You are neglecting to mention that Nicks already had the bad foot before he even left. He got the MSRA as result a foot surgery, which was needed because he had a history of chronic injury history there. That was no secret. There were also rumors that he was not the best guy in the locker room even then - not totally farfetched considering we got him in the fourth round of the draft on similar concerns.

You are also neglecting to mention that we had plenty of space to sign Nicks if we had wanted to. Loomis/Payton/whoever makes these decisions decided he wasn't worth what he was demanding. You are also neglecting to mention that Brees cap hit in 2012 was only 10.4 million, and you are also neglecting to mention that the Saints had well more than the $3 million cap space that would have been needed to re-sign Nicks instead of going out and getting Grubbs. And in that scenario, you would kiss any chance of getting Curtis Lofton goodbye. IIRC we also had to sign Colston that year and an extension for Greer.

You can call that a mistake if you want but it has nothing whatsoever to do with being handcuffed by Brees salary. Those are personnel decisions, plain and simple. Blaming Brees contract for the offensive line's decline in performance 3 years later is just flat out simplistic thinking and quite frankly, kind of retarded.

I am kind of disgusted by people calling out Brees for being selfish. He has done more for the Saints and the town than any other player and perhaps any other person in franchise history. He deserves every penny he has gotten and more. Going after him for being selfish is just childish and shows a severe lack of brainpower, for all the reasons I have pointed out in this thread and many more which I'm sure we are not privy to because we are not in the front office and locker room every day.

I need to step away from this board for a while because people are just getting absolutely ridiculous with all this crap. I'm embarrassed for some of you, I really am.

I agree with your sentiment. Blaming Brees and his contract for the decline of the Saints is an easy way to absolve the front office for its lack of foresight. Brees's contract was a looming issue for three seasons before he became a free agent. Either the front office didn't care or they were naive in their belief that Brees would not seek market value. Even in seeking that value, Brees gave them a very flexible deal in the first three years. These last two are the paying of the piper.

What the front office should have done was in the season following the Super Bowl, they should have offered to renegotiate with Brees and pay him more in the final years of his previous deal in exchange for some guaranteed years at a lower cost in the future. They chose to ride out the deal he signed when he first came to New Orleans and in return have to deal with that now and in the future. That isn't Drew's fault, it's on the front office for its lack of either foresight (which I doubt) or concern.