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That's hardhotwhiskies.com. On today's episode of Saints Happy Hour Podcast, me and Kevin are going to do some free agent shopping in the bargain bin, but first, we're going to get really, really excited about the Saints' new fat punter. Thomas, hit that intro. Welcome to Saints Happy Hour Podcast.
Yeah, we're the podcast that wins awards. Go. Oh my God. You look like Ash from the end of Aliens.
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All right. So today we're going to do a couple of things on the show. Me and Kevin are going to do some bargain shopping in free agency. We're going to pick two bargains.
It's not free agency. It's a week over. And oh, it's been picked through. You know, it's like Black Friday, you know, the door busters.
Everybody's cleaned out all the aisles. But we're going to go through and we're going to find some discounts and bargains. We're going to get a couple of players for the Saints. But first, I thought there was nobody as excited about the Saints signed Ryan Wright as the two-lane punter.
He's fat and he's awesome. I thought nobody was as excited about it as me. But you are. And we need to talk about it.
But mainly, just put a picture of him up on the screen and describe what he looks like back and forth. Like, looks like a segment. I want to say, Ryan Wright, he looks like a guy every Mardi Gras day. He's like pounding king cake.
And he says, diet starts after Mardi Gras. But it never does. Ryan Wright looks like a little league coach who changes the lineup every week to try and get the perfect lineup. And it's a 12-game season.
Ryan Wright looks like your coworker that every time you see him in the break room wants to corner you and talk to you about the 50-pound brisket he smoked over the weekend. Ryan Wright looks like the kind of guy who has laid down in the middle of the street on a dare in order to win a fifth of very cheap liquor that he can simply go and buy for $10 on his own. But he doesn't like the challenge. Ryan Wright looks like a guy who can go into a dive bar and his picture's on the wall.
And he says, my picture's on the wall because I drank 37 Natty Lights in 90 minutes. Ryan Wright looks like the kind of guy who, when he walks into the plumbing and fixture store, the owner looks at him and goes, what will it be, Ryan? On that note, we'll end. I just got to say, Kevin, this free agent group, when you talk about it, you got Ryan Wright, two-lane guy, fat owner.
That's super fun. Travis A-chan, got to get his name right. He told the media, Jacksonville, Clemson, they couldn't get his name right, so he's home in Louisiana. And he's Travis A-chan.
He, I don't think, like, as far as, like, a Saints player that has signed for, like, big money, I can't remember a big money Saints player ever being this excited about signing with the Saints. Like, yes, he didn't take a discount to come home, but whatever. Like, to me, Kevin, he's living the dream. He gets to play for his hometown team that he was a fan of as a kid, and he got his money.
So, like, he's living the dream. Edwards, good. He's, like, a good family guy. He's, like, got three kids or, like, just had a fourth.
Like, he looks like a good family guy, captain kind of player. Like, I just really like the class. The vibes are great, Kevin. The vibes are great.
Vibes are immaculate. Vibes are immaculate. Like, you know, we still got his picture up. I mean, he looks like a guy that jobbed to Arn Anderson in the old NWA weekend shows in about two and a half minutes before Arn proceeds to go cut promo on the Road Warriors.
Oh, he does. He really does. Like, he looks like he can cut. Ryan Wright looks like he can cut a promo, like a 1987-style promo like that.
Like, he doesn't even need to rehearse. He just says, Ryan, we need 45 seconds. And he's like, I got you. Yeah, he looks like one of those extra guys in the Jim Crockett tag team classic.
Like, you know they're going to get eliminated in round one, but he still gets up at the podium with, like, Dutch Mantell or something. And those two guys just happen to cut promo, be sweaty promo. And, yeah, and you're like, all right, yeah, these are two ass kickers. This guy's not somebody I would want to mess with out in public.
But, you know, they're going to go get matched up against, like, the Midnight Express, and they'll get beat in eight and a half minutes. It won't be that big a deal because they'll get a huge payout because they ran it at the Superdome, and it was a big-time sellout. Yeah. All right.
So the other thing we wanted to do this podcast was free agency's done, and we wanted to, you know, find some bargains, you know. And the Saints, they haven't said it, but, like, everything I have read in, like, my sources, whether you think they're good or bad or whatever, I said, hey, the Saints are kind of done with, like, a major move. The rest of the time, it's just depth, bargain hunting, that sort of thing. So we were kind of like, hey, let's pick out a couple of bargains.
So I got my first one, Kevin. And sticking with the local theme, my free agent choices for the bargain men, source local, buy local. So Darnell Mooney, former Atlanta Falcon, former Tulane Green Wave wide receiver, I think the Saints could get him for cheap. He's not big, and he's kind of a one-trick.
He's kind of a deep right one-trick pony, but I think, like, you need to add a little something to the room. And if you can't get a ball winner like John Jennings because he costs too much, you can't get a guy with size like a Keenan Allen because they cost too much, right? Mooney could be a fun, local Tulane guy. I could get Dave more excited.
And I think, like, if you add him to his room, he's got the Saints wide receiver. I think he's got a chance to make the team. So I like that. I like that signing.
He was my first bargain bin signing. Okay. Well, you went wide receiver. I think I'm still going to go wide receiver.
Okay. And I'm going to say, yeah, I got to, you know, I'm going to bite the big weight. Wait, did I just scroll past him? Yeah, I did.
I scrolled past him. Sorry. Debo Samuel. That's a good one.
Look, he's somebody that will come in and be an immediate contributor. He's handled kickoffs. So not a bad guy to work in on that front. Like, there's added value there.
He immediately becomes a guy that fights to be the number three. Again, I still think that the Saints' best bet is rolling with Olave. Olave, if you find a real good guy that, if you find a real good guy in the draft, then you look at, say, Debo Samuel, Vele, Polk, and then take your pick on the sixth guy. But I like Samuel, and he really feels like, to me, Kevin, a, I know he doesn't play the same position, but it could be like the same situation as Honey Badger, where when the Saints signed Honey Badger, they did it like the night, like Adam Shepard announced it like the Sunday night, like after the draft was done, because the Saints, they wanted brisker, they wanted another safety, and they couldn't get it.
I could see the Saints maybe being like, I know the wide receivers are deep, but they could be a situation where maybe they don't get one of the premium ones they want in the third or fourth round, and they just draft a guy in the sixth round. They're like, listen, we got to add something else at receiver after the draft, because it didn't fall like we wanted it to fall. I see Debo Samuel being that kind of signing. So I like it.
And like, I am not comfortable at receiver, and I'm not comfortable at another position we're going to talk about. And that's why I'm bargain hunting still. Yeah, and let me know when you want to move on to the next one. We'll go to the next one.
You go first on the next one. Okay. So the Saints are going to need cornerback help, and I like the cut of this one guy's jib. Okay.
He's got nine years. He's got nine years of wear on the tread. Yeah. And actually, he's got more than nine years.
What am I looking at? I mean, he's got 11 years. He's got 11 years on the tread. What am I looking at?
Why is this not? Sorry. Anyway, I'm looking at Rasul Douglas. Yeah.
The knock on him was in 2024. He had a bad year. I'm looking at it right now. Like, no picks.
Only one forced fumble. Like, only five passes deflected or defended. But he had a better year last year. Or he had a bounce back season last year with the Dolphins and got two picks.
He has 21 career picks. I don't know. I think he could at least bring this guy in on a one-year deal or something and maybe just see if... The thing with him that's really interesting is the last, like, three, four years, he hasn't been able to get a long-term deal.
Because every team is, like, he's old. And cornerbacks, when they get old, they fall off a cliff. We're not paying you for more than one year because you're going to fall off a cliff any minute now. And he's been like that for, like, the last three years.
And he never does. So, like, I like this pick at corner. Because, one, you would only be no risk, right? If he falls off.
If the wheels come off, you're just like, well, the wheels came off. We've got to do something in 2027. So, I like it because it's really low risk in his bargain bin. And, Kevin, I look at corner and, listen, Alante Taylor, I would not have paid him $20 million a year.
So, I get why the Saints moved on. But you still have a gaping hole at corner. And, like, Alante Taylor, yes, he was up and down as a player. But he did give the Saints, like, vibes and energy on defense.
You know? Like, he'd make big plays. He was making tackles and being excited. And I worry that, like, you've got to have a couple of lunatics on defense.
Because, you know, offense is about scheme and running routes and blocking and being beautiful. And you run the play action. And he ran the corner. And Tyler Schock hit him.
And it was so pretty. And all that. But defense is about just destroying people. You've got to have a couple of lunatics to bring that energy to your defense.
And, like, I think with Demario Davis and Alante Taylor, like, that's gone. And maybe Stutzman and maybe Kool-Aid and maybe, you know, bring in another guy. Maybe the new guys step up and they give you that energy. But, like, it's a concern.
And that's, like, not, it's not, like, to me, it's not a scheme thing. It's not, you know, a strategy thing. It's, like, me, it's not a thing. It's vibes.
And I worry about the vibes on defense. Yeah. All right. So, mine.
You did a corner. And I'm doing a corner, which makes it less fun for this. But I said you've got to source local, buy local. I got a guy.
Now, listen. I know the Saints have a history, Kevin. When they sign free agents named Jarius, it's gone poorly. We can agree there.
Yeah. LeJarius Sneed from the Titans just got cut. And, yes, he may go back to Kansas City. But if the Saints got LeJarius Sneed, they could move him to outside.
And then inside corner, you could have Kool-Aid slide into the Alante Taylor role. Or you could, you know, that would give you options. And Sneed, like, let's be real. Let's be real.
Like, Tennessee just might be a black hole of sadness that the only way you get better is to escape. You know, everybody said, oh, they got Cam Warden, they did a bunch of fun stuff in free agency. But they're on, like, coach four in five years or whatever. And their owner is a crackpot.
Like, it just could be. Like, you know, there's certain teams, like Cleveland and the Raiders. Like, you've got to escape. And once you escape from them, you're back to being okay.
So LeJarius Sneed was my second one. Just because I'm, you know, the other name that I thought of is, like, how concerned are you about, assuming Cam Jordan doesn't come back, how concerned are you about edge? And are you comfortable solving edge in the draft? I'm comfortable with taking a swing in the draft.
Because, I mean, look, I don't want – honestly, a guy I would have looked at, Al-Kadeem Muhammad, he just signed with the Bucs. Yeah. And a guy whose name I cannot pronounce. And BK, I think his name, maybe.
And he signed with – he was with Atlanta. He signed with the Eagles. But it was, like, for $8 million. So he has a little more pricey than the bargain bin.
Right. I would not want Joey Bosa due to injury history and, you know, fives. Bradley Chubb. I like it when we're both – he signed with Buffalo.
Right. You're looking at – like, that leaves – I believe Jadayvion Clowney is still out there. Become a patient at my white whale. Happy Hour.
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