WhoDat!656

Will Smith obviously isn't worth $10 million per year anymore. Jon Vilma isn't worth $6 million. And as much as it pains me to say it as a longtime Roman Harper apologist, the New Orleans Saints safety isn't worth the $5.35 million in salary and bonuses he's scheduled to receive this season.

New Orleans Saints defenders Jonathan Vilma (51), Brodrick Bunkley (77) and Will Smith (91) help to stop Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back LeGarrette Blount (27) during a goal line stand at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, October 21, 2012. (Photo by Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Especially not with this team right now, which so desperately needs an extreme makeover on defense and has so little salary-cap space to work with.

But where should the Saints draw the line? Those are the difficult financial and emotional decisions the team will need to make during the next two weeks before the start of the NFL's new league year and the free-agent signing period March 12.

If the price was right - say $3 million per year or less - I would absolutely make room for all three guys. Their veteran leadership, smarts and popularity within the locker room still has some genuine value as the Saints make their dramatic switch to a 3-4 system and new coordinator Rob Ryan.

And I especially think Harper can be a big asset as an attacking play-maker, like he was under former coordinator Gregg Williams (there's that old apologist in me, again).

But depending on whether the three players are willing to take such a deep cut, it might indeed be time for the Saints to simply rip off the Band-Aid.

If ever there was a time to blow up an old defense and start fresh with a new one, this is it in New Orleans.

I do still like a lot of the defensive players on the Saints' roster as "complementary" players (which I will rank from top to bottom in a separate post this afternoon).

And I do genuinely believe the defense can bounce back quickly to at least sniff middle-of-the-pack status.

What they don't have are any of the dynamic difference-makers that can routinely disrupt an opposing offense. What they need are impact players like Smith and Vilma were in their primes.

And even though it might not make perfect fiscal sense to go all-in on that type of high-priced player in free agency, no options should be off the table right now.

A pass-rusher like the Dallas Cowboys' Anthony Spencer or the Houston Texans' Connor Barwin would sure make all the rest of the Saints' window dressing look a little prettier.

It is possible for the Saints to squeeze in such a player under the salary cap. Just last year, for example, the Saints signed guard Ben Grubbs to a five-year, $36 million contract that had a first-year cap value of only $2.7 million. Obviously, that's just delaying an inevitable future price tag, but it might be worth it while the Saints are still in their championship window.

Regardless of whether the Saints opt for that approach or decide to go for three or four second-tier free agents like they've done in recent years, any kind of makeover will require cap space that they don't currently have available.

It probably will require the Saints to bid farewell to one, two or all three of those veteran guys that were at the heart of their Super Bowl championship team.

New Orleans Saints should draw the line around $3 million per year with Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma, Roman Harper | NOLA.com

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."