Thinking about the Saints upcoming Free Agents

1 Brees
2. Nicks
3.Colston
4.Meach
5.Porter
notice I didnt list Franklin or Rogers

I would guess we can retain the top four on that list. If that’s true, then Robinson takes over for Porter, and Patrick for Robinson…but what to do about Meachem? Does this mean Arrington finally gets his big break…or do we draft to replace him? Or try to, for instance, entice Reggie Wayne to sign with us?

If he wants to stick around for minimal $$, then that’s ok with me. Otherwise, see you later. Ditto for Rogers.

Brees and Nicks are obvious musts. Colston is a notch below those 2 but a very high priority. Meachem and Porter would be nice to keep, but I we can’t break the bank to keep them.

Please re-sign Brees. Pay Da Man!

This would be horrible, but I don’t see the Saints having 2 of the highest paid guards in the game. I hope I’m wrong, but I think Nicks will hit the bricks!

1. Must: Drew and Nicks
2. At least Tag Colston
3. Meachem only for the right price.
4. Porter…Thanks for the SB pick but not impressing me anymore…Trade bait maybe.
5. Franklin the minimum or see ya
6. Rodgers who?

He will not come back after another year. Drew really needs to speak with him and Meachem to get them to stay. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to catch the balls from one of the best QB’s In history. I see the tag going to nicks.

Sedrick Ellis has been underperforming so I don’t see them not resigning Franklin and Rodgers. Tracy hasn’t done anything for the team latley I could see them using him as trade bait. Im expecting a heavy D draft yet again.

If GDub stays..

It will be the biggest mistake of his career. There’s a reason he was a 7th round pick. I love the guy, but if he can’t see that he needs to stay here to continue maximizing his talent, then he’s an idiot.

1. Brees
2. Nicks
3. Colston (tag)
4. Porter
5. Meachem
6. Franklin/Rogers(Minimum)

I think we lose more with Porter than Meachem, although that is based on draft and Colston’s decision. If we can’t keep Colston, Meachem unfortunately becomes a must.

Colston is a great receiver, but I think his value is greater to the Saints than to any other team due to his understanding of this offense and his chemistry with Brees

Many other teams will be willing to pay more for him than we will.

Brees will sign a long term deal….although it might not be quick.

Nicks will get franchised.

Meachem is gone. Teams will overpay him for is speed.

Porter is gone. Teams will overpay for his past accomplishments.

Rodgers and Franklin I have an indifference about. We might keep one but only if the price is right. Don’t think we will be keeping both.

The only person I see on this list being gone is Meach. He is a good player but inconsistent. I would look for the Saints to use him as trade bait and then look for another WR threat in the offseason or late in the draft.

return, we have Joe Morgan coming back from IR hopefully. We also have Charles Johnson for DL.

with Brees and the offense we have, we could draft or trade for someone to be a #4 receiver. First 3 draft picks need to be defense (LBs)- maybe a safety.

Brees
Nicks
Colston
and maybe Meach

The rest can get their walking papers.

Obviously we’ll keep Brees. But I think that will take the franchise tag, and both Condon and Loomis know it. So they’ll talk to him to see if they can work something out, but they’ll REALLY go after Nicks and his agent hard to try to get him signed. Then once one of them signs (probably Nicks) or when the deadline comes, they’ll franchise Drew.

As for the rest, I really wouldn’t be surprised if we lose all of them but maybe the DTs. I think Franklin and/or Rogers might stick around just because they’re enjoying winning and they’ve made some decent money before.

The only “wild card” in things is the history of knee injuries with Colston might scare some teams off of giving him big money, and especially of big guaranteed money. And without that he may decide to stay if Mikey can shoe-horn in a decent offer into the cap. That, unfortunately, will probably take a significant miracle to pull off.

The only way I could realistically see us keeping Brees, Nicks, and Colston is if at least three of those contracts are heavily bonus-laden, with significant increases in money (or at least somehow cap hit) in 2014 and beyond. Probably they’d have to structure things where lots of salary and/or bonuses have a large subset guaranteed for skill and another large subset for injury so they could avoid “fully guaranteeing” anything (thus avoiding having to put cash into escrow right away) while still giving significant guarantees out. And by guaranteeing part for injury and part for skill they do just that, because one of those guarantees pretty much has to kick in.

Of course, Mickey is far more of an expert on the cap than I, so maybe he can come up with another way. But I still don’t see us keeping all four unless he can find a way to push the major cap hits to 2014 and beyond somehow.

I can’t see us keeping Brees. He’s in a steep decline.

His 2009 season will forever be his best