Two weeks from Thursday the 100th regular season of the National Football League will begin. The New Orleans Saints are currently midway through the preseason warm-up, splitting the first two games. During Week 1 New Orleans lost a tilt against the Minnesota Vikings 34-25 but would rebound in Week 2 with a come from behind 19-17 victory against the Los Angeles Chargers.

As the final two weeks of the preseason and training camp unfold, the Saints will be tasked with trimming the roster down to 53 players before 4 PM EST on August 31st. There are currently 90 players on the Saints roster, so navigating their way to the final might prove to be a challenge.

With all of this in mind, based on performances and notes from OTAs to now, I present my prediction for the New Orleans Saints final roster. Starters are identified in bold. This proved to be extremely difficult as certain positions on the roster are incredibly deep with young and promising talent, specifically the defensive and offensive lines, running back, and wide receiver.

Determining the defense proved to be more comfortable than the offense as the defense returned a good amount of starters and depth. The offense has been retooled to a degree. The addition of Jared Cook shakes up the tight end group. RB Mark Ingram is gone, and the room looks very different from just a season ago. Michael Thomas is the number one WR, but who will help carry some of the burdens on offense? Center Max Unger retired last year, what does that mean for the upcoming offensive line?

Instead of getting caught up in the unknown, let’s look it over and see how the roster turned out starting with the defense: