Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

Trust me, it was the NFL that said it was a naked grab, not the Players Association (NFLPA)

I'm very glad that none of us are Mickey Loomis, who is a cap guy that understands how these things work. He is simply going to sit tight and keep his mouth shut until all the facts are in. Then they will hammer out a deal.

When Graham has 4 TDs after the first two games of 2014, you'll be how amazingly quickly all of this will have been forgotten.

BTW you cannot cut a player who is not on your team. A franchised free agent is still a free agent. JG could sign an offer sheet with another team at any time. Please note for the record that he has not done so, has not talked about doing so, or seems to have any interest in doing so.

All the Saints can do at this point is rescind the franchise tender. At that point, JG is a completely free agent who can sign with any team for any price with absolutely no compensation to the Saints under any circumstance.

I'll admit that JG and his agent are not just sideline sitters on this issue. I guess they could have refused to press the issue and keep the NFLPA from filing. The designation issue is a difference of potentially $5 million a year. Only a fool would not at least explore the possibility of getting such a bump.

Even if JG wanted out, the smart play is to still go through the hearing and get the results of the arbitration. If his franchise number is actually $12 million, then even if he wanted to negotiate with other teams (which again I don't believe) then that would give his agent leverage in the contract negotiation.

Honestly if you're sick of it, just ignore it until after the ruling. Probably 2 seconds after that, our All Pro tight end will be resigned to a huge long term contract and all will be forgotten. All you really need to do is wait for training camp. All will be done by then one way or the other.

SFIAH

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

A cornerback on Graham should leave the other receivers open, so what happened in Seattle? Offensive line? Brees?

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

They held us all game. And since we fell behind we were forced to throw. And oh yeah, they were the best team in the NFL.

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

Colston had the best game any receiver had in Seattle all season.

Re: Saints' Jimmy Graham a franchise tight end, clearly not a wide receiver
 

All can can say is thank God that there is someone else with enough understanding and patience to attempt to battle this wave of total misunderstanding.

You have my total respect, SFIAH, especially having to be in "Atlanta Hell".

:bng: