4. Trey Hendrickson
The odds of the New Orleans Saints keeping Hendrickson may be shrinking by the day. Â The Saints are in a very tight cap situation. They’re going to have to make some tough choices this offseason, one of which could be letting Hendrickson walk.
Hendrickson is coming off a monster breakout season in which he tallied 13.5 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, and 25 hits. He led all pending free agents in sacks and was second in the entire league in 2020. If the Saints let him walk and don’t franchise tag him his phone will be quite active in free agency. Hendrickson could potentially pull down a deal upwards of about $10 million a year if not more.
His only red flag could that he has had availability issues in every other season except the last one. Whether or not this year is an anomaly or sign for what’s in his future. Also, Gruden and Mayock have to decide if his 13.5-sack performance is one he can maintain.
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Leonard Williams would be a terrific pick up. Suh? No. The rest? I could go either way. Watt might be too spendy. He brings good pressure inside, which is a necessary fill for the Raiders. I would prefer that the Raiders focus on youth, and coaching that youth up correctly. Collins and Nassib sadly, were a waste of time and money. Especially since Marinelli was there. Was Guenther not scheming to them? I don’t know, but if we as Raiders/Raider Nation are ever going to get the collective monkey off our back, we must build a lasting and deep defensive rotation that is RESILIENT.
Here’s the problem the Raiders have every year with bringing in FAs – will the player coming in be productive and make everyone else around him better or is he only as good as the team around him? Raiders have to look at the defenses that these guys were playing on. In other words, can they change their environment or are they a product of it?
Ferrell is the three down defensive end on this team, not Crosby, who regularly got swallowed up by tackles on running downs (if he didn’t run himself right out of the play). I think Hendricksen, Okwara, or Williams would be great. Ngakoe has red flags all over the place with regards to three teams essentially showing him the door last season. Excuse the spelling on the names.