Saints Trade Kicker Wil Lutz To Broncos For 7th Round Pick, Keep Rookie Blake Grupe

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The New Orleans Saints are going with the kid.

The Saints traded veteran kicker Wil Lutz to Denver on Tuesday for a seventh round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and will keep rookie kicker Blake Grupe. The NFL Network reported the story first.

Grupe is staying put because he beat Lutz out for the job, not because he is a cheaper keep. Denver cut veteran kicker Brett Maher to make room for Lutz.

Blake Grupe Beat Out Wil Lutz For Job

Lutz, 29, had been with the Saints since the 2016 season. He missed all of 2021 with a core muscle injury that required multiple surgeries. Lutz returned in 2022, but suffered through his worst season as a pro, making just 74 percent of his field goal attempts (23 of 31). He had a strong preseason this year, but Grupe was a tad better.

Denver coach Sean Payton will be reunited with Lutz, who signed with the Saints and Payton in 2016. Payton left the Saints after the 2020 season and became Denver's head coach following the 2022 season.

Grupe made five straight field goals during the 2023 preseason, including a 31-yarder as time expired for a 26-24 win over Kansas City on Aug. 13. He made a 50-yard field goal in a loss to Houston on Sunday night before just missing a 60-yard boot.

BLAKE GRUPE ASKED TO SHOW CREDENTIALS TO DOME SECURITY

Lutz made 84 percent of his field goals with the Saints from 2016 through 2022 (165 of 195).

CLEVELAND, OHIO - DECEMBER 24: Wil Lutz #3 of the New Orleans Saints kicks a field goal during the first half in the game against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on December 24, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images)

Payton coached the Saints from 2006 through 2020 (suspended in 2012 for Bounty Gate role) and won Super Bowl XLIV in the 2009-10 season. He previously traded with the Saints for tight end Adam Trautman during the last NFL Draft. Payton also hired former Saints offensive tackle Zach Strief as an assistant coach after Strief was a Saints' assistant coach. Payton drafted Trautman and Strief.

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Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.