Get another FA WR instead of Colston?
 

I really love Colston, don´t get me wrong. I got his jersey in his rookie season and have always regarded him as one of the greatest Draft steals!

Nevertheless, the market for him will be really strong and some team will overpay him. Don´t forget he had medical issues in the past and the Saints won games without him as well.

Why not let him go if he doesn´t accept a hometown discount and look after some other FA receiver?

The list of free-agent wide receivers is expected to include New Orleans' Marques Colston and Robert Meachem; Indianapolis' Reggie Wayne and Pierre Garcon; Philadelphia's DeSean Jackson and Steve Smith; New England's Wes Welker; Buffalo's Steve Johnson; San Diego's Vincent Jackson; Kansas City's Dwayne Bowe; St. Louis' Brandon Lloyd; and the Jets' Plaxico Burress.

I'd rather keep colston than any of those other guys, they are established WR's too so we'd end up paying more signing one of them than resigning colston.
If any WR is going to go, my gut tells me it's going to be meach or Henderson, AA can take one of their roles but there's only one colston, id hate to see him leave

Well right, but I think especially a player like Garcon could be cheaper than Colston! It´s way more important to resign Brees and Nicks + improve defense.

The Sproles thing has proven beyond a doubt that veteran free agent players can come in from other teams and excel for the Saints offense, from their first day in uniform. The fact that guys like Terrance Copper, Donte Stallworth, Joe Horn and other veteran receivers have all left the Saints and pretty much disappeared into oblivion, instead of putting up the prolific and impressive numbers they were expected to do, tells you something important about the Saints offense right there. In theory, I could totally see Pierre Garcon joining the Saints, and going absolutely wild with a Sproles-like amazing year. And Colston leaving and joining some kinda nobody team, like the Bengals or Chargers or Rams or Jets, with high expectations,and then him kinda disappearing completely off the radar.

tough isn't it. what to do....trust in loomis

Tough decesion. I'd be fine with his departure if it weren't so difficult to find a player like him. He's basically a hybrid WR/TE, a rare combo of size, speed, strength, and most importantly ability to make tough catches and this is where the NFL is heading. It's a copycat league, teams are going to try and duplicate it. I have a bad feeling we are going to lose him unfortunately.

We just have to find a player that's fits the salary, whatever that becomes. I hope it's Colston, but as has been said here already, we've already proven we can win without him, although I'd much prefer we didn't have to.

The only guy on that list I'd consider a viable replacement for Colston is Bowe. He does have youth on his side, but I'd still rather stick with Colston.

Put things in perspective:

In 6 season he's gained more yards than Terrel Owens in his first 6 seasons, 117 more yards to be exact and he has a great attitude to match. Why would you give that up?

Good question. Honestly, I look at it this way...

Which would you rather have,

An $8 million WR in Colston?

OR

An $8 million stud on defense?

I think the addition of an $8 million stud on defense outweighs the loss of Colston on offense, especially with all the other weapons Drew has in his arsenal.

Its close and very debatable, but I'd like to even out the talent a bit more.

So true Danno, no one wants to see Colston leave. But I would rather see the $ spent on the defense also.

I think Colston needs to stay, don't want to mess with the chemistry between him and Brees.

With that said, I do think Nicks needs to be signed first.

But Will Smith can go to free up cap space. One of the four running backs will be traded...and I cant help but feel Thomas will be the odd man out.

We will see, maybe Brees takes a light contract to keep some guys....I doubt it but there is always wishful thinking :)

I don't think we'd get anything more than a 3rd rounder for Thomas, or a 4th rounder for Ivory.

Which would you rather have?

Thomas or a 3rd round pick?

Or

Ivory or a 4th round pick?

Even though Ivory is our 4th best RB, I'd rather keep him over a 4th round pick. Especially with the way RB's get banged up all season.

I DO NOT think Thomas is going anywhere!!

Agreed,

Thomas just got a big payday and he is the best back we've got, while all other RB's do one thing really well, Thomas can do everything

Ivory might be the odd man out i think,

Cut will smith, cut Shanle, cut sed ellis and replace all 3, martez is going to be the future at OLB, not sure what Vilma has left but we'll probably see Spags stick by him for atleast one year

I'd rather take the $8M/year stud on the O-Line.

id take vinnie jax instead of colston...

I have never seen a team cut their #1 Receiver unless he was a headache(TO,Moss) or Injuries or downslide. Colston is out #1 reciever. We have no one to step into that role. Why go to FA and pay someone that is going to want the same amount of Money to be our #1? Colston is not on the downslide, and he has not missed many games due to injury. It will be interesting to see how this offseason works out but I think a new scheme and a couple players on Defense will make a huge difference without having to break the bank.

A FA Receiver no one is talking about: Dominek Hixon.

I hope we can re-sign Colston. But if not, I'd love to see us sign Hixon. I'm in NY so I used to see him play for the Giants and, while he's different from Colston, he was a stud two years ago. Plus, we could probably get him cheap as he's coming off an ACL injury and he is only currently making $550k.

Hixon has some talent... but stud is stretching it. He definitely could be a bargain basement find. That said, coming off the first year off ACL injury, his production could probably be had from one of our back end receivers already on the roster.

Colston is going to be a Saint.

Out of curiousity, what would Bowe cost us? Bring home a hometown kid. You know how the south likes to employ its family.

Probably the same as Colston.

We should get a hometown discount AND a winning team discount from Bowe.

Ivory should be the man out. After Thomas' unfortunate departure in that game, Ivory's toughness (or lack thereof) was brought to light. He was terrified after seeing Thomas get knocked out. He started running with one purpose in mind, and that was to get to the ground as fast as he could.

Although, we were down (came back to take the lead twice) there is no freaking reason Drew should have to throw 63 times! No excuses!

Get him out of there!

KEEP COLSTON.

Keep Colston and drop who? If Mickey can't work his contract magic we can't pay everyone and stay under the cap.

Brees and Nicks are must-signs in my opinion.

Colston is a wanna-keep.

I feel Adrian Arrington could fill the void if Colston walks; almost the exact same height/weight. He just needs more playing time...

AA's not going to step up to fill the shoes of the #1 WR, he is a #3 at best and even that might be stretching it. I'm sorry, but I don't see any amount of playing time changing that fact.

And I really don't see any benefit to cutting Ellis, since he only has 1 more year to go in his contract, and it would probably be very hard to find a better DT to replace him with the ~$4M the Saints would save by cutting him. He might actually have a good final year, since he has the motivation of securing a future contract with either the Saints or some other team.

The same goes with Shanle - unfortunately - even though I don't like him as a starting LB, he still could be a good back-up, and with a $2M salary he isn't really the one breaking the bank.

Will Smith is the biggest over-payed contract in the Saints' roster, but he could still be a good productive player with a restructured contract. I hope he realizes that he's been payed more money during the past two seasons than what he has been deserving of and, because of that, would be willing to restructure his contract to remain a Saint.

Arrington is long way off from being colston, Unless meachem or henderson leave I don't see him getting any playing time

Marques Colston - 6"4 225lb
Adrian Arrington - 6"3 192lb

I'd rather keep the guy who has 48 TD's than try to turn somebody into Colston, maybe tough for loomis to work on, but we gotta trust him

hes from florida

Bowe played college football for LSU - "hometown discount"

Home town discounts are for aging veterans who've made a grip and now looking for a title... not young studs in the prime of their careers looking to cash in for the first time after their initial rookie contracts.

If we want to keep Colston, we're going to have to pony up. If we want to replace him with Bowe, we're going to have to pony up.

LSU is in Baton Rouge.
Saints are in New Orleans.
His hometown is Miami.

Nearby College discount perhaps?:p

None of this matters if we don't have a QB to throw to the wide receiver. We need to sign Nicks to protect Drew. I'm as big a fan of AA but he didn't get open as much as I had hoped. We need to stay with this core of receivers. Curtis Martin is gone and he made all these players great. It didn't matter if you were drafted high or low he got the most out of their skills.

1 vote for v-jax. He's a game changer and far more explosive.

Have you checked out the Unrestricted free agents at the SI.com website.There are some great players that would love to come to the Saints and be in the running for a Super Bowl right out of the gate.

Completely different player than Colston... and also looking for a very very large contract. He's not the type of player that's going to make those tough catches over the middle nor that reliable third down pass catching option we use Colston in. He's always been boom or bust... he'll show up for a big game and disappear for the next two or three. His hands also does not compare with Colston... at all. Sure Colston does not catch 60 or 70 yard bombs down the field... but he has his share of big plays and a consistent threat on a week to week basis.

If we're going to spend the same type of money on another receiver, why not just retain Colston. A proven consistent entity in our well oiled machine. I like Vincent Jackson... but he's no Marques Colston.

ReggieDude,

I think HALO or one of the MODS will let you change your name brother. :-P

In Loomis I Trust

Keep Colston . I think hes the most underrated wr of the past years , and mostly every other team would pay him . The only problem i see with the cap is that we will wind up with a second rate defense (yet again) that wont make up for the high scoring offense .

I think Colston's our first option as far as signing, V Jax wants money we don't have. Plus, I think he is the new Terrell Owens, Ocho Stinko of the league, Colston has never been that type of reciever. Even if Colston and Loomis can't reach and agreement I think he's the guy that the Saints use the franchise tag on. Whether he likes it or not he will be a Saint. Meachem, or Henderson are not so lucky, those pieces are reluctantly replaceable. And in the end it's probably Henderson that is cut released or not resigned and you will probably see a Pierre Garcon type picked up in free agency vs a Vincent Jackson type.