NFC Notes: Buccaneers, Falcons, Saints

Buccaneers

Buccaneers’ OC Byron Leftwich says that rookie Jaelon Darden and veteran WR Antonio Brown can provide the team with a similar skill set.

“It’s all over the college tape,” Leftwich said, via Pro Football Talk. “It’s all over the college tape. I was a big fan of his. He’s not a big guy, but a smaller guy that can pluck the ball. Very fast, very similar — mannerisms are very similar to AB. I think it’s good that he’s in the same room with him. Skillsets are similar. Obviously, that’s a big order to put on anybody. But I just remember A.B. being a rookie, being a player on that team. They are very similar, very similar football players.”

Falcons

• According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Falcons WR Julio Jones wanted to play for a contender and prefers to be paired with a big-arm quarterback who can throw deep balls that will allow him to outrun opposing defenses.
• Jones was traded to the Titans on Sunday in exchange for a package that featured a second-round pick. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio said the thinking in league circles was that owner Arthur Blank wanted to get more than a second given that’s what Atlanta got for WR Mohamed Sanu and gave up for TE Hayden Hurst, but the market clearly wasn’t there. 

Saints

• The Athletic’s Katherine Terrell looks ahead to the Saints’ salary cap situation in 2022. While New Orleans won’t have to dig out of another $100 million hole, they still have a tricky situation to navigate with a number of aging veterans with huge cap hits. 
• For instance, Terrell says if soon-to-be-32-year-old DE Cameron Jordan has another good season, the Saints can restructure his deal and push the bill to 2023 when the cavalry comes in the form of an expected jump in the cap. 
• However, if Jordan’s performance drops off and the Saints have to move on, they would be stuck with $21 million in dead money and possibly just $1.2 million in savings. 
• The Saints have a similar situation with 34-year-old S Malcolm Jenkins, who would count $7.9 million in dead money if cut in 2022 and $3.8 million in savings. 
• Per Terrell, the Saints have about $207 million in cap liabilities for 2022, which includes 43 players and does not include any rookies this year. The 2022 cap won’t be higher than $208.2 million. 
• The Saints also already have potentially $36 million in dead money in 2022, including from contracts set to void automatically like LT Terron Armstead ($13 million), QB Taysom Hill ($8.9 million) and QB Jameis Winston ($3 million). At a minimum, Terrell expects one of these contracts to be extended and some of that dead money pushed to the future. 
• Other moves to keep an eye on, according to Terrell, would be a restructure for WR Michael Thomas, as a trade would only save the Saints $2 million and the veteran will count $24.7 million against the cap, and for RB Alvin Kamara, who has a $6 million roster bonus designed to be converted to a signing bonus. 
• She adds 32-year-old RB Latavius Murray would be a bit of a luxury in 2022 on his scheduled $4.3 million salary.