Doubters

WhoDat · 03-31-2003, 05:10 PM

For all you doubters who thought I was crazy complaining about the Saints move this off-season, or who suggested that waiting was the best option, or that there were no good free agents, I highly recommend that you read "Saints Free Agency: Where is All the Action?" written by Ernie Ballard and posted on the home page of this site. There is little that he said that I and others haven't already brought up. Specifically:

"Entering this yearÃƒÂ¢Ã¢Â‚Â¬Ã¢Â„Â¢s free agency period, SaintsÃƒÂ¢Ã¢Â‚Â¬Ã¢Â„Â¢ fans knew that their team would be one of the more active ones in the league. The Saints were a reported $16 million under the salary cap and had numerous holes to fill on defense."

"Ruff just opens up more questions for a young, inexperienced LB group. "

"With the departure of standout safety Sammy Knight, the Saints knew this was an area of huge need... Some fans will question the departing of Knight if a quality veteran is not signed."

"Now the focus seems to be the NFL draft. Will the Saints finally start answering some questions? There are still needs at defensive line, safety, linebacker, and tight end... With five picks on the first day, everyone expects the Saints to be one of the most active teams in the draft. But remember this, everyone expected the Saints to be active in free agency too. "

In fact, the only comment made in Ernie's entire column that I question is:

"With Jake Delhomme leaving for Carolina, Todd Bowman was acquired from Minnesota. This was a good move, and Bowman can win games for this team if Brooks goes down."

Jake couldn't? What will it take for Bouman to get in the game? My guess is that Brooks could puke up a lung or be dragging a leg and Haslett would still believe that they have the best chance of winning with Brooks in there. I'm not saying I don't like the move. I would have rather seen them make a play for Delhomme, but once he was gone, Bouman was a good addition.

Otherwise... I hope you all see that's it's not just me now. There are a whole lot of people in New Orleans and around the league wondering why the Saints effectively didn't do much of anything to make their team better this off-season.

BlackandBlue · 03-31-2003, 05:33 PM

Some points I\'d like to make

$16 million under the salary cap at the beginning of the offseason. That puts us in the top 5 teams as far as free money is concerned. That does NOT include the extra cap room we would make for dealing Turley and cutting/restructuring Hand. $2 million of this spent on a guy who is only going to play on running downs. We get ahead of our opposition early, and we have the offense to do this easily, and we can forget about seeing this guy at all in the 4th quarter. $2 million for a guy who is not even a legitimate starter. I\'ve been calm about all this, but I after I read where he would share time, I flipped. I\'m pissed. It\'s like they are trying to patch a severed arm with a bandaid.
And Haslett can talk about saving money for the draft picks all he wants. Are you kidding me??? Consider this. We cut Hand, saving $5 million. I\'ll give you $2 million towards Gandy plus Turley\'s contract. That puts us at $19 million, roughly. You might need that type of extra cash for the draft if you are sitting in the 1-5 spot, but you\'re not. Yeah, trade rumors are a *****, cause that\'s exactly what they are--- rumors. Right now, we\'re sitting at 17 and 18. I\'ll give you $8 million dollars for those two picks (and that\'s being generous), and we\'re still $11 million under. I\'ll give another $3 million for the remainder of the picks, cause we don\'t know whether or not the latter rounds will even make the team or not. That\'s $8 million under after we\'re done drafting.
I\'m sorry, alot of you are tired of the *****ing, but this offseason has completely whipped my ass. I keep waiting for the rabbit to be pulled out of the hat, but have not seen it yet.

ssmitty · 03-31-2003, 06:04 PM

my 2 cents, i don\'t recall it taking that long to put a good offense together, i\'ll give them the benefit of the doubt and wait...............although i wish the draft was sooner.......smitty

billyh1026 · 03-31-2003, 10:37 PM

Ahhhhh.......Saint fans conditioned to feel bad about thier team. Where\'s the 12-step program..

WhoDat · 04-01-2003, 10:16 AM

I\'ll say in here what I said in another thread. Of our offense - only three players came through the draft - McAllister, Stallworth, and Bentley. Mind you, these are three very good players, BUT every other player we have on O came here as a free agent. We currently have Grant, Allen, Hodge, Craver, and Mitchell in a position to start andor have significant playing time. All were drafted by the Saints within the last few years. Now we\'re planning on throwing in another two or three rookies and I\'m supposed to be excited about having seven or eight players on defense with a year or less of playing experience?

To B&B - bad news man, that $8 million dollar number you threw out is actually more like $10+ million if you plan on restructuring Wally Williams\' $4.5 million dollar cap hit contract, which I assume you plan on doing. With restructurings, trades, etc. they had closer to $25 million or more this off-season. And look at what we\'ve done with it?

pakowitz · 04-01-2003, 10:51 AM

Salary cap status of all 32 teams

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By John Clayton
ESPN.com

Below is the amount of money each team is under or over the $75.007 million salary cap for 2003 as of March 31.

TEAM-BY-TEAM SALARY CAP UPDATE
Team Cap status
Arizona Cardinals $17.5 million under
Atlanta Falcons $2.7 million under
Baltimore Ravens $6.46 million under
Buffalo Bills $8.074 million under
Carolina Panthers $2.7 million under
Chicago Bears $5.84 million under
Cincinnati Bengals $3.79 million under
Cleveland Browns $819,000 under
Dallas Cowboys $7.93 million under
Denver Broncos $1.533 million under
Detroit Lions $5.59 million under
Green Bay Packers $5 million under
Houston Texans $13.56 million under
Indianapolis Colts $555,600 under
Jacksonville Jaguars $686,000 under
Kansas City Chiefs $3.44 million
Miami Dolphins $4.7 million under
Minnesota Vikings $14.55 million under
New England Patriots $2.134 million under
New Orleans Saints $12.26 million under
New York Giants $1.075 million under
New York Jets $4.467 million under
Oakland Raiders $4.372 million under
Philadelphia Eagles $12.45 million under
Pittsburgh Steelers $985,300 under
St. Louis Rams $3.895 million under
San Diego Chargers $241,000 under
San Francisco 49ers $1.585 million under
Seattle Seahawks $9.291 million under
Tampa Bay Buccaneers $444,996 under
Tennessee Titans $1,110 under
Washington Redskins $4.465 million under

John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.

just incase anyone wanted to know how much we have at the moment.....

WhoDat · 04-01-2003, 11:06 AM

Thanks Yoda... that\'s $12 mill without restructuring Hand\'s $5.5 million contrat, or Williams\' $4.5 million contract, right? Meaning, potentially as much as $22 mill under, if we were to simply cut both of them...? Good thing we\'re not wasting our money. That extra five or ten million dollars we have sitting around this season will really come in handy for.... uh.... Benson to wipe his a$$ with. I mean who uses regular old toilet paper when there are hundred dollar bills just laying around?

BlackandBlue · 04-01-2003, 11:25 AM

Regardless, it shows how healthy our cap status is. Look at the totals below- we\'re sitting at number 5, just like we have been all this offseason. Three other teams have (2) first round picks: N.Y. Jets (who are currently sitting with 1/3 free money that we have under the cap), N.E. Patriots (who have 1/6 free money that we have under the cap), and the Oakland Raiders (who have 1/3 free money that we have under the cap). And the Patriots have definately smoked our ass in free agency. With two restructuring deals in the near future (read Hand and Williams), and even if we were to pull off the trade with N.E. for Jones and sign him up with a nice fat contract, we\'d still be roughly $13 million under the cap heading into the draft.

subguy · 04-01-2003, 04:58 PM

Oh WhoDat I guess you have been the only one preaching?????

WhoDat · 04-01-2003, 06:12 PM

Not at all subguy... look at the second line of my original post: \"There is little that he said that I and others haven\'t already brought up\"

You\'re my biggest proponent at this point!

03-31-2003, 05:10 PM	#1
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631	Doubters For all you doubters who thought I was crazy complaining about the Saints move this off-season, or who suggested that waiting was the best option, or that there were no good free agents, I highly recommend that you read "Saints Free Agency: Where is All the Action?" written by Ernie Ballard and posted on the home page of this site. There is little that he said that I and others haven't already brought up. Specifically: "Entering this yearÃƒÂ¢Ã¢Â‚Â¬Ã¢Â„Â¢s free agency period, SaintsÃƒÂ¢Ã¢Â‚Â¬Ã¢Â„Â¢ fans knew that their team would be one of the more active ones in the league. The Saints were a reported $16 million under the salary cap and had numerous holes to fill on defense." "Ruff just opens up more questions for a young, inexperienced LB group. " "With the departure of standout safety Sammy Knight, the Saints knew this was an area of huge need... Some fans will question the departing of Knight if a quality veteran is not signed." "Now the focus seems to be the NFL draft. Will the Saints finally start answering some questions? There are still needs at defensive line, safety, linebacker, and tight end... With five picks on the first day, everyone expects the Saints to be one of the most active teams in the draft. But remember this, everyone expected the Saints to be active in free agency too. " In fact, the only comment made in Ernie's entire column that I question is: "With Jake Delhomme leaving for Carolina, Todd Bowman was acquired from Minnesota. This was a good move, and Bowman can win games for this team if Brooks goes down." Jake couldn't? What will it take for Bouman to get in the game? My guess is that Brooks could puke up a lung or be dragging a leg and Haslett would still believe that they have the best chance of winning with Brooks in there. I'm not saying I don't like the move. I would have rather seen them make a play for Delhomme, but once he was gone, Bouman was a good addition. Otherwise... I hope you all see that's it's not just me now. There are a whole lot of people in New Orleans and around the league wondering why the Saints effectively didn't do much of anything to make their team better this off-season.
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631

03-31-2003, 05:33 PM	#2
BlackandBlue Kinder, gentler Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: dirty south Posts: 3,889	Doubters Some points I\'d like to make $16 million under the salary cap at the beginning of the offseason. That puts us in the top 5 teams as far as free money is concerned. That does NOT include the extra cap room we would make for dealing Turley and cutting/restructuring Hand. $2 million of this spent on a guy who is only going to play on running downs. We get ahead of our opposition early, and we have the offense to do this easily, and we can forget about seeing this guy at all in the 4th quarter. $2 million for a guy who is not even a legitimate starter. I\'ve been calm about all this, but I after I read where he would share time, I flipped. I\'m pissed. It\'s like they are trying to patch a severed arm with a bandaid. And Haslett can talk about saving money for the draft picks all he wants. Are you kidding me??? Consider this. We cut Hand, saving $5 million. I\'ll give you $2 million towards Gandy plus Turley\'s contract. That puts us at $19 million, roughly. You might need that type of extra cash for the draft if you are sitting in the 1-5 spot, but you\'re not. Yeah, trade rumors are a ***, cause that\'s exactly what they are--- rumors. Right now, we\'re sitting at 17 and 18. I\'ll give you $8 million dollars for those two picks (and that\'s being generous), and we\'re still $11 million under. I\'ll give another $3 million for the remainder of the picks, cause we don\'t know whether or not the latter rounds will even make the team or not. That\'s $8 million under after we\'re done drafting. I\'m sorry, alot of you are tired of the ***ing, but this offseason has completely whipped my ass. I keep waiting for the rabbit to be pulled out of the hat, but have not seen it yet.
	The waiting drove me mad.... I don't want to hear from those that know... Everything has changed, absolutely nothing's changed Eddie is a....draftnik?

03-31-2003, 06:04 PM	#3
ssmitty 1000 Posts + Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,879	Doubters my 2 cents, i don\'t recall it taking that long to put a good offense together, i\'ll give them the benefit of the doubt and wait...............although i wish the draft was sooner.......smitty
ssmitty 1000 Posts + Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,879

03-31-2003, 10:37 PM	#4
billyh1026 100th Post Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 213	Doubters Ahhhhh.......Saint fans conditioned to feel bad about thier team. Where\'s the 12-step program..
billyh1026 100th Post Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 213

04-01-2003, 10:16 AM	#5
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631	Doubters I\'ll say in here what I said in another thread. Of our offense - only three players came through the draft - McAllister, Stallworth, and Bentley. Mind you, these are three very good players, BUT every other player we have on O came here as a free agent. We currently have Grant, Allen, Hodge, Craver, and Mitchell in a position to start andor have significant playing time. All were drafted by the Saints within the last few years. Now we\'re planning on throwing in another two or three rookies and I\'m supposed to be excited about having seven or eight players on defense with a year or less of playing experience? To B&B - bad news man, that $8 million dollar number you threw out is actually more like $10+ million if you plan on restructuring Wally Williams\' $4.5 million dollar cap hit contract, which I assume you plan on doing. With restructurings, trades, etc. they had closer to $25 million or more this off-season. And look at what we\'ve done with it?
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631	\"Excuses, excuses, excuses. ThatÃ¢Â€Â™s all anyone ever makes for the New Orleans SaintsÃ¢Â€Â™ organization.\" - Eric Narcisse \"Being a Saints fan is almost like being addicted to crack,\" he said.[i]\"You know you should stop, but you just can\'t.\"

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04-01-2003, 10:51 AM	#6
pakowitz The Dark Overlord Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: dirty south Posts: 3,450	Doubters Salary cap status of all 32 teams -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By John Clayton ESPN.com Below is the amount of money each team is under or over the $75.007 million salary cap for 2003 as of March 31. TEAM-BY-TEAM SALARY CAP UPDATE Team Cap status Arizona Cardinals $17.5 million under Atlanta Falcons $2.7 million under Baltimore Ravens $6.46 million under Buffalo Bills $8.074 million under Carolina Panthers $2.7 million under Chicago Bears $5.84 million under Cincinnati Bengals $3.79 million under Cleveland Browns $819,000 under Dallas Cowboys $7.93 million under Denver Broncos $1.533 million under Detroit Lions $5.59 million under Green Bay Packers $5 million under Houston Texans $13.56 million under Indianapolis Colts $555,600 under Jacksonville Jaguars $686,000 under Kansas City Chiefs $3.44 million Miami Dolphins $4.7 million under Minnesota Vikings $14.55 million under New England Patriots $2.134 million under New Orleans Saints $12.26 million under New York Giants $1.075 million under New York Jets $4.467 million under Oakland Raiders $4.372 million under Philadelphia Eagles $12.45 million under Pittsburgh Steelers $985,300 under St. Louis Rams $3.895 million under San Diego Chargers $241,000 under San Francisco 49ers $1.585 million under Seattle Seahawks $9.291 million under Tampa Bay Buccaneers $444,996 under Tennessee Titans $1,110 under Washington Redskins $4.465 million under John Clayton is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com. just incase anyone wanted to know how much we have at the moment.....
	I Live In Beastmode!

04-01-2003, 11:06 AM	#7
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631	Doubters Thanks Yoda... that\'s $12 mill without restructuring Hand\'s $5.5 million contrat, or Williams\' $4.5 million contract, right? Meaning, potentially as much as $22 mill under, if we were to simply cut both of them...? Good thing we\'re not wasting our money. That extra five or ten million dollars we have sitting around this season will really come in handy for.... uh.... Benson to wipe his a$$ with. I mean who uses regular old toilet paper when there are hundred dollar bills just laying around?
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631

04-01-2003, 11:25 AM	#8
BlackandBlue Kinder, gentler Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: dirty south Posts: 3,889	Doubters Regardless, it shows how healthy our cap status is. Look at the totals below- we\'re sitting at number 5, just like we have been all this offseason. Three other teams have (2) first round picks: N.Y. Jets (who are currently sitting with 1/3 free money that we have under the cap), N.E. Patriots (who have 1/6 free money that we have under the cap), and the Oakland Raiders (who have 1/3 free money that we have under the cap). And the Patriots have definately smoked our ass in free agency. With two restructuring deals in the near future (read Hand and Williams), and even if we were to pull off the trade with N.E. for Jones and sign him up with a nice fat contract, we\'d still be roughly $13 million under the cap heading into the draft.
	The waiting drove me mad.... I don't want to hear from those that know... Everything has changed, absolutely nothing's changed Eddie is a....draftnik?

04-01-2003, 04:58 PM	#9
subguy 1000 Posts + Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: FL Posts: 2,096	Doubters Oh WhoDat I guess you have been the only one preaching?????

04-01-2003, 06:12 PM	#10
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631	Doubters Not at all subguy... look at the second line of my original post: \"There is little that he said that I and others haven\'t already brought up\" You\'re my biggest proponent at this point!
WhoDat 5000 POSTS! + Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 5,631