What the Foster Moreau signing means for the Saints

Foster Moreau, a native of New Orleans and alumni of LSU Football, has signed a three-year deal to return home and play for the New Orleans Saints this season.

Earlier this offseason, the Saints brought Moreau in for a workout and routine physical. During his physical, Saints doctors diagnosed him with Hodgkins Lymphoma, a type of cancer on the lymph nodes. Luckily, they were able to find it early and Moreau began treatment with hopes of returning to the football field soon.

Many believed it was possible for Moreau to return as soon as this season, but he probably wouldn’t be ready until midseason. Today, Moreau defied the odds and inked a three-year, $12 million deal with the Saints which includes eight million fully guaranteed with news that he has been cleared and will play this season.

There are a lot of reasons this move makes sense for both sides. For Moreau, he gets to return to New Orleans and play for his hometown team while reuniting with Derek Carr, his quarterback for four years in Las Vegas. For the Saints, they fill their biggest hole on their roster and get someone who will be a fan favorite the moment he touches down in New Orleans.

Moreau played his high school ball at Jesuit High School in New Orleans. He moved down the road to Baton Rouge for college to play ball at LSU. With Sean Payton at the helm, we didn’t see many LSU Tigers in the black and gold, but now Moreau becomes the third LSU Tiger to sign with the Saints since Payton retired two years ago, joining Jarvis Landry and Tyrann Mathieu who signed before the 2022 season.

During the draft, the Saints filled a lot of holes in their roster, but one glaring need remained to be filled. Tight end. Today, we got our answer as to why they didn’t select one in this years draft.

Moreau had a solid four years in Vegas - catching 91 passes for 1,107 yards and 12 touchdowns. He was tight end two on the roster behind Darren Waller, but now, he should see a large volume of targets alongside Juwan Johnson.

One thing Saints fans can look forward to with Moreau is his availability. He’s played in 61 of 66 possible games in his four seasons with the Raiders. Saints fans have dealt with a multitude of injuries over the past few seasons, so landing someone who can consistently give you 15+ games a season is huge.

Carr loves targeting his tight ends, with Waller and Moreau seeing a total of 530 targets in the four years since Moreau was drafted. The Saints traded Adam Trautman to move up in the draft and select A.T. Perry, adding some much needed depth to their wide receiver core. Now, the Saints added a better tight end to replace Trautman and continue to give Carr all the weapons he needs.

The Saints offense loaded, consisting of guys such as Michael Thomas, Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, Juwan Johnson, Foster Moreau, Taysom Hill, Alvin Kamara, Jamal Williams, Kendre Miller and Derek Carr. If the defense can pick up where they left off at the end of 2022, nobody will want to see the Saints on their schedule in 2023.

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