Junior Galette is one of the only linebackers that could consistently rush the quarterback and stop the run when necessary.
The Saints have a gigantic hole in their defense and that does not bode well for the squad going into 2015. Galette was a team captain who signed a $41 million extension with the Saints a few months ago. He has had over ten sacks in the past 2 seasons and 31 in his career with the Saints. He was viewed by the locker room as a leader however that already sets off warning bells if everyone in that locker room is looking at Galette as an example for how to be a good teammate/pro athlete.
The cap hit for the Saints will be one of the many repercussions they have for releasing the veteran. The Saints will get 2015 cap hit of $5.45 million and then it balloons in 2016 to $12.1 million. This impedes the Saints in signing new free agents and granting contract extensions to their own players. Now that is a pretty annoying cap problem however it gets worse when you look at their linebacker depth on the field. The Saints did draft 2nd round pick Stephone Anthony and 3rd round pick Hau'oli Kikaha, both linebackers that should help replace some of Galette's production, eventually. But for now the Saints go into camp with Anthony Spencer as their best linebacker.
For the Saints defense not to be worse than last year the newly signed Anthony and Kikaha have to produce and quickly however in Rob Ryan's over complicated schemes there may be a learning curve.