Like jnormand I have seen it all from day 1 at Tulane stadium. I am here and always will here as a saints fan. Most of us old timers did not drink the koolaid and look at a team like this as a starting place for what will come.

Is there a foundation to build on? I have seen worse so there is a plus. Now the hard question.

How long will it take? Can not take as long as it did before just to become a winner. Or will it? fan in me says nahhhh

Lessons learned? Mickie magic pencil can only do so much year in and year out.

Quick look at our team
Average age 26.15 not bad ranks us 17th in the NFL.
Rams are the youngest team at 24.98. How did they do it? The draft. The cap will catch up to them just like the sea hawks.

Now here is the real issue at hand
2015 New Orleans Saints ranked 32 in the cap
Cap money used? $145,092,430
Cap space left $56,406

Dead money? $30,784,986

There in lies the issue at hand. that is a lot of talent we can not field for whatever issue.

When do we honestly have a shot of getting out from under this mess?

2016 cap money spent? $151,699,720
oppsss over by $-1,699,720 not bad we have seen worse. A silver lining?
Dead cap? $14,893,097 getting better but still #1 in the NFL. Then again anything looks better from the bottom up.

2017 cap money spent? $87,684,281

Now this is the gold age of the cap for the saints. Or is it

Drew Brees QB 36 $27,400,000 UFA
Max Unger C 29$6,000,000 UFA
Marques Colston WR 32 $5,900,000 UFA
David Hawthorne ILB 30 $4,510,000 UFA
Kenny Vaccaro SS 24 $2,998,772 UFA
Ramon Humber