Greetings from Orlando

Good morning, and welcome to the March 26 edition of the Saints Insider newsletter. The Saints brass are all gathered at the NFL's annual meeting in Orlando, and therefore so is intrepid beat writer Matthew Paras. 

One thing to note: Saints coach Dennis Allen is speaking today at 6:45 a.m. local time. Matt will be posting pertinent updates via his Twitter account, and will turn around some news from that meeting later in the day. Be on the lookout at nola.com

Sean Payton's long shadow

The AFC coaches were the first ones to take questions at the annual meeting, and that meant Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton held court. 

Look, it should come as no surprise that Payton raided the Saints for talent when he took another job. He stocked his coaching staff with a lot of his former colleagues and his roster with a lot of former players. So it's not a shock to see him doing the same with the front office. 

Payton lured away former Saints scout Cody Rager this offseason, and yesterday Payton spoke about why: He believes Rager was the Saints' "best evaluator" in terms of college scouting. 

Check out Matt's full report here.

Offseason surgery

Defensive end Cameron Jordan is coming off one of his least productive seasons in his career, and part of the reason behind that was a lingering ankle injury. 

Well, Jordan recently had an operation performed on the injury. 

The Saints could use a bounce-back performance from Jordan, who was limited to just 2 sacks last season. 

Why Winston landed in Cleveland

Earlier this offseason, Jameis Winston signed a free agent deal to join the Cleveland Browns. The move was at least somewhat interesting, for two reasons. One: Winston almost certainly won't compete for a starting job, and two: Joe Flacco was coming off an excellent finish to the season that earned him the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year award. 

Browns coach Kevin Stefanski offered an explanation for how his team ultimately landed on the former Saints starter in free agency. 

That's all we've got for now, y'all have a great day! 

Cheers, 

Luke Johnson