jeanpierre

Forecast: Saints stumble into offseason

Ralph Malbrough , WWL 11:58 AM. CDT March 16, 2016

The Saints had two realistic choices to make after 2015: Redo Brees' contract, add free agents with the cap space and make one last run in 2016-17 or trade Brees and start a complete rebuild from the ground up with draft picks and cap space.

Instead they have chosen door #3.

The New Orleans Saints are barely a week into the 2016 offseason and appear to be running in place, but making good time. Years of bad salary cap management and worse drafts have finally caught up to them. The 2016 Saints season now rests on digging some useful players from the free agency recycle bin and having an incredible draft, which the Saints haven't done in a decade. The 2006 draft is pre-Obama administration old people.

Are you ready to talk yourself into believing a bunch of over 30 years olds, beat-up veterans or low-cost no-names are going to fix the Saints problems at positions like guard, defensive line and linebacker?

Getting excited about guys like James Laurinaitis is like getting excited over buying an already opened iPad at Target. It might be fantastic, but there's a reason you are buying an already opened $400 iPad for only $150 dollars. Know what I'm saying?

So far in free agency the Saints have lost Ben Watson, Khiry Robinson, and Rafael Bush, kept Michael Houmani, tendered their restricted free agents, and added Indianapolis tight end Coby Fleener. The Fleener contract only looks ridiculous if you fail to factor in the Venezuelan-like inflation all NFL contracts got hit with this off season. The Saints nearly $10 million in cap space was the equivalent of walking into Tiffany's with $35 dollars and a bag of wooden nickels. We should probably be grateful they were able to add the guy who has hair as fabulous as Fabio and will catch 60-70 passes in 2016.

The day Sean Payton said he was coming back was the day and the Saints basically announced they were going to roll with 37-year-old Drew Brees until the wheels came off. It was "Screw the future. We have to WIN RIGHT NOW." The problem is the Saints appear to want to be cautious in free agency as if they are in a complete rebuild situation, while they are in fact dealing with an aging elite quarterback who in 2015 started to break down physically. The Saints don't have the luxury of doing some 3-year-plan and hoping 39-year-old Brees is going to lead them to a Super Bowl in 2018.

Which of course brings us to the Saints biggest problem as far as free agency; Drew Brees' $30 million cap hit for 2016. The Junior Galette contract fiasco has put the Saints in position to need cap relief from Drew Brees and so far it hasn't happened. The Saints dropped hints a Drew Brees extension would happen and cure the salary cap ills, but the Saints and Brees appear locked in contract standoff exactly like the one they had in 2012. The difficulty of getting a Brees extension strikes me as odd since Joe Flacco and Tom Brady both redid their contracts before free agency and it would seem both sides would have a road map to go by, except nothing got done.

So here we are.

I'd argue the Saints 2016 roster is worse than the 2006 roster Payton inherited when he arrived. The 2005 Saints went 3-13, but Katrina wrecked what had been a repeatedly underachieving team. The 2016 Saints without Drew Brees are maybe the worst team in football. They managed to lose to the 3-13 Titans at home with Brees, in case you forgot.

What team has a roster inferior to the Saints? Maybe Cleveland? And are they even an NFL team?

The Saints at minimum need two defensive linemen, a linebacker, and a corner and safety for depth to help the 31st ranked defense and a guard on offense. You think they are going to find six good players in the draft? Let's just say I have doubts.

In 2006, probably the greatest draft in Saints history, they found 4 rookie starters (Reggie Bush, Roman Harper, Jahri Evans, and Marques Colston). On the brightside, those kinds of drafts only happen every decade or so, which means the Saints are due for another! HOORAY!

If you will recall the 2006 Saints added those 4 rookie starters, plus 5 veteran starters from trades and free agency (Drew Brees, Scott Fujita, Jeff Faine, Hollis Thomas and Mark Simoneau) and they went 10-6. It was basically the perfect off season. Everything Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton did turned golden.

They will need something similar in 2016 and so far they don't appear off to a great start.

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

SmashMouth

The door is still open for a Brees contract redo.

Seer1

And they will as long as those old time D coaches keep laying around uselessly on the floor for them to stumble over...

hagan714

Once again i can rip the saints on contracts in the off season. Rip the dead cap money. Rip the drew situation.

But I am going with a cap shooters mentality.

we can not keep this streak of throwing snake eyes year in and year out.

Lucky seven is over due

Come on baby mama needs a new pair of shoes.

CheramieIII

It has been in the press that Brees and his agent will sit down with the Saints in the next 2 weeks. I bet it's happening right now. If Brees doesn't stay because he won't accept a restructure that kinda tarnishes his image in my eyes. Look what New Orleans did for him. Only made him the best QB in the NFL and won him a Superbowl. This is the reason why Drew will restructure guys and gals. Simmer down now! All will be right with the universe.

I really like what the Saints have done so far, Experienced LB Depth, Great Special Teams and solidified TE. We will move Peat to LG and pickup another O Line veteran. We will go after young DT's in the draft and A'Shaun is our man. Get used to it. I think we go for all defense in the draft with the exception of maybe 1 QB round 3 or 4.

Golf and sex are about the only things you can enjoy without being good at them.
Jimmy Demaret

AsylumGuido

There is no rush on a Brees restructure. I don't expect anything until after free agency, for sure, and possibly even after the draft, when Loomis will have a better idea of what sort of 2016 cap space is required.

Danno

Overly negative article. OG's and backup DB's aren't expensive, and not too hard to find.

We basically "need" one more D-lineman, which is the most difficult of all to obtain. We have a few rookies from last year that show promise, and we should be able to squeeze another season out of Kevin Williams in our DT rotation and this draft is the deepest at D-Line we've seen in a very long time.

Also it should be pointed out that we've ranked in the top 10 with less talent on defense before.

frydaddy

Someone must've pissed in that guy's cheerios this morning. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I think it's a great idea to eat as much of that 30 million dollars THIS YEAR. Enough with the pushing of massive dollars into the future. Our cap situation looks great next year, don't do anything to screw that up. There's no reason to now. All the stud free agents are off the board already. I'm sure if they could have lured a big name here then something would have been done with Drew's contract already. But it didn't happen, so why push for it now? Also, the writer completely overlooks the fact that we had a solid draft last year, and that this year's class looks deep in the positions we need it to be. I don't get the pessimism. Do I expect this team to be in super bowl contention next season? No, but I fully expect that they will be better. And with some actual cap room next year we'll be in serious contention in 2017.

Mais forte do que a morte

jeanpierre

One of the key acquisitions in the 2006 haul in free agency was Hollis Thomas...

His impact gets overlooked and is why I thought the Saints should follow their blueprint and sign NT Damon Harrison...

But the Big difference now is our inability this season to do anything about it in free agency because of poor cap mgmt...

And we're basically hamstrung to remedy our roster in 2016...

if the article is negative, it's because of the situation we're in and the personnel and cap mismanagement that has brought us to this...

Coach Payton and staff will earn their checks this year if we're to improve...

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

Rugby Saint II

We may have stumbled but we haven't fallen on our face either. Loomis has a plan for things to work out financially. He is good with the numbers but he spends an awful lot of Bensons money. I wonder if this is the result of tightening the reins from ownership? He does appear to be close with getting the cap under control.