New Orleans Saints lead the NFL in Potential 2011 Free Agents
 

Yesterday, ESPN’s official NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas published a post which explains that the New Orleans Saints lead the league in potential free agents this offseason with 27. While he makes it clear that no player will reap the benefits of free agency until a labor agreement is agreed upon, it is obviously still an area of concern for this Saints team. With this dilemma in mind, let’s take a look at each Saints player eligible to become a free agent. The most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement states that players with 3 years or less of NFL experience are restricted free agents (any offer from another team can be matched by the player’s current team), while all other players can become unrestricted free agents. The following list of players was acquired from an article written by Mike Tripplet for NOLA.com about a month ago. The odds of the Saints re-signing each of player cannot be determined with certainty until the new CBA is in place, but why not speculate a little? Who do you think stays and who goes? Keep in mind, the Saints won't have the money to sign whoever they want, so they'll have to be smart about who they bring back.

6 years or more experience: LB Scott Shanle, C Jonathan Goodwin, S Darren Sharper, FB Heath Evans, DT Anthony Hargrove, DE/DT Jimmy Wilkerson, RB Julius Jones, RB Ladell Betts, LB Danny Clark, LB Kawika Mitchell, S Pierson Prioleau, S Matt Giordano.

5 years: S Roman Harper, WR Lance Moore, TE David Thomas, OT Zach Strief, WR/KR Courtney Roby, CB Leigh Torrence.

4 years: RB Pierre Thomas, OT Jermon Bushrod, DT Remi Ayodele, DE Jeff Charleston, LB Marvin Mitchell, S Usama Young, S Chris Reis, TE Tory Humphrey, RB DeShawn Wynn.

3 years: G Carl Nicks, K Garrett Hartley, LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar, LB Anthony Waters.

BlackandGold.com Blog Entry

Staying are...

6 years or more experience: LB Scott Shanle, C Jonathan Goodwin, S Darren Sharper, DT Anthony Hargrove, LB Danny Clark, LB Kawika Mitchell, S Pierson Prioleau, S Matt Giordano.

5 years: WR Lance Moore, TE David Thomas, OT Zach Strief, CB Leigh Torrence.

4 years: RB Pierre Thomas, OT Jermon Bushrod, DT Remi Ayodele, DE Jeff Charleston, LB Marvin Mitchell, S Usama Young, .

3 years: G Carl Nicks, K Garrett Hartley, LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar, LB Anthony Waters.

I'd like to thank the rest of you for coming...

I wrote my thoughts in the form of a Blackandgold.com blog entry which is linked at the end of my opening post, but I don't think we keep Goodwin or Sharper especially; why would we? Tennant is our center of the future, and Jenkins is the man at FS. I don't think we'll have the money left to pay either of them after signing the guys we TRULY need.

Now while I agree Goodwin is expendable, he is affordable and a good center. I'd have no problem bringing him back for another season and let Tennant wait another year before taking over. He's over 30 and re-signing him certainly won't hinder anything we'd want to do during the offseason.

We have two centers on roster. One started 17 games last year, 19 games the previous year plus one Superbowl.

Tell me again why we don't keep Goodwin??

We will keep most of these guys. Wynn, Jones, Torrence, Humphrey, Betts, Giodarno and probably Sharper. We'll upgrade Sharpers position in FA. I think we need to upgrade another DT with the 1st pick in the draft and a SAM and/or WILL.