I fully expect Vilma to get at least a year suspension; I would not at all be surprised if Goodell slaps him with a lifetime ban.

release vilma and harper. bring in hawthorne or lofton and dwight lowery

That's just crazy!

We don't know yet if Vilma will get any punishments from the BountyGate and what they'll be in nature if he gets some. Also, we don't know what his health status is, so he might very well be worth keeping.

Releasing Harper would bring with it a little over $17M cap hit, which would in practice bankrupt the Saints when it comes to their salary cap and ability to sign any players - they'd in fact have to release quite a few players just to cover that $17M cap hit.

There's not enough restructuring that can be done to recover from Harpers cap hit upon release

We may indeed be looking at suspensions but we don't know how many of those players are still actually on our team. I'm not going to jump to conclusions.

@FinSaint thanks for the education on harper release. maybe a trade then? Vilma's cap number exceeds his value given his recent play, injuries, and upcoming suspension. purging this underperforming defense is needed to pay brees. if not this team die an ugly death this year.

The Saint's would be "on the hook" for that same sum if they were to trade Harper, because that is the amount of guaranteed money left on his contract.

If Vilma is suspended for the year and he remains on the Saints' roster, it will free up over $5M in salary cap, so I would not do anything hasty in regards to Vilma.

I think Vilma should retire if he is suspended. Regardless we have to let him go,he’s become to fragile. I love his veteran mind but his body is finished imho. As for harper,I don’t really like him as a safety in real life but man he’s a beast on Madden. To bad he’s not as good in real life as he is in madden. To me we need some one with great hands at strong safety,not so much of a hard hitter. I wish we could get Troy Polamalu,he is my most favorite safety of all time.

I bet Vilma gets a year.