You are directly relating Brees' contract to the decline of the offensive line. I say that is completely wrongheaded.

- Stinchcomb - Retired due to injury problems, what are you gonna do about that. It's not like Strief has been a big disappointment as his replacement. Stinchcomb retired before 2011 season, a year before Brees' deal. Completely irrelevant statement

- Nicks - Left because Tampa gave him a contact way over market value. He's barely played since then and didn't make their offensive line any better when he did. You cannot say with any reasonable thought that the Saints made a bad decision in letting him go. Nicks was an ALL-PRO in his last year here, as in one of the top 2 guards in the NFL. Yes, he was going to command a lot of money, but only $2 million more than Grubbs, who makes still $7.2 million a year. There's no way of knowing what would have happened to Nicks if he had stayed

- Goodwin - We had him on the cheap. It possibly was a mistake to let him go, but by the last year of his three-year deal with the Niners he was washed up, as he has been this season with the Saints. We just would've been complaining about him in 2013 instead of 2014. DLP was a fine replacement for a while, then regressed. Brees' contract had nothing to do with the decline in his performance. Exactly. We get bargain-basement centers and let Goodwin (in his prime) go because we couldn't afford him. What could a center who makes $2-3 million a year do for us?

- Evans - Chronic injuries have diminished him as a player. Again, I fail to see how Brees' contract is responsible for that. never said it was

- Bushrod - Was above average for us, but never a great pass blocker. Went to the Bears and is barely average for them. Is this the kind of guy Brees should take less money in order to keep? And we ended up replacing him with Armstead, who is already a better player than Bushrod ever was and has potential to be an elite tackle. making the Pro Bowl 2 years in a row is only above average? I wish we had an "above average" line now.



Frankly, I think if we had Lelito playing center instead of Goodwin this year, and had Armstead not gotten hurt, we are probably talking about our playoff matchup with the Cardinals right now. It's easy to ***** and moan about everything under the sun, but how about using your common sense and understanding it's not as simple as all that.