It didn’t take long for my last New Orleans Saints roster projection to go up in smoke. Patrick Robinson was penciled in a starting cornerback. Jalen McCleskey was my fifth wide receiver. A couple of days later Robinson chose to retire and McCleskey landed on injured reserve, likely to be released with an injury settlement. If nothing else, that shows how premature these predictions can be. But it’s still a fun thought exercise.

Update: This aged poorly with lightning speed. The Saints waived Brett Maher with an injury designation on Monday’s update to the daily NFL transactions wire, so right now they don’t have any healthy kickers while Wil Lutz continues to recover from core muscle surgery. So keep that in mind when reviewing the roster.

So here’s an update after the Saints’ first preseason game with the Baltimore Ravens. Some of these decisions are going to be very, very difficult. Others won’t take so much deliberation — winnowing the wide receivers down was easier than it should be. But it was tough to figure out the fourth safety and fifth defensive tackle, and the ninth offensive lineman. Choosing the fifth linebacker was dicey, too. I won’t be shocked at all if this projection gets torched in a few weeks. There’s real competition all around the roster.

And I’ll be the first to admit that some decisions are a little reactionary in the wake of the Ravens game. Right now, Latavius Murray and Devonta Freeman have to show me they’re worth keeping around. Freeman just looks gassed. If I’m picking between Murray and Tony Jones Jr., I’m going with the move that saves $3.1 million against the cap I can put towards re-signing Marcus Williams or Terron Armstead next year.

There are some familiar names that have missed time with injuries (P.J. Williams and Tommylee Lewis in particular) who probably make the cut if they’re healthy. That speaks more to the relative weaknesses in the receiving corps and the impressive rookies in the secondary, but there’s few better qualities than availability. They need to get on the field if they’re making the team.

Remember, four players are not expected to be available for the regular season opener. Michael Thomas and Wil Lutz are recovering from injuries, while David Onyemata has been suspended for six games and Deonte Harris is anticipated to miss two games with a suspension. They were all omitted here because of those reasons.

If you’re looking for deeper analysis and the reasoning behind every decision I made in this exercise, check out the longer writeup here. That’s enough chatter: check out my latest Saints 53-man roster projection below, and be prepared to tell me how wrong I am in a week or two.