Jarvis Landry entered the 2022 NFL offseason with similar hopes to any other free agent: Sign a lucrative, long-term contract with a team in position to contend for a Super Bowl.
But as the offseason continued, no such offer landed. Landry's courtship with the Saints didn't appear to kick off until late in the process, but it ended with Landry choosing New Orleans as his home for the next season. The 1-year deal worth up to $6 million checks the title contender box, and who knows what comes after for the veteran looking to rebuild his free agency value from a season marred by injury and frustration.
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“Health-wise I’m in a better place," Landry said this week on SportsTalk with Bobby Hebert, Kristian Garic and Mike Detillier. "I think at the time in this season where I got hurt, literally the second game, the second play of the game. And then we were kind of struggling as a team, as an offense during my absence. The competitor in me trying to get my way back to the field, I probably came back way too early."
That fight back to the field resulted in 12 games played, 52 catches for 570 yards and 2 touchdowns -- all the lowest totals in Landry's 8-year career. In the end Landry decided to go the one-year contract route, a path that would've opened up interest from a host of contenders. But it was the Saints who inked the Louisiana native to a deal that brought home the second LSU legacy in a matter of weeks, following the signing of safety Tyrann Mathieu.
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It was another relatively recent Saints addition, however, that really helped swing the pendulum New Orleans' way, Landry said. That'd be Jameis Winston. The receiver met with the Saints' quarterback during his visit, and the pair spoke for nearly an hour on Winston's experiences since joining the team in 2020, the atmosphere and winning culture installed by Sean Payton, Drew Brees and others, and what they thought they could get done together.
Landry left, and all was quiet for multiple weeks. But the pair continued to text back and forth. The Saints were aggressive to add Ohio State WR Chris Olave at No. 11 in the draft, but Landry has no issue with crowded WR rooms. And the possibility of what the offense could do with Winston at the helm was too good a chance to pass up, both for football reasons and homecoming reasons.
"To be on the same team, to have the opportunity to do something special for the state of Louisiana," Landry said. "It really hit home with me throughout our conservations, and I was like ‘man, that’s a guy that I want to play for.’ "
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Winston, Landry and Michael Thomas will now get a chance to prove simultaneously that the injuries that made 2021 such a forgettable season were the anomaly.
"I told DA, I told Mickey," Landry said, "[Jameis] was one of the people that really sealed the deal for me through his leadership and our conversations.”