Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Gerald McCoy was suggested as a possible salary cap casualty by Jenna Laine of ESPN. As she notes, Tampa Bay can collect $13 million in salary cap space for the 2019 season by releasing McCoy from his contract. New Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians could justify the move with first-year defensive coordinator Todd Bowles introducing a new defensive scheme, as well as the down year McCoy experienced in 2018 (collecting just six sacks and 21 hits).

If they go that route, the New Orleans Saints should be the first team to contact McCoy about his free agency. Here’s why.

That ‘down year’ for McCoy would have ranked third on the Saints in sacks and tied with defensive end Cam Jordan for the team lead in tackles for loss. As great a year as breakout defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins experienced, McCoy arguably outplayed him.

And as far as Rankins goes, the fourth-year player is probably not going to start the 2019 season after suffering a torn Achilles tendon against the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round. There’s a clear role for McCoy in the Saints defense as Rankins recovers.

McCoy has played in the NFC South for a long time, and he’s developed a unique relationship with Saints quarterback Drew Brees. McCoy and Brees have met in the offseason to train together for eight years at Brees’ home in San Diego, nurturing a close friendship: “He’s like superhuman, the way he does it,” McCoy gushed about Brees. “When we are training and competing, he beats everybody. He beats Darren Sproles, he beats all these people. I’m serious, I’m trying to do all these drills with him and he’s like laughing because he makes it a point of his to make sure that, one, he beats me at every drill when we’re training, and (two), makes sure I do not sack him (in games). It pisses me off.”

So it’s clear that McCoy is a player who feels a position of need for the Saints while providing a veteran’s presence in the middle of their defensive line. He’s also someone well-known by the Saints’ franchise quarterback and probably familiar to the coaches, given their numerous matchups against him in the past. Even if McCoy is on the downslope of his career, he’s got enough left in the tank to help Brees and the Saints reach another Super Bowl.