roster. It started with the Minnesota Vikings announcing their intentions to cut longtime running back Adrian Peterson.
The Saints will be releasing Jairus Byrd on the first day of free agency, as was first reported by Ian Rapoport.
Source: The #Saints will release big-money safety Jairus Byrd on first day of FA. Another top DB available.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 1, 2017
This would later be confirmed by Herbie Toepe of NOLA.com and the Times Picayune.
The 30-year old safety suffered from injuries throughout his first year in the crescent city and ended up with 110 total tackles and three interceptions in his three seasons in the black and gold.
With the release comes the dreaded cap hit. His release will add $8 million to the Saints dead money for 2017. That adds up to a grand total of $18 million in dead money.
The release of Byrd also leaves only three safeties on the roster with playing time on defense: Kenny Vaccaro, Vonn Bell, and Ken Crawley. The talent is good with these three, but there will be a need for one or two safeties either in free agency or the NFL Draft and Sean Payton has expressed interest in going that route in the draft.
-Clint Domingue