{"id":214374,"date":"2025-02-03T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T19:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=214374"},"modified":"2025-02-02T19:39:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T00:39:05","slug":"saints-ravens-tyrann-mathieu-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/03\/saints-ravens-tyrann-mathieu-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints, Ravens Connected In Blockbuster Trade For All-Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens are at completely different stages in their quest for a Super Bowl, and the dismal shape of the Saints roster could lead to a Tyrann Mathieu trade. A former third-round pick, Mathieu excelled at cornerback and safety throughout his career, making three Pro Bowls and three First-Team All-Pro squads. While he isn&#8217;t the player he once was, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/23\/2025-nfl-draft-scouting-report-miles-frazier-lsu\/\" target=\"_self\">LSU product<\/a> is still a starting-caliber player who could find a new home in the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>At least, that&#8217;s what <a  href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/10152917-nfl-trade-ideas-that-can-reshape-the-league-in-2025\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gary Davenport of <em>Bleacher Report <\/em><\/a>believes. In a recent article, the NFL analyst wrote that the Saints could trade Tyrann Mathieu to the Baltimore Ravens for a fifth-round pick, as New Orleans embraces a new era while Baltimore loads up for another run at a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The Saints are years (plural) from being a contender. They need to get what they can for some players and get their salary off the books&#8230;The Ravens don&#8217;t have the cap space to chase huge names around, but they are in the middle of a Super Bowl window that may not stay open for much longer.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Saints, Ravens Could Agree to A Tyrann Mathieu Trade<\/h2>\n<h3>Why The Saints Could Do This<\/h3>\n<p>The New Orleans Saints must take a long, hard look in the mirror and accept the inevitable: they&#8217;re not good enough to compete for the playoffs. This has been the case for years now, but <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/16\/saints-gm-has-high-praise-derek-carr-potential-trade-candidate\/\" target=\"_self\">General Manager Mickey Loomis<\/a> refuses to embrace reality. Loomis and company have kicked the can down the road for the better part of a decade, continuously going all-in while mortgaging the future with endless heaps of dead money.<\/p>\n<p>This strategy made sense to maximize the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/29\/well-see-drew-brees-on-a-potential-return-to-the-saints\/\" target=\"_self\">final years of the Drew Brees Era<\/a>, but it makes no sense with Jameis Winston, Andy Dalton, and Derek Carr under center. Carr is a starting-caliber quarterback, but he can&#8217;t carry a flawed roster, and New Orleans doesn&#8217;t have the resources to address all the holes on this team.<\/p>\n<p>Tyrann Mathieu is entering the final year of his contract, so the Saints should trade him for whatever they can get. That hypothetical fifth-round pick is better than nothing, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballnetwork.com\/nfl-post-june-1-designation-what-why-and-how\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trading him after June 1st<\/a> will create $7.25 million in much-needed cap space.<\/p>\n<h3>Why the Ravens Could Do This<\/h3>\n<p>The Baltimore Ravens have one of the league&#8217;s top safeties in <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/02\/espn-ravens-kyle-hamilton-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">All-Pro Kyle Hamilton<\/a>. However, the other starting spot could use some help. Baltimore loves to run two-safety looks, but they didn&#8217;t have the personnel to do that last year. Ballhawk Geno Stone joined the Cincinnati Bengals, while veterans Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson had seasons to forget. Tyrann Mathieu would be a clear upgrade on both players, but one player could prevent a trade.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest wild card here is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2021\/08\/26\/baltimore-ravens-ardarius-washington-udfa-gem\/\" target=\"_self\">impending free agent Ar&#8217;Darius Washington<\/a>. After spending the first three seasons of his career as a backup, the former undrafted free agent emerged as one of the team&#8217;s most reliable defenders down the stretch. If Baltimore believes he can recapture his performance in 2025, they&#8217;ll probably re-sign him to start opposite Hamilton. However, if they think his production was nothing more than a small-sample fluke, then Baltimore could let him walk and trade for Tyrann Mathieu.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Stephen Lew &#8211; Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bleacher Report believes the New Orleans Saints could trade All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu to the Baltimore Ravens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":214378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,10],"tags":[7638,7659,445],"class_list":["post-214374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saints","category-ravens","tag-ravens-featured","tag-saints-featured","tag-tyrann-mathieu"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214427,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214374\/revisions\/214427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}