The Saints got Marcus! Not Marcus Williams though, but instead Marcus Maye. After the former Saints safety Marcus Williams signed a 5 year, $70M deal with the Ravens the Saints signed the best safety on the market to fill in for his role: Marcus Maye.
The Saints signed Maye to a 3 year, $28.5M deal with $15M guaranteed. Maye was voted team captain and team MVP in 2020 and brings more than a consistent play style, but a leader and great locker room presence.
The two players have similar play styles. Both primarily play free safety, which for those who don’t know means they play back deep. As opposed to guys like Tyrann Mathieu or Malcolm Jenkins who play in the box and elsewhere.
Prior to the Saints losing Marcus Williams I mentioned that the Saints always have a plan at safety. They set a price for the player and if it doesn’t work out they go onto plan B.
In 2014 the Saints lost Malcolm Jenkins and signed Jarius Byrd (which was a good signing at the time), when Jarius Byrd left the Saints drafted Marcus Williams, when Vonn Bell left the Saints signed Malcolm Jenkins, and now here we are. The Saints now have Marcus Maye on the team.
I’ve been saying for a few weeks that Marcus Maye is the best replacement for Marcus Williams. You get a player with quite a bit of less range than Williams but a better tackler and run stuffer. You can play Maye anywhere on the field, you couldn’t really do that with Marcus Williams. Then again why would you when he has the range that he has.
With the signing of Marcus Maye, I would expect the Saints to play a lot more cover two man than the cover one that they are known for running. They’ll still stick to their bread and butter of man with single high and two deep safeties, just less cover one. With Maye’s productivity to play back deep or in the box, we could see a nice rotation at safety if the Saints plan to bring back free agent safety P.J. Williams.
Maye for four of his five seasons was the deep safety and roamed the deep end of the field, but this past season Robert Saleh had him transition into a player who plays inside the box.
It wasn’t the best fit. And yet Maye still had decent production from the box.
The blueprints the Saints have for Maye is most definitely to play back deep as the free safety with the capability to play inside the box. While Maye doesn’t have the range that Marcus Williams does he still is a ridiculously good safety.
Maye never had the corners that Marcus Williams had and still played at a high level. He no longer has to worry about everyone getting beat as the Saints have deep depth and skill at corner.
The thing with Maye though is that he plays more aggressive than Marcus Williams. He may miss some tackles or misread an offensive look based on initial reaction. In other cases though that’s the player that makes big plays, and it’s something Marcus Williams never struggled with.
Think about it like Kwon Alexander, if he messes up he will mess up going 150 miles per hour. But if it works out it’s an impactful play, and Marcus Maye is an impactful player.
He can be relied on to play essentially any coverage back deep and a lot of teams don’t have that reassurance. If Dennis Allen wants to run cover one he’s got it, cover two he’s got it.
If the Saints want to continue to have success back deep they need Maye to have the ability to direct traffic. This is a technique which can be taught by Kris Richard and Dennis Allen as they’ve been incorporating it into their system.
It will take time, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Saints blow some coverages early in the year. Maye is a reaction player, and directing traffic takes patience. But there’s a reason the Saints signed him. He is a smart player, a leader, and has the capability to adjust to a new scheme quickly.
The 29 year old safety is coming off an Achilles injury and is facing a DUI charge from February 2021. Which is why it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we see the Saints draft a safety in the fourth to fifth round.
The Saints possibly look at the draft as possible replacements in the near future. I would not rule it out in the slightest. Malcolm Jenkins isn’t getting any younger.
Safety is a position that the team just scouts well in both free agency and the draft. We saw this in 2015 the Saints drafted Vonn Bell to replace Kenny Vaccaro which ended up working out.
As we’ve seen just from the past eight seasons, the Saints have a blueprint for safety and essentially every position. I’m excited to have this guy on the team. A film session is currently in the works on his game, so stay tuned for that.
Written by Kadin Janisch
Related articles here
