The Saints' 53-man cutdown got messy fast. Nick Underhill broke the Bub Means news first, then the names kept coming in waves Saturday night — a receiver here, a tight end there, a defensive back with an injury designation tacked on. By the time Adam Schefter and Aaron Wilson had both confirmed the full list, New Orleans had waived 10 players in one stretch: Ronnie Bell, Elliott Davison, Hunter Dekkers, Bub Means, Zaire Mitchell-Paden, Garrett Nelson, Kahlil Saunders, Brien Taylor, Xavier Truss and Malakai Williams.
The Saints waived WR Bub Means, according to a source.
Means is the one to watch. New Orleans took him in the 5th round back in 2024, and per Fox 8, he'd actually built some real chemistry with backup QB Zach Wilson through camp this summer. That wasn't enough to survive a crowded receiver room, but talent evaluators around the league clearly still like him — Underhill flagged him as a legit candidate to get scooped up off waivers before he ever sees the Saints' practice squad.
Bub is a legitimate candidate to get claimed/sign with another team.
The math behind it is straightforward roster-building math: whichever team claims Means takes on his $1.08 million base salary for 2026, and the Saints pocket that cap space in return. It's the kind of low-cost swing plenty of receiver-needy teams make every Labor Day weekend, especially for a former Day 3 pick who was already flashing in practice.
Dalys Beanum's cut carried a different flavor entirely — Underhill specified the DB was waived with an injury designation, which functionally routes him to injured reserve rather than the open market. That's a notably different outcome than a straight roster cut, even though both show up on the same afternoon's transaction wire.
Saints waived DB Dalys Beanum with an injury designation, per source
The rest of the group is standard camp-body attrition. Saunders was a recent add to the D-line rotation, Dekkers is a practice-squad quarterback who could easily land right back there, and names like Nelson, Truss, Taylor, Williams, Bell and Mitchell-Paden round out a roster that simply had too many bodies and not enough spots. None of it is dramatic on its own — it's the volume, all landing within the same hour, that made it feel like news.
What matters next is the waiver wire itself. Every other team is running this exact exercise right now, which means Means and whoever else clears through New Orleans' cuts could be wearing a different jersey by Monday. Keep an eye on the claims list — that's where this story actually finishes.