Future of the Franchise
 

Well Brees got the Tag now, so we probably have to say goodbye to Nicks, Colston, Porter and Meacham, at least to some of them.

If you ask me we try to sign as many players as we can to a short deal, see if we can win it next year and if we don´t win it we have to start rebuilding. Supberbowl in 2014 will be outside in New York, where we don´t have a shot with the current team anyway.

SO I say go all in after guys like Moss, Ward and other players that got released. Redo the Passrush with young guns like Galette and Romeos and rebuild the team.

If we don´t win it next year bye bye Brees - this is a tough one, but I think the right move - bye bye Vilma and so on!

We need a longterm contract for Jimmy #80 Graham

Wow is the sky fall'in, really is it. Maybe thay are still trying to work out a deal. Looking on the bright side.

Even IF they are, we now wasted our tag.

I do hope so, I´m just sayin...

I don´t want the Saints to pay Nicks elite money and spend half their franchise on two Guards.

That was just a plan b)

So no way to work out a contract and tag Nicks now?

Nope. tag is done for the year now.

Okay thanks for the information. Even if we get a longterm deal done now --> Tag is lost?

Correct

Okay ****

Thanks Mike i didn't know that. Sad Day in Saints history.

I doubt the Saints have to say goodbye to all those players. Colston and Nicks will be tough to fit under the cap, but Porter and Meachum could easily return- especially if no Colston on Nicks.

Which is more important:

keeping Brees as the Saints QB,

or using the franchise tag to keep Nicks, who has already said he didn't want to be franchised?

Well the 45 min drive across the Causway has me a bit chilled now.

The ideal thing would have been to sign Brees and tag Knicks. Since when does it matter if the player likes it or not?

Reality is, Loomis hand was forced because of this Bounty crap. It would have been way worse to loose the tag.

I know I read somewhere on this board that a tagged could be reused if the which a deal before FA. So don't the still have till Monday to reach a deal?

Why is this sad? It's no big deal.

No. A tag can only be reused if the player is signed by another team. The tag is dead if the tagged player is either released from the tag or if the player signs a multiyear deal.

The only thing that I am worried about is the bounty crap. Everything else is secondary. The bounty probably changed our plans about negotiations. Let's see how well Loomis can do with everything he's juggling.

I agree that would have been the best situation.

An un-happy player could potentially hold-out and miss valuable practice/playing time.

I doubt Goodell would have taken the franchise tag from the Saints; that would have been too draconian.

Saints should have told Nicks that if he goes to the highest bidder, he would probably be going to a team that is sucking hind tit and his best chance of getting to another Super Bowl is with the Saints.

I refuse to believe that this is the start of the downfall. The Saints and us fans lived thru 42 years of worse than this. As the saying goes what does not kill you will make you stronger. I think we will get through this and surprise a few people with whatever team we put on the field. Keep the Faith and remember tomorrow is a new day.

Yup. And remember the Patriots and their "Spygate" year when they lost their #1 pick? 18-0 going into the Super Bowl.

I wouldn't have a problem with them giving Nicks the same contract as Evans + 1M to cover the inflation like he stated that he wanted - if the contract was end loaded it wouldn't matter because the cap is going to rise in two years and Nicks' contract would raise the contracts for other guards around the league hurting other teams as well.

Tag isn't lost until the start of FA. Then it is lost.

I like where we are right now this off season. I mean who is to say who we lose... this 'the sky is falling' attitude is just what it is. Give it a rest and watch what happens. Stop speculating already.

For every player we lose the Saints some how usually gets an equal or better player to replace them with. So sit back and enjoy the spectator sport... spectators!

If only we had that view-only message board...

Exactly my thoughts as well. And I do remember after Spygate, that was when Bellichick ran up the score on a bunch of teams, with Brady throwing bombs and running the hurry-up offense when the Patriots were up 42-7 in the 4th, pedal to the metal all the way....Bellichick was mad and sending the league a message. If this gets him mad enough, I would really look forward to seeing Payton doing some of that next year, instead of that gentlemanly running the ball and "taking a knee on the 20" thing that he does at the end of games.

And still people complain that the Saints kept running up the score all through last season whenever they had the chance to do so. Even Yasinkas said as much in the NFC South blog and called it arrogance.

???

I think Payton was accused of piling on as recently as this year. It was this "allowing Drew to go for the record" that put Brees in the mindset that he should be "king of the mountain".

I don't think it is as monumental as people are making it to be when you consider that you had 3 or 4 QB's go over 5K last year and another just a few yards short. It is obvious that things have been changed to allow QB's to rack up more yardage and make the game more exciting...now Drew is trying to take advantage of that fact.

Success breeds new problems/challenges to deal with. We are not used to this yet, as the Giants and Patriots are. Consider this as Loomis' time to prove if he really as good as touted. Time will tell, of course. Tagging Brees may have been the best strategy to keep as many of our quality players as possible.

Haters gonna hate, right? May force the D shake-ups we have all been calling for.

Future of the franchise:

Re-sign Nicks and Colston. Restructure Smith (done), Ellis, and Vilma. Porter, Meachem, Dunbar, Franklin, and Rogers can't be retained.

Draft:
Round 2: DE/LB Whitney Mercilus
Round 3: LB Mychal Kendricks
Round 4: DL Jared Crick
Round 5: C Philip Blake
Round 6: DT Derek Wolfe
Round 6: G Desmond Wynn
Round 7: T Donald Stephenson

UD: LB Adrien Cole
UD: CB Ron Brooks
UD: WR Greg Childs

If we don't lose some of our picks.

Saw this on another site, its hysterical

Saints 2012 mock draft

7th - G Desmond Wynn

Sounds good to me. What site was that?

The point was that we lost all our picks except #7.

That doesn't sound quite as good.