Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

Saints K Garrett Hartley triggered an escalator in his contract, raising his 2013 salary from $734,000 to $2.166 million. Hartley made 18-of-22 field goals and all 57 extra point opportunities in 2012, a year after missing the entire season with a hip injury. He beat out veteran John Kasay for kicking duties in training camp. Hartley has three years left on his contract.

Saints FS Malcolm Jenkins triggered an escalator in his rookie deal, raising his 2013 salary from $2.264 million to $2.414 million. Jenkins started 13 games in 2012 and racked up a career-high 94 tackles before landing on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. However, he and teammate Roman Harper graded out as Pro Football Focus' two worst safeties on the season as the New Orleans defense was historically awful. Jenkins enters the final year of his deal and will have to learn the 3-4 defense.

Jimmy Graham triggered an escalator in his rookie deal, raising his 2013 salary from $575,000 to $1.323 million. Graham battled issues with dropping passes in 2012 as he dropped 15 balls, but he had an excuse with his wrist injury. He recently underwent surgery on the balky wrist and should return to his normally dominant self in 2013. Graham is entering the final year of his contract, so look for the Saints to lock him up this offseason. He's a prime bounce-back candidate next season.


New Orleans Saints Team News - Rotoworld.com

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

REDO

bot bad not good but still not bad

ok the CB AND DL play gives him a small, very small pass. i still want to see him play with another cover safety for a year

I am ok with it

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

hartley = BETTER RESTRUCT 2.1 mill can sign 4 rookies
jenkens = get your head out ur asse but excused from slight raise
jimmy G. = will get back to 2011 monster and will cherish huge raise.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

We have a $2.6 million kicker and a $3 million Punter?

Wow.

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hartley is losing trust and confidence, next season will have more stress with the coach staring down his but.

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Punter is worth every penny. End of comment.

BUT the kicker - Fartley - uh NO!

When he makes me so nervous on EXTRA POINTS much less 20 yarders that I'm calling for the return of John Kasey (who is 43 and in my opinion has 2 years leg left in him still), then Fartley either restructures or can bite me.

I know Coach Payton has a soft spot for Hartley but man, 2.6 mill against the cap? that's definitely a pet project that could literally BOOT us out a playoff birth or lose a playoff game.

I know, I know, he kicked the big-one... but since then we discovered he was using Adderall to perform. He obviously does not have ADHD because if he did he would have Adderall legally and be more focused. He semi-sucked again in 2012.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

2.6 for Hartley, another reason it's time to cut him

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I heard Jon Kasey is still in good shape

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Disagree, its the least important position in all of football. End of discussion.:p

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$3 million Punter?

redo

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

I promise you that Mickey and Sean have been looking at everyone's performance vs pay and have been getting poised to clean everything up since his reinstatement.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

He also does kick offs.:p

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I'm not arguing, but if every player is worth every penny, we'll have 19.5 players on the roster for 2013.

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With the shorter field that's less important than ever.

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Funny, that sounds exactly like you're arguing. :p

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Who said every player was worth every penny? I'm pretty sure the comment was about one player, and that player is the best punter in football. 3 million isn't that much for the BEST player at any position. Not by today's standards.

We have a 1.8 million dollar punter and a .8 million dollar kicker.

We just over pay them.

The NFL is changing the length of the field?

On punts and knockoffs Moresteads value is diminished because of poor special teams play and out inability to tackle.

It may just be me but it seems opponents in 2012 took it out of the end zone more on us than we did on them.

They know we can't tackle.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

Totally disagree. The guy is a stud at giving us great field position after every punt.

Hartley on the other hand is a complete surprise...I actually thought he'd be one of the first to get cut. I like Kasay soooo much better.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

No, they moved the kick-off up 5 yards, so the distance to the endzone is approximately 5 yards shorter.:p

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I doubt teams are scared of the 3 extra yards they have to go. Thats barely over 1/2 of a single play in todays NFL.

You're an engineer aren't you? :-P

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

I was, and the striping on an NFL field isn't lazer like precise. A simple micrometer would easily show that its not exactly 5 yards. :p I'd estimate at least a 1 inch bandwidth of accuracy from sideline to sideline.

It is possible, and quite likely, that at some point along that line it does measure exactly 5 yards.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

Careful. precision could rewrite some record books.

So, your theorizing that the width of stripes on an NFL regulation field is to compensate for margin of error?

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He gave us a lot better than an extra 3 yards. His distance and hang time had him on pace to break the record for net average in a season, and I believe he did break the record. He gave the defense great field position countless times. It isn't his fault if our defense gave up 95 yard drives.

And he bailed the offense out of some tight spots quite a bit, also. That is very valuable. You can't put the blame on him just because his team didn't capitalize on the field position every time. Do I think people should make millions for kicking a ball? No. But this is professional sports, if you want to keep the best players you have to pay them. If the Saints had let Morstead test the waters, somebody else would have paid him what he wanted.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

Totally agree.
Hartley is NOT WORTH IT.

Morestud, on the other hand, is worth every penny. He (with the moved up placement) has eliminated big-play kick-off returns. His monster punts also are invaluable in the field position war.

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Morstead net average =44.8
NFL net average = 41.4

He gave us an extra 3.4 yards (my bad, I rounded down).

Thats actually 2/3 of ONE single offensive snap. (I should have been more precise)

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To average 3 more yards than the overall league average is very significant. You are talking about the average for an entire season. This means he is bombing footballs with regularity to make up for times when he might be kicking a ball 30 yards because he's trying to pin the other team while kicking past mid field. You know, the pooch punt? This is why I specifically pointed out hang time as well as distance.

And by the way, net average does not take into account the amount of return yards, or lack thereof.

You have bad teams with punters just bombing it as far as they can, and then you have teams with good offenses, whose punters have to use more precision in the form of corner kicks and hang time. And when good punters punt from long distances, they are able to angle it where there isn't a big return, AND still get good hang time as well.

If a running back averages 5 yards per carry and another averages 4, that's only a 1 yard difference on the field, at face value. But over the course of an entire year it adds up to a significant amount of yards, and means that the player averaging 5 yards is making more big plays. See my point? Just saying it's only 3 yards is a rather gross oversimplification.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

I understand your point completely, I just don't think the difference between the best punter versus an average punter has any effect on the W-L total at all.

Its why only 1 or 2 punters are selected each year, and nearly every time the team picking one has extra picks, and they're never selected early.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

Excellent, I sense a new debate about the importance of the punter forming! :twisted:

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And on that basis, this thread should be moved to the conspiracy area LOL. :idea:

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Morstead for the first time in his years with the saints had a chance to show us how good he is as a punter. offense gave him more three and outs in 2012 than any previous year.

what impressed me most last year was the improvement in corner kicks. inside the 10 was great. i look for better next year in coffin corner kicking. lost art and a deadly skill for any punter to have.

sorry real old school and really appreciate this skill. This could mean the difference in 2 to 3 wins a year

redo his contract to a longer term and kick in the signing bonus to reduce the cap hit.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

So when do we start calling them "Elite" punters who command that type of money?

I just still laugh when people use it for QB's so why not punters? LOL

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Don't say you're sorry. Field position is still critical, and while the average fan might not understand that, the rest of us DO understand it.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

I hear Tulane has an excellent kicker

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Punters are far from the most impactful players, I agree, but they aren't paid like other players either. 3 million sounds ridiculous, and really it is, but as compared to the best players at all other positions it amounts to nickels and dimes.

Field position leads to points scored, and points disallowed. That is very important. There aren't many punters or kickers drafted because each team only needs one, unlike other positions. And since you only need one, teams go after the best of the best. Once they've filled those spots, there isn't a reason to draft for "depth" at punter or kicker, lol. That's all I'm saying. Not disputing that making millions for kicking is dumb, but you gotta have those guys anyway.

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At least Morstead can make open field tackles, which is more than I can say about most of the punters across the league.

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

What makes our punter valuable?

Two steps - nearly impossible to block
Hang time - still avg around 5 seconds (which should cover 50 yds)
Distance - read below the piece from Oct 12 last year.

Everything else is on the tackling IMO

New Orleans Saints punter Thomas Morstead in rare air -- just like his kicks: First-and-10 | NOLA.com

Re: Saints Salary Triggers hit
 

Graham's salary is a joke compared to our kickers / punters

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I know what game you're referring to. You must have missed his 2nd attempt in that game. I've seen pee-wee players make better attempts.