2:59pm: Not so fast. Both players departed their New Orleans visits without deals in place. The Saints remain interested in the nine-year vet, but Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets other teams have emerged as potential options as well. It is unclear which teams are in on Barr, who could still end up with the Saints. For now, however, no agreement has been reached. Ditto Hunt, who is set for a Colts visit Wednesday.
11:17am: One day after news of their workouts was learned, both Kareem Hunt and Anthony Barr are set to head to New Orleans. The Saints are expected to sign both veterans pending a physical, reports ESPN’s Dianna Russini (Twitter link).
Barr met with the Saints yesterday, while Hunt’s visit was scheduled for today. To little surprise, the interest shown by the team has quickly resulted in agreements being reached. Neither player had generated much of a market for their services during the offseason, but they will now have plenty of time to acclimate to their new team. 
Especially to begin the year, New Orleans will be shorthanded in the backfield. Alvin Kamara was issued a three-game suspension for his involvement in a violent altercation in February 2022, which will leave the Saints without the five-time Pro Bowler. Eno Benjamin, meanwhile, will not be available at any point this campaign after he suffered an Achilles tear.
Hunt will look to serve in a similar capacity to his Browns tenure during his Saints stint. The 28-year-old operated as a consistent pass-catching back while Nick Chubb handled much of the team’s carries. Hunt still logged 442 carries in his 49 games in Cleveland, though, averaging 4.2 yards per rush in the process. If needed, he could handle a notable workload in his new home.
The Browns looked likely to move Hunt at the trade deadline, but he instead needed to wait until August to join a new team. In addition to Kamara, though, New Orleans boasts free agent signing Jamaal Williams and third-round rookie Kendre Miller in its new-look backfield. It will be interesting to watch how Hunt fits in during Kamara’s absence and how much of a role he is able to carve out upon the latter’s return.
Barr, meanwhile, is set to be on the move for the second time in as many years. His eight-year Vikings tenure ended last offseason, and the former first-rounder played in Dallas in 2022. Barr saw his playing time cut significantly compared to most of his Minnesota campaigns, and his lowered production helped keep him on the market deep into the summer.
The Saints have a number of options at the linebacker spot as is, with Demario Davis in place as an anchor of the team’s defense. 2021 second-rounder Pete Werner saw a sizeable jump in playing time last season, and he can be expected to remain a full-time starter moving forward. Recent draftees Zack Baun and D’Marco Jackson (the latter of whom missed his entire rookie season due to injury) are also in the mix for significant snaps. Barr will look to prove himself to be at least a quality rotational member of the unit.
The Saints entered today with just under $13MM in cap space, which should be enough to comfortably afford Hunt and Barr on what will no doubt be short-term, low-cost deals. Both players will add considerable experience to what is already one of the most veteran-laden teams in the league as the they aim to rebuild their free agent stock in a new setting.
Ironic that the team called the Saints signs the biggest scumbags
I imagine it would be rather difficult for them to recruit talent from the Vatican.
2 violent thug RB’s is better than one. They both needed a new partner to commit assault with.
Did Hunt do something in the last 5 years or were you just dying to pull out “violent thug” today?
Ironic that the Saints sign Derek Carr this offseason.
Do a quick search on Derek Carr 4 kids, Tough Backgrounds, and Hometown Humankindness….
I suppose Carr would be the Tim Tebow to Hunt and Kamara’s Hernandez and Hunt’s Ronnie Wilson.
In all seriousness though, I hardly think that this issue is limited just to the Saints. I wouldn’t put them at the tip top of the list either; so many other choices are around-the Browns and Chiefs in particular. The old regime Bengals had quite a few. But I don’t know the individual circumstances of players either, so I try not to get into that sort of thing. When it comes to controversies regarding behavior, however, I think the Saints are on average with the NFL as a whole, which is…less than ideal.
Come week 4, they will have Kamara, Williams, and Hunt. Curious to see how they play all three of them.
I think this is actually big news for those of us who play fantasy football. Hunts a good player and i doubt anyone in this backfield delivers consistent decent performances this year.
Even kamara is kind of a later round guy for me
How are they affording all these signings?
Were they not considerably over the cap just a short time ago?
Nobody works the cap like Mickey Loomis (the Steelers came closest, in my opinion). New Orleans has been considerably over the cap seemingly every year since the Payton era kicked into swing, but somehow the Saints managed to avoid a full scale Rams style crash afterward. I’ve learned to kind of ignore the cap in New Orleans’ case, because they in particular always find some way to finagle their way through what should be considerable limitations.
The Saints have Kareem Hunt, Jamaal Williams and they used a 3rd round pick in this year’s draft to select a very versatile RB named Kendre Miller.
Are the Saints moving on from Kamara after this season?
Kamara is making too much money for a RB in 2023, and he has lost a step, not a big step but a step nonetheless.
I’m not sure that they wait until after the season to move on from Kamara. I think they want to see what Hunt has left for the likely small contract, then shop Kamara if Hunt hasn’t lost a step like the rumors from Cleveland talked about.
Update: With Williams and Miller in place, why would they spend money on Hunt?
Kamara makes too much money and is not as dynamic as he once was. The Saints just gave Williams a contract and Miller is on his rookie deal. Bringing Hunt in on a lower tier deal will save the Saints the price of Kamara. Now that the league is shifting to this lower pay for RB mentality, teams that currently have RB’s on big contracts are going to work them down or get rid of them all together.
I would wonder that as well, RockinRobin, but that assumes that Kamara is the starter. Williams is not a starting back in the league, and Hunt has both started and been a near starter in a successful rotation it seems a bit much to sign him just for the few games that Kamara is out, but it’s also equally possible that the Saints simply haven’t been impressed with what Williams has shown in camp. I know that I have offered the opinion that Williams is not a very effective back, but he seems to occupy the role that Hunt would as the veteran behind Kamara if he were to start.
Signing Hunt either indicates that the Saints are truly worried about Kamara’s absence (this season, particularly, because I don’t think that they’d sign a guy for a short debut and then sit him behind Kamara and Williams until the former is released next year-they’d simply sign him next year), or have regrets about signing Williams. Having regrets about Williams would seem unlikely, though, as Williams has been pretty consistent and the Saints should know his profile already coming in. I think that they are either worried about losing Kamara or want to see how easily they could move on if they choose to.
From what I have read Miller is not ready to start the season and we already know Kamara is out for the first 3.
Kendre Miller had a meniscus injury in his knee. If he is not fully healed and ready to go for the start of the season then the Saints would just have Jamaal Williams as the lone RB as of now. They cannot start the regular season with one RB. Adding someone such as Hunt may be something the Saints have to do rather than want to do.
Just an idea, have to wait and see what happens.
I agree with you there, but that still assumes that Kamara is the starter, at least for the longer term. It would be odd to me to sign Hunt for three games, for the reason that his snaps would line up with those of Williams. It seems that one would push the other out-Miller will be fine as the third back, given his rookie status, but it would be difficult to move either Hunt or Williams to the third spot. In my view, Hunt is the superior athlete, but his signing would make the Williams signing look like it was ill thought out.