Tight End Shuffle For New Orleans Saints As They Sign Veteran After Juwan Johnson's Injury

Veteran tight end Jesper Horsted's contract details are now available.

Aug 28, 2021; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Chicago Bears tight end Jesper Horsted (87) celebrates with wide receiver Riley Ridley (88) and wide receiver Dazz Newsome (83) after his touchdown against the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports / Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports

It was far from surprising to see the New Orleans Saints add to their tight end room last week. Following the news that starting tight end Juwan Johnson would be heading into surgery for a lower leg injury, the team brought in veteran Jesper Horsted to help reinforce the position.

Tuesday, the contract details of the agreement were reported by KPRC-2 Houston's Aaron Wilson. Per Wilson, the deal is a veteran minimum contract that qualifies for the veteran salary benefit. Meaning that while his base salary will be $1.125 million, he will only count against the team's salary cap for $985,000.

The cap hit amount falls just outside of the top-51 salaries on the Saints' roster for now. That means the signing has no impact on their current cap space. During the offseason, only those 51 largest cap hits count against the cap until the rosters are trimmed to 53 following the preseason.

Wilson also reports that Horsted's deal includes an injury waiver. Such an addition to a contract typically means (thought here are nuances) that if a recent or substantial injury in a player's history were to recur or re-aggravate, then the team has the freedom to waive the player without owing guarantees.

Horsted ended the 2023 season on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, which may be what the injury waiver is protecting against.

Beyond such concern, the 6-foot-3, 237-pound Horsted's connections to the Saints are plentiful. He spent 2019-2021 with the Chicago Bears where he overlapped with both Saints tight ends coach Clancy Barone along with quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko. He also spent time with starting quarterback Derek Carr in 2022 with the Las Vegas Raiders. Additionally, he will now re-join Foster Moreau in the tight ends room, another former teammate with the Raiders.