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It's time to pay a few bills around this place. You may remember that the good people at Sprint were a sponsor of ours here last year. As it turns out, they love SB Nation so much that they've signed on for another go around of sponsorship. Thanks, Sprint! So what does this mean for us here CSC? We'll run a series of six posts discussing the Saints top game changing off-season moments this year over the course of the next couple of months. Each of these posts will display the Sprint branding you currently see before you. That's it! Now you know about their wireless 4G network and we can get back to talking about the Saints.
Game Changing Move #1 - March 4th, 2010 - Saints cut Charles Grant
Let's be honest: This has been the lamest off-season in Saints history. Lamer than lame. Ironic, considering it follows the greatest season. There haven't been many moves made at all by the Saints since their Super Bowl victory, let alone ones I would label as game changing. So I figured the best way to attack this would be from a chronological stand point.
Which leads us to the release of Charles Grant, among other players, earlier this year. Ahhhhh, I remember it like it was just last month. Because it was last month. I don't think many of us were very surprised about the move and an equal number, if not more, were probably happy about the news.
Grant, whose production just never matched his exorbitant contract and who always had a reputation for taking plays off, was the victim of the expiring CBA. Normally, cutting the defensive end would have been a very costly move for the Saints front office and the penalty would have probably kept them from making it at all. But thanks to the lack of a CBA this off-season, the team was able to part ways free and clear.
How can getting rid of a player with such minimal production be so game changing, you ask? It's not so much about what Charles Grant did, or rather didn't, do on the field as it is about what not having him on the payroll allows the Saints to do with everyone else on the roster. Cutting Grant freed up a significant chunk of change which the team used to get it's numerous free agents under contract this off-season and will also help pay the fat contracts that will be due some of the truly important members of this Saints team in the near future. Players like Drew Brees, Jahri Evans and possibly Pierre Thomas. It also inevitably paved the way for what will be another one of our game changing off-season moments: The signing of Alex Brown.
What do you guys think? Will we inevitably look back on the release of Charles Grant as one of the important early steps toward repeating as Super Bowl champions?