When you gut your proven linemen all in the name of saving money for a monster QB salary, you get what you get... Hate to say it but I don't really believe Drew can hold up to the pounding he's going to take in the next few weeks.

It is, what it is....

Sorry but this is where the BS has to come to an end.

Lost Goodwin and Stinchcomb in 2011 - nothing to do with Drews Contract
Lost Bushrod and Nicks in 2012 -Drews Contract was at the start of 2012 and his new contract lowered his 2012 cap from 11.7M to 10.4M so Nicks was not fall out of that.

Bushrod wanted more than he was worth period.

Suck it up ladies... This was the first year Drews contract effected anyone else.

Brown is starting because Brown was hurt and came back able to start.. not because we couldn't afford anyone else. DLP was starting before Drew's contract effected our cap and so was Grubs.

This thread will be educational, like it or not.

I think the only lineman it really affected was Nicks. But thats a two-way street. Brees' agent and Loomis couldn't get a deal worked out in time and we weren't able to franchise Nicks, or max out his deal.

So was it Drew's agent? Or was it Loomis?

Either way we still made a fair offer for Nicks, he even said so in the press. He chose to bolt for a few million more.

But yeah, the whole blame Drew's contract has to stop. If I had to blame anyone's contract I'd blame Will Smith's, Jonathan Vilma's and Roman Harper's. They added up to more cap than Drew's contract did.

I wonder if Nicks had to do it all over again after what has happened to him in Tampa if he would have stayed for a couple million less.