2016 Saints Free Agents: Who Stays, Who Goes?

The Saints slog into 2016 with a 7-9 season finish, very possibly hopefully Sean Payton still at the helm and, perhaps unsurprisingly, a considerably overdrawn bank account. Despite a large projected jump to an estimated $153.4 million cap space in 2016 (up from 2015's $143.28), the Saints will still likely be around $1.8 million in the hole.

Thanks, Junior Galette. Thanks, Mickey Loomis. > $14 million in dead money sucks. 14 million dead anything sucks, honestly.

As Saints fans can attest, the team has much work to do in the offseason. Fixing ^mess of a cap up there and doing something about Brees' impossibly unwieldy $30 million cap hit are priorities, followed by (in no order) signing more Buffalo Bills in free agency, preparing for the NFL draft, and re-signing/releasing some of our own guys.

Here are the 25 Saints free agents this offseason, according to Spotrac.com.

Unrestricted Free Agents (17)

Defense

CB, Kyle Wilson, age 28

CB, Christopher Owens, age 29

DT, Kevin Williams, age 35

FS, Rafael Bush, age 28

OLB, Anthony Spencer, age 31

OLB, James Anderson, age 32

SS, Jamarca Sanford, age 30

Offense

G, Mike McGlynn, age 30

LT, Tony Hills, age 31

RB, Tim Hightower, age 29

RB, Kendall Hunter, age 27

RB, Travaris Cadet, age 26

QB, Luke McCown, age 34

QB, Matt Flynn, age 30

TE, Benjamin Watson, age 35

TE, Michael Hoomanawanui, age 27

Special Teams

K, Kai Forbath, age 28

Restricted Free Agents (6)

Offense

FB, Austin Johnson, age 26

G, Tim Lelito, age 26

G, Senio Kelemete, age 26

G, Ryan Seymour, age 25

RB, Khiry Robinson, age 26

TE, Josh Hill, age 25

Exclusive-Rights Free Agents (2)

Defense

DE, Lawrence Virgil, age 24

DT, Austin Brown, age 24

Likely Returns?

Fortunately, this list is hardly imposing in terms of quality impact guys.

Khiry Robinson, Tim Lelito, Rafael Bush, YOU CAN HAVE 2 OF ^THOSE TEs, Kyle Wilson, and Luke McCown are my best guesses to receive new contracts. Tim Hightower may have secured himself another chance to compete at camp this summer, and Kai Forbath seems pretty adequate for now.

The rest of these guys will participate in a round-robin Stratego competition with the victor earning an invite to camp.