Dwight Smith released today???!!
 

Found this on another Saints forum. Had no link to back it up, but the story looks to be credible. Could be a hoax, I guess we'll hear more later in the day if it's true. If it is true, there is going to be some maaaaaaaaaad fans:

The New Orleans Saints apprised agent Drew Rosenhaus on Thursday that they have abandoned their efforts to trade starting free safety Dwight Smith, one of their steadiest defenders during a dismal 2005 season, and instead will release the veteran defensive back after just one year with the franchise.

The move comes after New Orleans officials spent much of the offseason attempting to trade Smith, and just one week before Saints players are scheduled to report to summer training camp at Millsaps College near Jackson, Miss.

A five-year veteran, Smith will become an unrestricted free agent once his name officially appears on the NFL internal transactions network, which could come as early as Thursday afternoon. While the Saints apparently could not find a trade deal to their liking, it is expected that Smith will have multiple suitors as a free agent.

One franchise that probably will pursue him is Tampa Bay, the franchise with which Smith began his NFL career. It will not be surprising if Smith has a new home within two or three days.

The former Akron standout, a third-round pick of the Bucs in the 2001 draft, is the kind of safety many teams covet, an interior defender with cornerback-level coverage skills. In fact, Smith started his career with the Bucs as a standout nickel cornerback and then was moved to safety 2003.

Smith, 27, provides a defense with tremendous flexibility because of his hybrid skills and his ability to move out into the slot and cover wide receivers.

As arguably the Saints' most notable veteran addition in 2005, Smith signed a five-year, $15 million contract as an unrestricted free agent, and the deal included a $3.5 million signing bonus. The four years that were remaining on his New Orleans contract were for base salaries of $1.2 million (for 2006), $1.6 million (2007), $2.5 million (2008) and $3.5 million (2009). Given the palatable level of those salaries for the next two seasons, it is surprising that no team stepped up and traded for him.

In his only season with the Saints, Smith appeared in 15 games, all starts, and registered 86 tackles, one sack, two interceptions, seven passes defensed and two forced fumbles.

It has been rumored that Smith might have experienced some personality conflicts with some members of the New Orleans management team. It is also possible that with a new head coach (Sean Payton) and new defensive coordinator (Gary Gibbs), he simply did not fit into the Saints' plans any longer.

New Orleans has dramatically reshapes its safety corps in the last 14 months. The Saints used second-round picks on Josh Bullocks in 2005 and on Roman Harper in 2006. A player the coaches regard very highly, Bullocks started 13 games as a rookie last year. New Orleans also signed veteran Omar Stoutmire as a free agent in the offseason and acquired former second-rounder Bryan Scott in a trade with Atlanta.

For his career, Smith has appeared in 78 games and started 49 of them. He has 306 tackles, one sack, 14 interceptions, 45 passes defensed, seven forced fumbles and two recoveries. In Tampa Bay's victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, Smith returned two interceptions for touchdowns.

RE: Dwight Smith released today???!!
 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2525154

Well Bellamy and Bullocks starters???//

The team is going to regret making this move a lot. Smith and McKenzie are our best DB's and Smith is one of the best safeties around. Getting nothing for him is unbelievable. Horrible...Horrible....Horrible :x

Okay so, letting LeCharles walk for nothing was dumb enough. Now cutting Dwight for NOTHING? You mean to tell me they couldn't even get a 4th round pick for him? It was said a month or two ago Tampa Bay was offering at least a third. I agree with DJ, they are gonna regret this move. Big time.

Same things when Brooks got cut, Oakland already said they'd give us their first string waterboy for him but they waited so long to pull the trigger that everyone knew we were gonna cut him and vvie him away for nothin'

I dont get it...the guy was a standout last year...How can they say he does not fit...he's a safety...Lineman and LB's I get when you change you have too many or not enough, but safeties...bad move bad move...they are going to regret this...well if they dont I think we will...I guess that money may be part of Reggie's signing bonus...LOL...

MOTHERFU****!!!!!!

Give the new coaching staff a chance . Payton's not going to put up with the kind crap that Haslett did. There were obvious personality conflicts with the coaching staff and Smith.

here's the link finally:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2525154



--------ummmmmmmmm, I'm an idiot, didn't see it posted above, sorry. oh well, nothing else to see here, go bout ya business.

they said on the WWL that smith was being a problem in the locker room and payton is like parcells if u do something like that, it doesnt matter who u r, ur gonna be cut

The thing is, with that, you'd figure if he was such a cancer in the lockerroom why would a coaching staff that had him for a few years (Bucs) want him back?

Add to that the fact BOTH his off the field incidents came when he was with Tampa. And they still want him back. Just a dumb move for us.

Most of the things said in the thread are spot on. This is a dumb move. I mean, maybe Payton and the staff see something in Roman Harper that no one else in the world sees and maybe we dont need Smith. I still think we should have gotten something for the guy. He will end up being a Pro Bowler for someone else.

GOODBYE!! Payton said he's not takin any ****. Everyone said he was like a cancer on the team. We just made roster room for Ty Law!!

Gross.

Wow! I'm suprised by the timing. You would think that the coaches would give him a final chance to prove himself in training camp and the first few preseason games if nothing else. Makes me wonder if Smith asked to be traded or released if he wasn't going to get playing time. Maybe he got whiny about it and became dead man walking in Paytonland.

Well I do see one positive to cutting Smith now. A little bit more dough to sign Bush and the other draft picks :-) !!!

Not mad about this let him go we have abunch of good safteys...............

thats right, we hav enough safetys to play a 2-2-7 defense....try and pass on that!.....i like payton, hes a parcels guy, maybe just maybe one of our 27 safetys are better for our defense.......besides it wasnt hard to be our best defensive player last year n.e.way(uh uhm-3-13) i say we give payton some time to mold the team...(1 year) so lets be patient...

WTF? Are you f**king kiddin' me!!!!!!!! :bang: I'm with whodi.....it's bad enough we let LeCharles walk for nothing (Brooks I can understand :D ), but this guy was one of our only standouts on defense last year. A hard hitter with exceptional range & good speed (not to mention CB skills) at safety is hard to find. WTF is Payton thinking? This move really pisses me off!!!!! :cursing: We should have gotten at least a 3rd rounder for D. Smith!!!!

Let's all just take a breath and step back for a moment..
This seems like a realy stupid thing but I'm not gonna pass judgement just yet.
I'll reserve comments for a couple of days...ya'll should too.

nothing... nothing ...nothing
sounds like sh-t to me. at least get a role of tape or something. we are stuck with a buy out to boot?
hmmm we did get something. bend over and take it in the wallet. what would the buy out be since ky is not involved. well after bentley this does not hurt as much.
STUPID

Look guys trust me there had to be a good reason. In a few days we will hear both sides. If Smith didn't fit he didn't fit, if he was a lockeroom problem, f#@k him, i'm glad he's gone. I'm not passing judgment until i see the starting 11 on defense, and see how they play together. Haz kept alot of a$$holes on the team and that helped him get fired. Just chill out and wait and see what happens next.

but still nothing?

You know? I don't really remember Dwight Smith doing that well from last season, other than the play where he picked up a fumble, ran it back for like 40 yards, just to fumble it back, that, and a lot of cheerleading after a hit even though the other team got 5-10 yards on the play.

I hate to see him go, and even a 6th round pick is better than nothing. I wonder if the same thing is going to happen with Michael Bennett? I know there were offers for Smith and the Saints said there wasnt an offer to their liking...but at least there was an offer, which means someone offered something, and yet, we got nothing. Payton must really have his heart set on Laron Landry next year.

This is another off-season, and we don't know who is the better players on the team. The current young players are getting better. I do not go by who did what last year. The staff knows who are the better players.

This is as stupid as when the Eagles offered pick #31 in the draft for franchised Darren Howard, and we turned it down cause we wanted the Cowboys #20, and Howard ended up just lunching last season on a franchise contract, only to go to Eagles for nothing this year. Stupid as letting LeCharles walk for ZERO, then trading for the guy he replaced, and using that pick to reach for a safety. This, is stupid. There's no outside incidents. Read it from the horse's, or should I say asses' mouths. "It was 100% a football decision."

http://www.nola.com/saints/t-p/index...l=1&thispage=2

Stupid.

With the happenings of the last 12 months behind us, we really need something to cheer about. But, I am beginning see this year more and more as a rebuilding year. This area desperately needs something to cheer about, but I believe we are in for a long and disappointing season.

You can spray it down with Lysol, hang pretty flowers all around it, & cover it however you want, but SH*T is still SH*T!!!!! And.....that's exactly what this move was.....SH*T!!!!!!!!! :roll:

If he is so valuable... Why couldn't we trade him?

And if Loomis was really looking for a mid-round draft pick, how does releasing Smith work to our advantage?

I refuse to believe we couldn't get a pick between 4-7 for a player of his caliber.

I see no upside to this move AT ALL!!!!!!!

Wouldn't a trade for a practice scrub at least be something?

I got an idea... How about Loomis addressing our CB's or OL instead of dumping good players on our team.

GRRR

:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:

I love Genius Loomis' comment that "we're going with younger players".

Jay Bellamy - 30+
Omar Stoutmire - 31
Dwight Smith - 28 and in his prime.

Ok every 1 that is crying and whining about this needs to get over it........ sure we should have traded him to get 3rd 4th rounder but sh*t we didnt get over it damn it im tired of this crying BS Scott,Ostodimire,Bellamy,Bullocks,Harper,Gleason we have 4 ppl we can choose to be the starters........ they will just fight for it in training camp and preseason...... its not as bad as every 1 is saying.....

Reading this thread you'd think we just traded Capitalism for Communism.

Yes, Dwight Smith was a decent player in Tampa Bay playing in a defense loaded with talent at the line, LB, and safety positions. He didn't do anything to write home about last year, nor his last 2 years before in Tampa. You say "player of this caliber" as if you were talking about Jack Tatum. And the guy was here one year!

Besides, had the Saints gotten a pick for him, next year, when the Saints don't pick the player you want with that pick, you'll *****a nd moan all over again.

Wow... I can't believe this move...

I also find it hard to believe that he was a clubhouse cancer.
I work at Circuit City in Covington, and Dwight Smith came in one day to buy some stuff. I actually sold him an X-Box 360 with a bunch of games and DVD's. He even bought the 2-year replacement plan on the system. He was also very nice to me and my co-workers. Seemed like an okay guy, but then I only got to spend 20 minutes with him.

I dunno. I hate to see any good player just released without getting something in return, but I'll give Payton the benefit of the doubt. Coaches and front office types are supposed to know a lot more than we fans.

I'm not buying this cancer stuff. From what I remember, Parcells would cut mediocre players to get the attention of the team, not solid players. Plus, Parcells just took in the biggest cancer of them all in TO. It's more like a cancer with great talent can stay and a cancer that's mediocre is the sacrificial lamb. Personality conflicts happen. Parcells and Simms didn't get along and won a Superbowl together. Smith was the MVP of the Superbowl so he's not mediocre. I'm sure some knucklehead tried to say it was not a bad decision to get rid os Knight either and gave the same reasoning for the coaching staff...etc. Like Gandhi said, it's still Sh**. And Loomis' reasoning shows it.

Huh? :? Dwight Smith & Will Smith were the only bright spots on our defense last year. Bullocks was constantly getting beat with the home run ball & lets not even discuss the CB situation. The guy was a Super Bowl MVP, but he's just decent? :? If he was so replaceable to the Bucs, why are they chomping at the bit to get him back? If he was a cancer.....fine. Trade him & get something in return. Unfortunately, our FO isn't too bright. First, we let our only Pro Bowler (LeCharles Bentley) walk for nothing. Then we give up a high 1st day pick for Jeff Faine.....the guy LeCharles replaced. Can you say "BAMBOOZLED"? Now, we let a solid starting safety (not to mention former Super Bowl MVP) go for nothing again. We could have definately got a 4th rounder minimum for D. Smith. What's next? We give up our 3rd rounder in next year's draft to the Bucs for a role playing safety? Someone in our FO needs to get there heads out of there arses! :evil:

Well put gandhi...

hey ghandi wasn't there a guy name smith who holds the rushing record for super bowls. what's he up to lately? just out of curiosity. i think he went to jail for beating up kids or something. his career turned out pretty solid too from what i remember. who cares if he was a super bowl mvp. the only thing i hate is the fact that we got nothing for him. i don't understand why we continue to do that. as far as bentley the guy didn't want to be here. that one is pretty damn simple. he came out and said i want to go back to cleveland because that is where i am from. never had a chance to resign the guy.

Actually, Dwight Smith was not the MVP of that Super Bowl, Dexter Jackson was. Either way, thats not a good angle to take because judging by past Super Bowl MVP's...not necessarily great players...Larry Brown, Dexter Jackson, Desmond Howard...and the running back he was talking about was Timmy Smith...from the Redskins...and currently imprisoned.