Saints add veterans in defensive end Jonathan Bullard and safety Julian Blackmon as camp opens

METAIRIE, La. (AP) — The New Orleans Saints have reached one-year contact agreements with defensive end Jonathan Bullard and safety Julian Blackmon.

The club announced the pair of free agent deals on Wednesday evening, following the first practice of its 2025 training camp. Both players are joining a Saints defense that is changing systems under new coordinator Brandon Staley in what is also the club's first season under rookie coach Kellen Moore.

The 6-foot-3, 290-pound Bullard is a nine-year NFL veteran who played in college for Florida before Chicago selected him in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft.

He spent his first three seasons with the Bears before one year stints with Arizona (2019), Seattle (2020) and Atlanta (2021), followed by three seasons with Minnesota (2022-24).

Bullard started all 17 games for the Vikings last season, finishing with 41 solo or assisted tackles, one sack and three quarterback hits. He also set career-highs with seven tackles for loss and three pass breakups.

He has started 53 of 116 career games, recording 221 solo or assisted tackles, 6 1/2 sacks, 28 tackles for loss, eight pass breakups and two forced fumbles.

The signing of the 6-foot, 202-pound Blackmon came one day after Saints safety and former LSU star Tyrann Mathieu unexpectedly announced his retirement from the NFL after 12 seasons.

Blackmon has played all five of his NFL seasons with Indianapolis since the Colts made him a third-round draft choice out of Utah in 2020.

He has started 62 of 66 games and has 10 career interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown. He also has 293 tackles, 1 1/2 sacks, 13 tackles for loss, 21 pass breakups, two forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries.

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New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore, center, talks with staff and executive vice president/general manager Mickey Loomis, right, during the team's NFL football training camp in Metairie, La., Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, center, coaches during the team's NFL football training camp in Metairie, La., Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

FILE - Indianapolis Colts safety Julian Blackmon (32) runs with the ball after making an interception during the second half of an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jan. 5, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

FILE - Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jonathan Bullard reacts after a play during the second half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sept. 15, 2024 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Stacy Bengs, File)

New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore, center, talks with staff and executive vice president/general manager Mickey Loomis, right, during the team's NFL football training camp in Metairie, La., Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, center, coaches during the team's NFL football training camp in Metairie, La., Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.

Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.

“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”

The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.

Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.

Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.

“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”

In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.

Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”

Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.

Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.

A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.

Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.

Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)