I watched the game where he received that injury and it looked really bad, at 33 his body doesn't recover as fast as it would if he'd be 10 years younger, so while I wouldn't be against signing him, I'd be hesitant to target him as an impact player.

Why not Andre goodman for a year? He's a little old but he's a veteran and our depleted secondary could use him

Like i said, he may not come back to give us 10 to 12 sacks, but he could be a good rotational player and teach the younger DEs that we have. As long as we can get him for a reasonable 1 year contract there isn't much risk here. If he doesn't workout, oh well he's gone next year. Aside from that we need to look at where we need the upgrades and the only position I can see is DE; Carter is the only DE out there at the moment.

Not a bad idea at all. Might turn out to be like a Sharper type deal

Truth hurts. And so does Percy's head.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but the fact remains that there aren't any guarantees that Carter will be in any condition to actually contribute to the DE production. If he were back to the condition he was late last season with the Pats, then I'd bet there would be quite a few teams out there trying to sign him, but as it seems that there aren't - I'd have to infer that he hasn't made a full recovery from the injury.

It might seem like there isn't a huge risk in signing a guy like that to a 1-year deal, as you suggested, but with the new CBA teams are able to carry the cap room they don't use one year to next year, so it might be better to save that money towards next year's cap than signing a rotational player who might not be anywhere close to 100% healthy all year.

I think they have an interesting corps at the DE, even with the unfortunate injury to Romeus, and I bet Spags is going to be able to get a lot out of that group of players. I'd much rather see him trying to find young "nobodies" out of the UDFA pool or teams' practice squads than signing broken down veterans based on what they have been able to do in the past. Lets remember that Carter had the opportunity to make a run for the QB in a 3-4 base defense where he was positioned next to Wilfork, who repeatedly takes on double teams and pushes them to the ground - he wouldn't have that same luxury with the Saints.

You mean like 4yrs instead of the three? IDK, the Lions/Avril aren't talking about it ... I though it was about the money and I'm anticipating everyone on that team wanting to get Stafford/Calvin money ... F/A talks are gonna' be ugly in the 'D' over the next few seasons.

Yea 4 years between 10-12. The lesser the years, the more money up front he's going to want. That's something Detroit can't afford to do right now.

Cant argue with ya.. good points and I was not aware you could roll cap money over to the next year.

The 3-4 Carter experienced is a plus for the Spags D. Carter would be more adept to dropping back in coverage which Spags is known for having his DE do. I just don't see much talent out there, and with the 12m in cap space we have it may be a better idea use that extra cap room next year.