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We finally tracked down the details of defensive tackle Aubrayo Franklin's one-year deal with the New Orleans Saints, which was widely considered a bargain around league circles.

Franklin's deal is worth a total of $4 million, including a $2.75 million signing bonus and a $1.25 million salary.

Some other details from the recent contracts signed by the Saints that haven't been previously reported:

- Tight end David Thomas' deal is worth $5.5 million over three years, including a $1.5 million signing bonus.

- Offensive tackle Zach Strief's deal starts out as a three-year deal worth $5.75 million, including a $750,000 signing bonus. But he has the chance to earn an additional $1.7 million in escalators, especially now that he appears to be in line for a starting job.

- Linebacker Will Herring's deal starts out as a three-year deal worth $5 million, including a $1 million signing bonus. He also has the chance to earn and additional $1.5 million in escalators.

- Safety Roman Harper's deal is worth $25 million over four years, which is slightly less than the $28 million originally reported. He received a $7 million signing bonus.

Defensive tackle Aubrayo Franklin's deal with New Orleans Saints was worth $4 million | NOLA.com

papz

One of the, if not the top, DT on the market for that? Unreal.

Thomas for 3 years... whoohoo.

homerj07

WOW - good for Harper

Danno

Its about what he's worth, and apparently he gave the Saints a chance to match other teams' offers.

FinSaint

I'm also glad that Thomas signed a 3-year contract... gives the Saints much needed stability at TE, and Brees gets what he wanted.

QBREES9

Good job Harper !!! Now go earn it.

TheDeuce

My question is why did we only sign Franklin for one season if he's so good?

alexonfyre

Because in order to sign him for multiple seasons we would have to offer him what he thinks he's worth which would have been probably 20mm over 3 years or something to that effect. Signing him for one year and letting him hit the market (which is what he wanted to do in the first place) allowed us to get an incredible DL for a bargain price, and he took less money because he has a chance to compete for a championship, which will put his skills on the national stage more often, and then hit the market with reels full of highlight material from the biggest stages of the game, much better than he would get from the 9ers or any other crap team like that.
I would be surprised if we weren't in the hunt to sign him next year, but we are going to run into cap issues with a salary his size plus Colston plus Brees.

FinSaint

Exactly what alexonfyre said...

He was supposed to be one of the most sought after FAs in this off-season according to many "specialists" but for some reason he did not attract the attention he probably thought he would - and going by numbers alone he should have - and therefore was reportedly close to resigning with the 49ers.

When the Saints came calling, it presented him with a chance to sign a 1-year deal with a contender where his performances would be noticed much more than in SF, which he had to have thought was one of the major reasons why he didn't attract the attention he should have in the first place.

The Saints tenure is undoubtedly a kind of a "publicity tour" for him and he'll look for the career contract next off-season, which will be for minimum of 3-5 years and upwards of 20M, and which the Saints in all likelihood won't be able to match.

"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno