The Lions have added some defensive depth.
Detroit announced on Friday that the club has signed lineman Payton Turner.
Turner, 27, was with the Cowboys last season. But he missed the year after being placed on injured reserve in late August after suffering a rib injury.
A former first-round pick, Turner spent his first four seasons with New Orleans. His most productive year was in 2024, when he appeared in 16 games and recorded 21 total tackles with 2.0 sacks.
In his 31 career contests, Turner has tallied 5.0 sacks, 11 tackles for loss, and 11 quarterback hits.
Saints Clips
The Saints have re-signed veteran defensive end Chris Rumph, the team announced Thursday.
Rumph initially signed with the Saints in the 2025 offseason, following Brandon Staley after Staley became New Orleans’ defensive coordinator. The two were together with the Chargers from 2021-23.
Rumph played 30 percent of the Saints’ defensive snaps last season, with 330 snaps. He was a core special teams player, too, with 351 special teams snaps.
He totaled 47 tackles, two sacks, one forced fumble and one pass defensed in his first season with the Saints.
In five seasons, Rumph has registered 86 tackles, five sacks, two passes defensed, a forced fumble and 13 quarterback hits.
Saints defensive back Beanie Bishop is no lock to make the team’s regular-season roster, but whether he does or not, he won’t be able to play at the start of the season.
Bishop has been suspended for the first three games of the 2026 regular season, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. There was no word on the reason for the suspension.
Suspended players are permitted to go through the offseason program and training camp and play in the preseason as normal, but Bishop will not be eligible to play in the first three weeks of the regular season.
Bishop signed with the Steelers as an undrafted rookie in 2024 and was with them until he was released in November of 2025. He then signed with the Saints’ practice squad in December and signed a reserve/future contract with the Saints after the season.
The Saints are adding a running back.
According to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football, the team has signed Ty Chandler.
Chandler, 27, just completed his rookie contract with the Vikings. A fifth-round pick in the 2022 draft, Chandler missed most of the 2025 season due to a knee injury. He appeared in just three games, taking 17 carries for 4 yards and catching three passes for 11 yards.
In 40 career games with four starts, Chandler has tallied 710 rushing yards with three touchdowns plus 30 receptions for 212 yards.
Defensive end Cameron Jordan has played his entire career in New Orleans, but his home for the 2026 season remains up in the air a week into free agency.
Jordan is one of the top unsigned players in the league right now and he gave an update on where things stand during an appearance on former Saints teammate Terron Armstead’s The Set podcast. Jordan said he remains open to a 16th season with the Saints but has “a set value” for his services on his mind and knows that the team may have a different view of where things stand. If that remains the case, Jordan says he’s fine with moving on to another team to continue his career.
“You see guys my age re-sign with a team because that’s the only team they’ve ever been with, and you’re like, ‘Hell yeah, we love that,’ but that’s to his situation,” Jordan said. “That may not be to my situation. As football players, we can only control what we can control. As much as I be like ‘Hell yeah, I want them to love me as much as I love them.’ Sometimes the business side of that makes you feel emotional. You gotta be able to take your emotions out of it. Of course, I’d love to be in New Orleans. At the same time, if the cents doesn’t make sense, we gotta find our own path. I know what I want to do, what I want to accomplish. If that doesn’t line up, then that’s fine as well.”
Jordan said that he has monetary goals in mind, but also wants to be in a place that allows him to be as productive as he was while recording 10.5 sacks for the Saints last season. It remains to be seen if that will come together in New Orleans or if we’ll have to get used to seeing him in a different uniform for the first time in his career.
The first big wave of free agency has ended. The second wave has, too.
As the dollars settle on last week’s spending spree, plenty of big names are still on the board.
Receiver Stefon Diggs had a very good year in his first season back from a torn ACL, notching his seventh 1,000-yard season. The Patriots opted not to continue his contract, which added him to the group of available players. He remains on the market.
So does receiver Jauan Jennings, who landed at No. 23 on the PFT Top 100 list of free agents. He failed to parlay an unexpectedly productive 2024 into an extension with the 49ers. The fact that he didn’t sign quickly after free agency opened suggests that he wanted more than the market will bear.
Receiver Deebo Samuel, No. 29 on the PFT list, also waits for his next team. There was no land rush for a player whose lone Pro Bowl and All-Pro season is now five years in the rear-view mirror. He hit free agency for the first time. He remains available.
Other receivers who are free and clear include Tyreek Hill (who’s recovering from a serious knee injury), Christian Kirk, DeAndre Hopkins, and Keenan Allen.
As running backs go, the best options are gone. Veterans who are available include Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, Brian Robinson, A.J. Dillon, Raheem Mostert, Najee Harris, and Austin Ekeler.
Edge rusher Joey Bosa, who’s No. 35, was essentially replaced in Buffalo by Bradley Chubb. Bosa is waiting for his next stop; his mother apparently envisions the Bosa brothers teaming up in San Francisco.
Other big-name defenders remain. Future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner is unsigned. As is edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney, the first overall pick in the 2014 draft. Veteran defensive end Cameron Jordan is a free agent. Linebacker Lavonte David, a fixture in Tampa Bay since 2012, is unsigned, too.
Then there are the quarterbacks: Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Flacco, and Tyrod Taylor are the headliners. Currently, only the Cardinals and Steelers are presumably in the market for a QB1.
More signings will surely happen. But, for the most part, the big-money pipeline has sealed shut. The budgets have been busted. Quickly, the spending spree ends and the pre-draft process resumes.
New Saints running back Travis Etienne grew up near New Orleans, and he has said since signing with the team that he’s eager to win for his hometown. He says he’s on the same page with quarterback Tyler Shough about that.
Although Shough isn’t a New Orleans native like Etienne, Shough has quickly embraced New Orleans, and he and Etienne have already talked about their goals together.
“Tyler, he’s a great person, talking with him and being with him last night, you can sense the hunger, you can sense that he wants it for the city as well,” Etienne said.
Etienne said that seeing the way Shough improved over the course of his rookie season “definitely was a factor” in deciding to sign with the Saints, but he made clear that the primary factor was a return home. And the opportunity to bring a Lombardi Trophy to his hometown.
Last month, retired quarterback Derek Carr said he’d return to football for a chance to play with a Super Bowl contender.
As of Scouting Combine week, the Saints hadn’t heard from any team regarding a potential trade for Carr’s contract rights. Through the first week of free agency, we’re told, the Saints still haven’t gotten any inquiries.
In the interim, plenty of teams with needs at the quarterback position have filled them, from the Dolphins (Malik Willis) to the Jets (Geno Smith) to the Vikings (Kyler Murray) to the Falcons (Tua Tagovailoa).
With the Raiders presumably waiting to make Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, only two teams currently have a hole in the QB1 spot: the Steelers and the Cardinals.
The Cardinals, with all due respect, aren’t a Super Bowl contender. The Steelers arguably aren’t, either. In a wide-open AFC, they could be.
Carr becomes a potential option in Pittsburgh if Aaron Rodgers decides not to play for the Steelers again in 2026, and if they don’t land Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson in the first round of the draft. (Some in league circles think the Steelers will take him if he’s on the board when Pittsburgh makes the 21st overall pick.)
For now, there are no takers for Carr, if he were to unretire. Injuries could change that; if a starter on a contender suffers a serious injury before the trade deadline, Carr becomes a potential alternative to the next man up on the depth chart.
The Saints signed five players away from other teams in the first week of free agency, and head coach Kellen Moore says those players have something important in common: Character.
Moore said that when he looks at his five new players — linebacker Kaden Elliss, running back Travis Etienne, tight end Noah Fant, guard David Edwards and punter Ryan Wright — he sees players who have been team captains, have been respected leaders, and have been good people. Those are the kinds of players Moore wants to build around.
“I think if there’s a theme, a bunch of high-character guys, guys that we love in this locker room, that are going to be great teammates, great people in this community, and obviously we certainly recognize the ability for them to perform on the field. It’ll be a lot of fun,” Moore said.
After a rough start last season, the Saints showed something down the stretch, winning four of their last five. Moore thinks adding high-character veterans will help the team carry that momentum into 2026.
Running back Travis Etienne is back in his home state of Louisiana after signing with the Saints this week and he’d like to get back to the original pronunciation of his last name as well.
Etienne said at a Friday press conference that everyone been saying the name incorrectly throughout his NFL career. Etienne said that his last name was pronounced the same way as Dolphins running back De’Von Achane’s last name, but that the more familiar “E-T-N” pronunciation took hold when he was at Clemson.
Etienne said he tried to correct people, but “it kind of took off because it was easier for the announcers to say it.” Moving forward, though, he’d like to go back to what he was used to growing up.
“I’m very much open to being Travis [Achane] again, just being myself,” Etienne said, via Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com. “I don’t have to correct people here on how to say my name each and every day. And I kind of love that. Just getting back to me.”
If Etienne can provide a jolt to the Saints offense, they’ll likely call him anything he wants in New Orleans.
