One important question to ask is... Did we lose the first and second round draft pics we had for two seasons, or did we lose the ability to draft in those two rounds?

If Goodell is disgraced in the very near future, does that also entitle us to extra future compensatory picks in much earlier rounds, say 3 number two's?

The Saints lost their 2nd round picks in 2012 and 2013, but not the ability to move up to the 2nd round via trade.

The Saints do have their 1st round pick for the 2013 draft, they didn't have a 1st round pick in the 2012 draft because they traded away that pick to New England for their 1st round pick in the 2011 draft with which the Saints picked Ingram.

However, there are some indications that if the Saints "play ball" with the league during this 2012 season, are a model franchise when it comes to abiding league laws, and show remorsefulness about their past actions - the league and the commissioner might take that into consideration and return to the Saints their 2nd round pick in the 2013 draft.


At least that is how I've understood the situation the Saints are in, in relation to their draft picks because of the Bountygate penalties.

I do not expect them to give us anything right now, and don't see why they would. The other owners fear us, and Goodell hates our guts.

Now, if we had fired Payton and/or Loomis right away and cut the Bounty players, then maybe they'd give us something, but not now. The "proprietary formula" for figuring out the picks = smoke filled back room.

Don't kid yourself, folks -- the stuff Goodell said about how he may take the Saints' good behavior into consideration and possibly return the Saints their 2nd round pick in the 2013 draft, blah blah blah, that was just CODE for "if you fire Payton and/or Loomis, I will give you your picks back." That's what he meant by that, all you need to do is look at the timing of when he sad it.


Remember, when Goodell said that stuff, about giving back our picks, it was right when he also changed Payton's suspension from originally "one year" to "after one year he can be considered to be reinstated" and it was right after he denied the Payton and Loomis appeals, and right when Payton was showing Goodell up in the media by running around in the golf cart with Bill Parcells. It's a chess game.

It's clear to me Goodell does not like Payton and Loomis, and wants to see them gone -- that's what these penalties are really all about -- and the dangling the picks out there is just a carrot to try and make the Saints capitulate, fire Payton and Loomis, and get rid of Goodell's insubordination problem for him. So I wouldn't even hope for it.

Well there goes that!

Statements to media + lawsuits = No remorse.

Yeah, but they still have their 1st round pick, which they could fairly easily trade into a 2nd and a 3rd - even if it's the 32nd pick - as evidenced by this year's draft.