The NFL Players Association released its annual Rising Stars list on Tuesday and the first overall pick of this year’s draft is one of the players at the top.
Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza is No. 1 on the list of the 10 rookies that the NFLPA projects to be future members of the Top 50 list of licensed player product sales. There is also a list of 10 players with NFL experience who have not been on the Top 50 and it is topped by Saints quarterback Tyler Shough.
Mendoza is followed on the list by Cowboys safety Caleb Downs, Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, Titans wide receiver Carnell Tate, Eagles wide receiver Makai Lemon, Commanders linebacker Sonny Styles, Saints wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, Giants linebacker Arvell Reese, Ravens wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane, and Buccaneers edge rusher Rueben Bain.
The list of veteran players also includes Bears tight end Colston Loveland, Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker, Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Cardinals tight end Trey McBride, Dolphins running back De’Von Achane, Bills running back James Cook, and Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
Saints Clips
On Wednesday, news emerged that running back Alvin Kamara had agreed to a new deal to stick with the Saints.
Now there are more reported details of the contract.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Kamara will earn $6 million in base salary for 2026 with the opportunity to earn up to $8.5 million with incentives.
Kamara’s previous contract had him slated to count $10.45 million against the salary cap in 2026.
Kamara, 30, has spent his entire career with New Orleans since the club selected him in the third round of the 2017 draft.
Last season, Kamara totaled 657 yards from scrimmage, finishing 2025 with 471 yards rushing with one touchdown along with 33 receptions for 186 yards.
The Saints added Travis Etienne at running back in free agency this offseason, which could diminish Kamara’s role in the offense. But the veteran is now set to begin his 10th season with New Orleans on a new deal.
Tyler Shough is the Saints’ unquestioned starter heading into 2026. The quarterback, in only his second season, is also the team’s leader.
Shough organized an outing with teammates in San Diego.
He has said Drew Brees helped set up the outing, and Shough’s social media photos and video on Wednesday show the Hall of Fame quarterback.
Shough’s teammates Juwan Johnson, Chris Olave, Travis Etienne, Bryce Lance, Barion Brown, Audric Estime and Noah Fant are among those in Shough’s post, per Katherine Terrell of ESPN.
In his rookie season, the second-round pick went 5-4 as a starter and completed 67.6 percent of his passes for 2,384 yards with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Alvin Kamara is staying in New Orleans another season.
The Saints are finalizing a new deal with the running back, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports.
The Saints tweaked Kamara’s contract earlier this offseason, creating speculation about his future with the team after New Orleans signed Travis Etienne. Kamara was scheduled to count $10.45 million against the salary cap in 2026.
The Saints drafted Kamara in 2017, and he has earned five Pro Bowls in his nine seasons.
He played 11 games in 2025, with 131 carries for a career-low 471 yards and a career-low one touchdown.
If former Raiders and Saints quarterback Derek Carr wants to play again, there are teams interested in his services. But so far, he hasn’t heard an offer intriguing enough for him to accept.
Carr said on NFL Network today that teams have contacted him about potentially coming out of retirement, and he isn’t ruling it out. Carr did not name those teams, but if they didn’t get permission from the Saints first, they were violating the NFL’s tampering rules. Carr was still under contract with the Saints when he retired, and other teams can’t contact him without the Saints’ permission. The Saints would also likely want trade compensation from any team that wanted Carr.
“I never say never,” Carr said. “It would take a special situation. There were multiple teams that reached out to me this offseason. I won’t say who or how, but they reached out and were gauging my interest on what I wanted to do. They were good, solid football teams.”
Carr said he will only return if a Super Bowl contender needs him.
“I’m just at the point where I just want to win. I want to win. So if I were to do it, it would have to be a special team that maybe lost somebody or needed somebody, but even then, it’s not guaranteed,” Carr said. “I’m having too much fun hanging out with my wife, hanging out with my kids, and trying to get good at golf. So it would take a special deal.”
When Carr announced his retirement last year, he and the Saints both said his injured shoulder would have hampered his ability to keep playing. But Carr now says that if the right team calls at the right time, he’ll be in shape and ready to play — even if he doesn’t anticipate that happening.
“I’m always training,” Carr said. “I’ll be in shape and ready, but probably not. I’ll probably be just coaching my kids.”
The 35-year-old Carr was drafted by the Raiders in 2014, played nine seasons with them, and then played his final two seasons with the Saints in 2023 and 2024. Now, after a year out of football, he’s not ruling out playing for a third team.
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough got a new target in the first round of this year’s draft when the team took wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, but there was a sense of familiarity once Shough and Tyson began to work together this spring.
During an appearance on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast, Shough told the former NFL defensive end that Tyson is like “a carbon copy” of another Saints wideout. Shough said that Chris Olave is the “perfect combination” of speed and finesse and that Tyson shares “that feel with these underneath routes and big playability” with his more experienced teammate.
Shough’s expanded thoughts about what Tyson brings to the offense drove home his confidence in the rookie’s ceiling.
“His brother’s an NBA player for the Cavs, Jaylen,” Shough said. “He’s kind of just like an elite hooper. Like he’s just going to go; he’s going to hoop regardless. Like he’s going to go jump out the gym on somebody. He’s going to get open in the most crazy way, but he’s also kind of got this grittiness to him that I feel like not a lot of people give him credit for.”
One other thing that Tyson and Olave have in common is that they have both missed chunks of time with injuries over the course of their careers. Avoiding reprises of those absences will be key to making sure that their partnership with Slough blossoms to its full potential.
The Saints will kick off training camp on July 29 and their first open practice of the summer will be held the next day.
It will be the first of nine sessions that will be open to members of the general public. They will also hold open workouts on July 31, August 2-3, August 5, August 8-9, August 13 and August 29.
The August 13 practice will be a joint session with the Jaguars. The team will also practice with the Cowboys and Rams during a five-day trip to Los Angeles ahead of a preseason game against the Rams.
All of the practices will take place at the Saints’ facility except for the August 29 workout. That will be held at Tulane’s Yulman Stadium.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
Saints center Erik McCoy has missed more games than he’s played over the last two seasons.
McCoy missed 10 games in 2024 with elbow and groin injuries before missing another 10 last season with a torn biceps. That’s left a hole at a key spot on the New Orleans line too often, but McCoy does not believe that there’s much he can do beyond hoping for better fortune in 2026.
McCoy said he’ll do anything he can to lessen injury risk, but that “the play where I tore my bicep was something I’ve done a million times” to illustrate that injuries in the NFL come down to the “luck of the draw” more than anything else. Given that feeling, McCoy said he won’t alter his playing style in hopes of being on the field more often.
“There’s always going to be an awareness, but you can’t play with an awareness, you know what I mean?” McCoy said, via Luke Johnson of NOLA.com. “It’s kind of just got to be reckless abandon, and whatever happens happens. I’m going to keep that same mentality. I don’t want to be a guy that plays timid, that plays soft, that plays afraid to get hurt. If I play like that, I should quit football.”
McCoy went to the Pro Bowl after starting all 17 games in 2023. The Saints would welcome a reprise on both fronts in 2026.
It took some time, but defensive end Cam Jordan and the Saints agreed on a contract that will keep the veteran in New Orleans for a 16th season.
Jordan said that will also be his final year in the NFL, but he’s not just back for a retirement tour. During an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, safety Justin Reid called Jordan one of the first people that comes to mind when you think of the Saints and that his presence is significant to what the team is trying to build in 2026.
“Huge for the culture of the team, hard worker, still productive going into Year 15-16, whatever it is,” Reid said. “I think that aside from his production on the field, which he still has a healthy engine running, I think that he’s so good for the defensive line and the defense in general just by bringing that veteran leadership, that consistency. Having a Hall of Fame guy in the locker room that guys can bounce questions off of, they know what it looks like. ‘Hey, if I want to play this long, it looks like Cam Jordan. Do what he does.’”
Jordan had 10.5 sacks last season, so there’s a number of ways that he can benefit the Saints in a swan song that could include his first trip to the playoffs since 2020.
