NFL agent rips Saints for keeping the wrong player at a key position: They ‘made a poor decision’

For most of the past seven seasons, Wil Lutz has been the kicker in New Orleans, but that won’t be the case this year after the veteran lost a training camp battle with rookie Blake Grupe. 

Actually, saying that Lutz “lost” the battle might be an overstatement, at least according to his agent, John Perla. According to Perla, the Saints made a major mistake by getting rid of Lutz, who was traded to the Broncos on Tuesday. 

“He didn’t lose his job,” Perla said, via Chris Tomasson of the Denver Gazette. “The Saints just made a poor decision. The better player is not the one who is left on the Saints’ roster, I’ll tell you that.”

The move was somewhat surprising, but not a total shock. Although Lutz was one of the most accurate kickers in the NFL through his first five seasons (2016-20), he struggled in 2022, which is likely why the Saints decided to bring in some competition. 

Lutz missed the entire 2021 season due to injury and when he finally returned last year, he only hit 74.2% of his field goals, which was the second-worst percentage in the league for any kicker who had at least 10 attempts. 

That being said, Grupe is an undrafted free agent who’s completely unproven. The 24-year-old kicked at both Arkansas State (2017-21) and Notre Dame (2022) during his college career. During his lone year with the Irish, Grupe hit just 14 of 19 field goals or 73.7%. 

During an interview on Monday, Lutz seemed pretty confident that he had outplayed Grupe during training camp. 

“I’m very confident in what I did throughout camp,” Lutz said, via WLOX. 

Although Lutz definitely didn’t sound too thrilled about losing his job in New Orleans, he did land on his feet. In Denver, Lutz will be reuniting with a coach who believes in him: Sean Payton. 

Lutz spent six years in New Orleans with Payton, so the two know each other well. Not to mention, Lutz now gets to kick in Denver, which is a kicker’s paradise due to the mile high air that makes it a little bit easier to add some distance to your kicks.