You're right. Crippled is a little harsh. How about hog tied, hobbled, banged up or in a bad need of crutches?
The long and short of it is Drew's contract weakened the team tremendously. I love the man, but crippled isn't far off.

Who were the casualties of Drews contract? We have hashed this out on these boards time and time again. Bushrod wasn't a Brees casualty he was over paid by Chicago, and is no where near a 7m/year LT..

Nicks signed with Tampa Bay on March 14th of 2012
Drew and the Saints didn't come to an agreement until July 13th of 2012.
Drews contract was cap relief until 2013.

There is no plausible evidence that Drews contract has weakened this team in even the sliest way.

So who? How?

The only issue I remember is if Brees had signed earlier, we would have franchised Nicks and he would still be a Saint. But since negotiations dragged on, we couldn't franchise Nicks and we ended up losing him.

Brees contact didn't hurt us, but the negotiation process involved in his deal sure did.

Drew was Franchise tagged remember, he just didnt sign it because of the whole ordeal behind what the tag was worth? We can only FT 1 player and a whole lot of what caused things to drag out was not the negotiation but the entire argument between the league and the NFLPA over what that tag value was.. The whole was it is first or second tag issue.

The appeal over the tag was won July 3rd and 10 days later Drew and the Saints came to an agreement.

The Front Office could have tagged Nicks and offered Drew the contract they ended up giving him and we would have had both.

My point was that we'd planned to franchise Nicks. We couldn't risk losing Brees so obviously we franchised Brees instead of Nicks, thereby allowing Nicks to go to Tampa.

Had we worked out a deal with Brees before the franchise deadline, which we tried to do, then we could have franchised Nicks.

Brees' contract didn't cost us Nicks, but the timing of it certainly did.

Who were the casualties of Drews contract? We have hashed this out on these boards time and time again. Bushrod wasn't a Brees casualty he was over paid by Chicago, and is no where near a 7m/year LT..

Nicks signed with Tampa Bay on March 14th of 2012
Drew and the Saints didn't come to an agreement until July 13th of 2012.
Drews contract was cap relief until 2013.

There is no plausible evidence that Drews contract has weakened this team in even the sliest way.

So who? How?

It's not who we lost......it's who we can't sign to become a Saint because it's cost prohibitive. This is where my issue lies. Does he earn his money? Oh hell yes!
But do I wish we could afford to spend enough money to get top tier players in FA? Yes.

2012 - Drew Brees 2012 cap hit 11.7m from restructure extension. Drew's new contract has a cap hit of 10.4 million once again creating Cap 1.3m Space... Which top tier free agent did we sign?

2013- Drew Brees 2013 cap hit from the restructure extension 13.4m, new contract cap hit 17.4m . We sign the best free agent acquisition of the season Keenan Lewis.

1. New Orleans does not ever go after top tier free agents.... Sproles, Lewis, Sharper - all gold mines, non considered top tier when we nabbed them.

2. NFL GMs use the Salary Cap just like most people use Credit Cards. They live near maxed-out and only make room when they want to buy something. Mickey Loomis lives between .5 and 3m from the cap, when he wants something he makes some room (E.g. Smith pay cut). If Drew's contract was only 10m a year Smith and a few others wouldn't have been asked to take cuts or restructures and we would still be .5m from the cap.

Drew has restructured once already and he will do it again when it is needed. Presently it isn't needed as Loomis will make a cap payment cutting Smith and then buy something else.

So in closing, we do not go after top tier FAs even when we have money and Drew's contract hasn't prevented anything as Loomis makes a payment for new toys.

If you are really set on someone's contract being limiting to this team get all up in Will Smith azz.

In no way would I give up Drew for the cap space, but that's just me. I think the team is built around him and he carries it well. The Saints have been one of the best teams in the league since he's been here and I don't think that's going to change much over the length of his contract.

That being said..I can understand the people that feel Drew's contract puts the team in a bind when looking for available talent.



In 2012

The Saints signed Curtis Lofton, he was considered the top FA available at his position.
Scout.com: 2012 NFL Free Agency MLB Rankings

Also, Ben Grubbs was the only other 5 star rated OG.
Scout.com: 2012 NFL Free Agency OG Rankings



At the time (thank goodness for seeing what he could be) Keenan Lewis was not considered a major free agent. He was ranked as the 6th best available free agent corner.
Scout.com: 2013 NFL Free Agency CB Rankings



Sproles was considered top tier. Scout.com graded him as a 5 star running back. And considered him the #1 unrestricted free agent running back. The only free agents that graded out higher, were restricted and retained by their teams.
Scout.com: 2011 NFL Free Agency RB Rankings



That's a legitimate statement but the opposite would then also be true. If Loomis had more money to play with, he'd go for higher priced free agents and stay within .5m of the cap.



It's going to take more than Will's salary just to retain the players we have. We will have cap casualties or players we would have kept if we had more money to spend. Because of the cap situation we will not be able to pursue some of the players that could address some of the teams needs e.g. Vonte Davis, Rodgers-Cromartie, Alex Mack, Brandon Spikes etc...




It's not just Drew's contract though. There are a few contracts that are higher than average for the position. With salary caps, it's all a balancing game. You have to balance studs, very good players and journeymen. The more studs you have the fewer very good players you'll be able to afford and the more journeyman you end up with.

I gotta believe we do go after the best FA available that we can afford and if we can afford top tier free agents we go after them.

Last season there was less money to play with so there weren't any really big name signings. Most of us were really impressed with what Loomis was able to do. I expect him to impress again this year but this season will be even tighter.



Truer words have never been spoken.