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ORLANDO -- The Detroit Lions have not approached the Saints about a trade for defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, New Orleans general manager Mickey Loomis said today at the NFL owners’ meetings.

Loomis declined to comment, however, on whether he would be interested in a deal and how far the Saints would be willing to go to keep Hargrove, a restricted free agent who visited the Lions last week.

“Anthony’s a restricted free agent, so he has the right to go out and explore his market and his opportunities, and we’re going to respect that,” Loomis said.

Coach Jim Schwartz said Sunday that the Lions brought in Hargrove to meet him, give him a physical and “maybe start the ball rolling.” The Lions have until April 15 to sign Hargrove to an offer sheet. The Saints would have the right to match the offer or receive a third-round draft pick as compensation. The teams also could work out a trade.

The Saints tendered Hargrove at the second-lowest level. They could have offered him more money, which would have required another team to give up more in compensation to acquire him -- a second-round pick, a first-round pick or first- and third-round picks.

But asked about the Saints’ level of interest in bringing back Hargrove, Loomis said: “Clearly, we want to have him back. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made that tender.”

Hargrove, 26, missed the 2008 season because of a drug suspension. But he played every game for the Saints last season as they marched to a Super Bowl victory. He had five sacks while playing mostly defensive tackle. He played defensive end earlier in his career, and Schwartz said the Lions would play him at end on first and second down and tackle on third down.

“He did a great job for us,” Loomis said. “He was a contributor to our Super Bowl win, no question about it. We like Anthony. We like the adversity that he’s been able to overcome. So we’ll see what happens.”

jcp026

Of course we want him back, but if they throw a lot of money at him it makes more sense to just take the third round pick.

homerj07

If we have to lose him lets get some good compensation for it

st thomas

its a sense feeling of being helpless while they pick apart the superbowl champions. it freaks me out.

RockyMountainSaint

Well said st t. Just another reason why you see so few teams winning back to back Super Bowls. Not gonna happen to us though. Last year showed us that "Jinxes" don't apply to this team! We got too much Gris-Gris for Dat!

I would love to keep Hargrove. We shall see.

voodooido

Tell them we will match any offer unless they make that 3rd a second rd pick. Maybe a 3d and a 5th

UK_WhoDat

I hope we keep Anthony Hargrove. We live in interesting times!

Saintswrath

OMG!! A THIRD PICK FROM THE LIONS WOULD EXCITE MY INTEREST IN THE DRAFTS!!!

So far i could really careless about the drafts..
But if we can get a high pick from the lions i would be Glued to my TV April 22nd.

But if we can keep Hargrove that will still be awesome..

Win - Win for the Saints guys..

QBREES9

Anthony remember who gave you a second chance.

joker-saint

OK? We don't really need draft picks this year. We have plenty of young players we can develop, and im sure there will be better prospects down the road after the free agency comes to an end. IE Anthony Hargrove. We need to keep him. He's revitalized his career herre and the city loves him as much as he loves the city.