Cole Wick becomes first Saints player to opt out of 2020 season

It was only a matter of time before we got a Saints player that would opt out of the 2020 season.

John Hendrix | Jul 28, 2020

Cole Wick has become the first New Orleans Saints player to opt out of the 2020 season, a source confirmed on Tuesday. The news was first reported by NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. The reasoning is due to an asthma condition. Wick, a 2016 undrafted free agent, joined the Saints practice squad in late December of last year, and was retained on a reserve/future contract in early January.

A lot of players are starting to come forward and have elected to opt out of the league year for various reasons, but none have been hit harder than the New England Patriots, who have six players who won't be available in 2020. Here's a running list of who has decided to opt out of the season thus far, which has some very high-profile names attached to it.

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Chiefs
De'Anthony Thomas, Ravens
Marcus Cannon, Patriots
Dont'a Hightower, Patriots
Eddie Goldman, Bears
Brandon Bolden, Patriots
Danny Vitale, Patriots
Chance Warmack, Seahawks
Maurice Canady, Cowboys
Najee Toran, Patriots
Andre Smith, Ravens
Eddie Vanderdoes, Texans
Caleb Brantley, Washington
Stephen Guidry, Cowboys
Kyle Peko, Broncos
Cole Wick, Saints
Anthony McKinney, Titans
Patrick Chung, Patriots
Star Lotulelei, Bills

The Saints are pretty stacked at the tight end position with Jared Cook, Josh Hill, and rookie Adam Trautman. There's also the possibility of using Taysom Hill. Wick probably wasn't going to make the final roster, but could have been a target to stay on the practice squad. Unfortunately, a limited training camp and lack of preseason probably doesn't help things for players like Wick.

Wick will likely not be the last player the Saints will be without going into training camp. The team recently got all four of their draft picks under contract on Monday. Unfortunately, we still have way more questions rather than answers in the sports world with the COVID-19 threat.

Published Jul 28, 2020

JOHN HENDRIX

I officially started covering the New Orleans Saints & other NFL topics in 2011. My work has been featured on various outlets over the years. I worked closely with Skyhorse Publishing in Fall 2018 to update the book, Tales From the New Orleans Saints Sidelines, which filled in all Saints material from the 2013-2017 seasons. Prior to joining Saints News Network, I served as the Managing Editor of SB Nation's Canal Street Chronicles for 3.5 years, and before that with FanSided's Who Dat Dish as the Managing Editor for several years. I have also had experiences of being a freelance Saints reporter for The Sun Herald in Biloxi, MS and a contributing writer for WDSU, a local NBC TV station in New Orleans. I have appeared on a vast amount of TV and Radio shows, both nationally and locally. For tips, comments, or suggestions, please contact me at johnhendrix@saintsnews.net