Free Safety Decision- Should We? Jairus Byrd

Was thinking on how there might have been some passing comments to get Byrd but no one was pounding the table for that being THE free agent move that the team needed to make. What would the case have been for him to be a successful Should We? before Tuesday? Thought I'd give it a whirl-

Option A is to re-sign Malcolm Jenkins. I just can't get on board with paying him $4-5mil a year. Just like he was more of a 3rd Rd quality player his value going forward is about the same.

Option B is ride with Rafael Bush and maybe supplant with a lower tier vet or later round draft choice. I like a lot of what I've see from Bush but do not see him yet having every game starter skills. The non-draft pick tender reflects this IMO.

Option C is to get a guy in the draft. There's only one free safety type that is a projected day one starter- Clinton-Dix. It's a remote possibility that he would even be available at #27 at all. He's not an all world player worth moving up more than a few spots over either. Pryor is 1st Rd material but more of a hard hitting strong type safety. Ideally, a ballhawk would be the best fit with Vaccaro. So really no slam bang options in the draft.

Option D Sign a free agent better than Jenkins. Delmas is gone. Ward, Whitner, & Bethea are more of the box type safeties. That would leave two options. Chris Clemons may or may not be better than Jenkins and may cost more. Somewhat of a wash in positional strength IMO. That leaves one player- Jairus Byrd.

Can we afford him? He is expected to eclipse Goldson's 5yr/$42mil deal with TB. At first glance it might seem too much. Consider the implication though- Ryan vitally schemed with safeties. Teaming a Top 3 free safety with Vaccaro could vie for the best safety tandem in the NFL. The defense was ranked 5th but missed one important ingredient- more turnovers. The Saints ranked 24th with only 12 INTs. Seven teams had over 20 INTs. A key part of the defensive turnaround was sacks going from 30 to 49 sacks. If you insert a certified ballhawk like Byrd (22 INT & 11 FF in 67 games started) the D would go from Top rated statistically to true dominating type play (that you might associate more with SF, Sea, etc). Let's make the move! Loomis could give him a big signing bonus and reduce the first year cap hit under $4mil.

Sure, Brees is 35 and we are definitely all in. Still, this makes sense to see this team turn into a defensive power first and for years to come. We should!