The Saints released guard Larry Warford on Friday in a move that cleared $7MM+ from the salary cap. As expected, the multiple-time Pro Bowler is already drawing interest from teams. The Texans are one club that’s already considering Larry Warford, according to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle. Same goes for the Bears, who would offer considerably more upside than new pickup Germain Ifedi.
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Warford, 29 in June, has earned Pro Bowl nods in each of the last three seasons. However, the Pro Bowl selection process for offensive linemen tends to be less than scientific, and Sean Payton was less than thrilled with his performance in 2019. The Saints made that crystal clear late last month when they drafted interior lineman Cesar Ruiz in the first round. Ditto for their re-signing of Andrus Peat on a five-year, $57.5MM deal in March. Ruiz will now battle with Erik McCoy – a center, by trade – for a starting guard spot on the line.
Before the release, Warford was set to play out the final season of the four-year, $34MM deal he inked as a free agent in 2017. Now released, Warford will count for $5.125MM in dead money against the cap, but they’ll save $7.75MM in cap dollars.
Warford scored that deal off of the strength of his play in Detroit. As a third-round pick of the Lions, he went on to start in all 57 of his games and he ranked as Pro Football Focus’ 20th-best guard in his walk year.
The Texans could use a guy like Warford, who could supplant Zach Fulton as their top right guard.
Well that was dumb by NOLA, Bill O’Brien would have traded at least two 1st rounders for him!
Quote of the day!
Redundant joke of the day.
Bill O’Brien jokes must continually be made until he is fired for the deandre Hopkins joke he made
The only way he can be saved is if David Johnson is healthy and has an All-Pro type year.
Would still be a joke.
O’Brien would not make that trade. I disagree.
Seahawks pick him up
The Bears should take advantage of this golden opportunity. They need to give Trubisky a chance in the pocket and can’t rely on the human turnstile that is Germain Ifedi
I agree on a line upgrade but it’s a known fact Mitch is worse in the pocket
True, but if Foles takes over, they’ll need to keep him protected given his lack of mobility
If mobility was a concern for the Bears they probably would have resigned Bobby Douglass.
It’s almost much known that the Bears need an upgrade to running game.
If the Bears don’t jump all in on this they’re idiots. They already are, but they might show some signs of intelligence.
The McCaskey’s are plenty intelligent. They rejected Barack Obama’s application to be a cheerleader.
Anybody say browns for the services of Warford, because they need a right guard now
It seems like they’re content with some combination of Forbes and Teller but I’d definitely be interested in Warford if the price is right
I agree because teller showed he couldn’t do it when he played for Corbett middle of the year when he got benched and Forbes isn’t the guy either unless he proves me wrong
Perfect spot for the packers to dump lane Taylor, or billy turner & get watford who is a big upgrade.
The Packers won’t be cutting Billy Turner this year, because of how bad that contract is. It would be an additional 1.5 million against the cap if they cut him this season.
Bengals could use some OL help
Bengals need a lot of help on their ol and defensive backs areas
Man this makes zero sense. Pro bowl guard and you cut him for absolutely no return?
Cap savings is a return. Also don’t let Pro Bowls fool you. Mitch Trubisky is a probowl qb if that tells you anything. Saints went younger and cheaper now. Also how do we know that they didn’t try trade him?
No this is just a pure money move and doesn’t make the team better. That young kid could stink
Comparing a QB to an OL isn’t fair as most top QBs choose to sit out the pro bowl and that is why Mitch was one . Also he was a pro bowl player multiple years not once like Mitch who did have one good year bad analogy
Predict browns , cardinals , bengals , lions to be one of the takers
Giving an extension to Peat and drafting Ruiz just to force Warford out is mind boggling from an otherwise well run team. Peat’s not terrible, and Ruiz is unproven, but Warford is a proven quality starter who isn’t old yet. Why not start him another year and have Ruiz in reserve? Money or no money, that would be how to put your best team on the field.
Good take. Given the scarcity of solid OL talent out there, why would you just cut Warford loose without extracting some value. Maybe another team would agree to eat some of the cap expense and toss in a draft pick. Must be more to this than we are being told because it doesn’t make much sense on the surface.
They probably decided they had too many draft picks for next year and decided it would be better to cut him than have to draft even more players.
Is that what you really think? OMG people. They hire people whose job it is to shop guys before they cut them. Why would anyone assume they forgot?
Something doesn’t add up here. I don’t know if the Saints are hiding a medical issue here or what exactly but you just don’t cut loose pro bowl OL talent unless your mad. Even the Redskins attempted to extract something of value for Trent Williams.
Crosseye the reason was money. The article references the amount of cap space savings
Nothing against smart financial planning, but the Saints are right there right now, not rebuilding. I believe they take around $5 million in dead money from the Warford deal anyway, so not getting anything back was silly.
Cap hits are all well and good until you save your way out of a Super Bowl.
Right again. If winning championships on a Walmart budget was a piece of cake, then no contracts would ever be extended.
Maybe he’s damaged goods like Bentley was when he got released by the saints and signed w/ the browns, so could it be disaster all over again for another team or the browns again
Yet another guy cut before his contract was up for pure money reasons . So where are the people complaining about players wanting more money and holding out and saying they signed a contract? Didn’t the team also sign a contract so why is this ok?
Now see why players hold out when they have some power now? As teams can and do cut players at any time . See this pro bowl 29 year old as a prime example
Teams can cut players whenever they want, and depending on how the contract is structured, the players still get paid
The Jets have been trying to revamp the O-line. I could see them trying to resolve their likely cap casualty problem by releasing Brian Winters and signing this guy, but they’ve already signed Alex Lewis and Greg Van Roten to deals, so I doubt it.
Vikings need to cut Reiff and sign this guy immediately.
It’s always wise to save your cap space for players who actually make your team better. Warford is just another guy, unfortunately it cost the Saints $34 million to find that out.
Agree a ton about getting cut inside a current deal. Biut people have the ball’s to complain bout players holding out? Grow up and think about what your saying. The average career in the NFL IS NOT long (if I remember right it’s 3.8 yrs?) so they need to get as much as they can when they can! Thet billionaire owners will get richer every single year they Own the team, which is dozens of years! Not like the players who will break down mostly in their late 20s/early 30s.
Vikings need to be calling this guy. Nothing about the Vikes O-Lines performance in last few years should allow any of the lineman any to think they have a job nailed down.