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I have to say I agree ...

Defensive Tackle Nick Fairley is Priority #1 for New Orleans Saints Offseason

Nick Fairley signed a one-year contract with a $3 million dollar base salary that proved to be one of the best bargains in the NFL as he had a career year in New Orleans. Fairley finished the year with 6.5 sacks and 29 tackles, both single-year career highs.

In what was surely an emotional roller coaster of a year, Fairley got the recognition he deserved and hadn’t experienced since his days in Detroit, but also had to deal with the tragic passing of his mother in the middle of the 2016 regular season. Now Fairley is entering free agency for the third year in a row, but his focus can be squarely on football - and the New Orleans Saints’ focus should be squarely on Nick Fairley.

Fairley has already gone on record saying he wants to stay in New Orleans. Sean Payton has returned the sentiment, responding that the Saints would love to have Fairley back on the Saints in 2017. Fairley had a career year here, says he feels comfortable playing here, and is only a couple of hours away from his hometown of Mobile, Alabama. He’s even gone further to say New Orleans would have an upper hand in free agency dealings over other teams vying for his services.

With approximately $30 million in cap space in 2017, the Saints have the cap space to bring back Fairley on a two-year deal, and he should be the top priority for the Saints this offseason.

You could argue there are bigger and more pressing needs for the Saints right now. A pass rushing specialist opposite should-be-All-Pro Cam Jordan is essential. Failing to improve the secondary would be almost criminal at this point. Even with an offensive line that over-performed, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

More here ...

spkb25

Have to do so carefully, all for bringing him back, but do not want to give too large and long a contract and have it blow up in our face.

Beastmode

Hopefully we have learned some lessons. Make it more performance based and no long term contract, two years tops. We are just getting out of this mess.

voodooido

3 yr at 12 to 14 million should be the max. He played good this year and could be a center piece on the line. Save some money for cb, lb and de.

SaintFanInATLHELL

The Saints are certainly within their rights to do that. Fairley as a free agent is within his rights to field and accept other offers.

My questions are:

1. If another team makes a bigger, better, longer, with more guaranteed money offer to Fairley, should he in fact take the Saints hometown discount?

2. If the two year performance based contract isn't competitive vs the market, should the Saints sweeten their offer, or let Fairley go?

3. If the Saints let Fairley go because their contract offer isn't competitive, then how do you fill that now vacant slot? And at what cost?

The contract you are describing was Fairley's contract last year. He produced. So now his value in the market is higher.

The real question is what is his real value to the Saints and are they willing to make an offer that represents that value?

Free agents cannot be strongarmed in contract negotiations. There are 31 other teams and many of them have a ton of money to spend. So offers need to both be competitive in the market and represent the true value to the team.

SFIAH

Super Bowl Championships: New Orleans Saints:1, Carolina:0, Atlanta Chokers: STILL ZERO

Only Atlanta choked in an unchokable situation... Life is definitely good.

AsylumGuido

The two part question is, is there another free agent out there that can perform as well as Fairley did for the Saints this past season and at a lower cost?

If the Saints went with another free agent that wouldn't perform as well the Saints would be weakened.

If there was another free agent out there that the Saints feel could perform as well could they get him at a lower cost?

As SFIAH said, the Saints, nor any other franchise, are in a position to strong-arm any free agent. The market will set the price.

Personally, I would be more comfortable with the Saints paying up for Fairley than paying less for any other free agent. Fairley has proven himself. We have been burned enough times by going to outside free agents.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

darksoul35

He was one of the few bright spots on our defense. Would love to have him back but the price has to be right for both sides. It sounds like he might take a discount to stay and hopefully we finally draft a pass rusher in the first round. I'm not too concerned with DB because I think we have good talent at that position. We just need them to stay healthy.

Beastmode

If we give him some help and make it performance based, meaning better than any other deal by a lot he has some things to think about. Either take the sure thing or potentially make out even better. Say if we make the playoffs, that would be a great way to pad it or each sack, tip is worth X amount...if he doesn't take it somebody else would go for it.

lee909

He is likely to want big money.
Even giving him top 15 DT money means $6ml a year,top 10 money $9ml. Id be warry of paying him top 10 money

halloween 65

My only concern with him(he didn't play bad) is when he lines up at the nose he's not effective there. My top priority would be another NT that compliments Davidson then if Fairley took a slightly better contract so be it. The thing I look at is the player next to him making him look better like in Detroit or has it finally clicked?