Saints sign six to futures
 

New Orleans Saints Executive Vice President/General Manager Mickey Loomis announced Wednesday that the club has signed DT Mitch King, CB Kmaal McIlwain, WR Andy Tanner, RB Chris Taylor, T Phil Trautwein and T Fenuki Tupou to futures contracts.

King, 6-2, 280, appeared in the first three regular season games of 2011 for New Orleans, recording five tackles (three solo), prior to spending the remainder of the season on the club’s practice squad. Originally an undrafted free agent signed by Tennessee in 2009, he appeared in four games for Indianapolis in 2010, making three tackles (one solo) and spend the final two weeks on the Saints practice Squad. King was a four-year letterman at Iowa from 2005-08, where he totaled 228 career tackles, 17.5 sacks, 12 passes defensed, six forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. He was the Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the year, first-team All-Conference and Associated Press second-team All-American as a senior, recording 54 tackles and four sacks.

Read more: Saints Sign Six to Futures Contracts

I love King. The guy has a motor! I wonder what he would have done if he was playing in rotation this year.

Only one I see maybe sticking around is King besides that camp bodies, woo hoo

2 OT? nice they are working possibilities

De La Puente was a camp body last year too. That worked out well for us.

Yeah it did! King is the obvious because we saw him play. You never know who else could step up.

What ever happened to the WR that we were so high on last offseason, I can't remember his name, He had a very good preseason. They gave that final spot to Roby instead of him!!!!

Joe Morgan, but he got injured and they placed him on IR.

I think he's our property for 2012 training camp.

I liked King and Tanner.

I think this Tanner kid could blossom into a good #3 WR similar to what the GB have in Jordi Nelson.

Okay, I am an idiot...what's a "futures" contract?

Kind of like an invite to training camp.

I really like King, Tanner.

Good stuff, interested in what defensive free-agents will be available in the league also, especially at LB.

Well I wrote about this in the "search for a new D coordinator thread:"



Especially, ATL's Lofton would be an intriguing option to take a closer look at.

There is NO way Atlanta is not signing Lofton. Forget about it! He is just coming off his rookie contract and the kid has been real good.

Yeah, but it might not be up to them if he signs or not, because he is UFA not RFA, so he might not want to sign if they f.e. try to low-ball him with a weak offer.

But, I'm willing to correct my earlier statement: if he makes it to the FA market then he'd be a player that might be an option to take a closer look at.

Thanks, Papz!

According to the website, the six has increased to ten:

QB Sean Canfield,
G Nick Howell,
DT Mitch King,
CB Kmaal McIlwain,
DB Cord Parks,
WR Andy Tanner,
RB Chris Taylor,
T Phil Trautwein,
T Fenuki Tupou,
DB Josh Victorian

Is he a fit in the 3-4? They may not wanna pay him as much as a 3-4 ILB versus a 4-3 MLB.

He's gonna get paid pretty well. If he's a bad fit in a 3-4, I'd be hesitant to sign him to a huge deal.

Nolan is going to keep the 4-3 in ATL, so that won't be the deciding factor.


NFL.com news: New coordinator Nolan thinks Falcons can soar with 4-3 defense

Wow, I can't see him keeping it for long. The guy is a 3-4 guru.

Might be good for us they spend a ton on Lofton then switch to the 3-4 and he becomes mediocre and overpaid.

From what I gathered from the article Smith wanted to keep the 4-3... maybe another dumb mistake from an idiot with the history for such behavior.

The article does state that he has had 4-3 as the base in 7 of the years he has been the DC and, conversely, he has had 3-4 as the base for also 7 years, so I guess it won't matter that much and he'll certainly use 3-4 a lot even if it won't be the official base for the defense.

IDK about anybody else, but when I hear "futures contracts" it sounds like they're signing 16-year old kids. :)