Free agency is set to begin when the new league year officially starts at 3:00 PM central this afternoon. Agents have been able to speak with teams since Saturday, but players can officially negotiate and agree on new contracts starting in a few hours. While most teams are prepared to begin adding multiple players at this time of the year, there are always a few that have to do the opposite first. This year, the New Orleans Saints are one of them.
After finishing the season with a Divisional Round loss to the eventual Superbowl Champion Seattle Seahawks, the Saints headed in to the off-season nearly $13 million over the cap. No team ever likes to be in that situation, especially when you have a player like Jimmy Graham set to become a free agent. Graham is just one part of why the Saints have had to start making tough decisions, although many fans have immediately tagged him as the culprit of what’s happened so far. With that being said, let’s look at what the Saints have done.
The Past
Back on February 12, New Orleans officially started their off-season and they did so in a big way. The Saints cut ties with four of the most notable names on the defensive side of the ball in recent years. Roman Harper, Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, and Jabari Greer all had their contracts terminated after long stints in New Orleans. These moves saved about $16.9 million in cap space, which was the first step in being able to give a long-term deal to a player such as Jimmy Graham.
Roman Harper has been a Saint since being drafted as part of the Saints’ excellent draft class of 2006. Despite often criticism from fans, he had been a huge part of the Saints defense over his time in New Orleans, especially in the Super Bowl year of 2009. It’s no surprise, though, that in Harper’s 8th season, his play started to fall off last year. First off, he missed half of the season with a knee injury. In his absence, Rafael Bush saw plenty of playing time and did pretty well. Even despite Bush showing he has the ability to play significant time in the secondary, the writing was likely already on the wall for Harper’s eventual departure, when the Saints drafted Kenny Vaccaro in the first round of the 2013 draft.
Despite being nothing but class acts and key players in the Saints defense from the mid-to-late 2000s, Johnathan Vilma and Will Smith’s departures will likely go unnoticed from a football standpoint. Vilma began slowing down during the 2011 season, when he played in eleven games and his tackle total was cut in half of what it was in 2010. He battled a bad knee since before being traded to the Saints from the Jets prior to the 2008 season and 2011 was when his age began to show. He played in just one game last season, recording one tackle. As for Will Smith, he too began to slow down after New Orleans won the Super Bowl. During that 2009 season, he recorded 13 sacks. Since then, the best he could do was half of that. Still, from 2010-2012, Smith stayed relatively healthy and averaged six sacks a year, but it was the scheme change when the Saints hired Rob Ryan last off-season that was the beginning of the end. Many suspected that his release would come prior to 2013, but Ryan and Coach Sean Payton opted to move Smith to an outside linebacker in the 3-4 defense after playing as a 4-3 defensive end for his entire career. That experiment abruptly ended when Smith tore his ACL against the Houston Texans in the team’s 3rd preseason game, spelling the end of his career in black and gold.
Wrapping up the big four defensive cuts, Jabari Greer was let go by the Saints, coming off of a gruesome knee injury that he sustained about halfway through last season. Greer had been a fantastic signing prior to the 2009 season, when General Manager Mickey Loomis brought him in from Buffalo. Just like the other guys, Greer’s play slowly began to fall off within the past two seasons as he entered the double-digit numbers of his career. He relinquished the #1 corner back position last season when the Saints signed Keenan Lewis.
Last week, Lance Moore became the first offensive player to become a cap casualty, saving $2.5 million against the cap in what would have been his final season of his contract in 2014. Moore really broke on to the scene during the 2008 season, when Marques Colston missed an extended period of time. He quickly became Drew Brees’ safety valve, showing a distinct ability to get himself open, despite lacking superior speed or strength. Moore’s decline started becoming evident last season, as he struggled to find open space for Brees to get him the ball. After averaging 61 receptions, 810 yards, and just over 7 touchdowns a year between 2010-2012, Moore was only able to manage his way to 37 receptions, 457 yards, and 2 touchdowns last year, while seeing his targets cut in half from 2012.
The Future
Yes, I’m aware that I’m going a little out of order with the past, present, and future timeline, but before we talk about who the Saints could begin to target when free agency starts today, I would like to quickly point out more reasons behind the tough cuts they have had to make recently and more they may have to make soon.
First off, the top priority is getting a long-term deal worked out with Jimmy Graham. Yes, the negotiations between he and the team certainly fall under the “present” category, but whatever contract the two eventually work out will have a bigger impact on the future. Despite his struggles in the playoffs last year, he’s the best tight-end in the game and he’s a dominant weapon in our offense. I’d like you to notice the two key parts to that statement. He is the best tight-end in the NFL and he is a dominant weapon in our offense. Why am I stressing both of those points? First, the distinction between whether he’s a wide-receiver or tight-end is the biggest barrier in the negotiations between him and the team. The Saints would likely have no issue making him the highest paid tight-end in the NFL, but he apparently (and conveniently) sees himself as a wide-receiver, so he’s looking for a contract based on the latter. Regardless, he’s a big part of our offense and despite getting frustrated with his demands, we’d rather have him here. I stressed the “in our offense” part, because while he’s a very good player and is not even close to the peak of his game, he’s had so much early success because of Drew Brees and Sean Payton. I truly believe that there are only about three or four teams that he could have got drafted by and shown this type of promise of dominance within his first four years. New Orleans knows that, which is also why they are fighting to not have to mortgage their future with an over-sized contract.
While the team looks to get Graham locked down right now, Cam Jordan and Junior Galette will be next to look for a long-term deal. Jordan will enter the final year of his rookie contract in 2014 and judging by his drastic improvement over the past two seasons, it would be better for the Saints to get a contract extension worked out before he goes out and tears it up once again next year. After a quiet rookie season with just one sack, Jordan recorded eight in 2012 and then twelve and a half last season. He certainly proved that he is one of the best young defensive ends in the NFL and there’s no doubt that he’ll have to be paid like one.
Galette may not require as much money, but as long as his production doesn’t severely drop off, he won’t be far behind. Galette has two years remaining on his current deal, but I would believe that if he comes out and produces another year like his twelve sack season in 2013, he’ll be looking for more money before 2015.
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The Present
The start of free agency is big for New Orleans, but not necessarily in terms of what new players the Saints will sign. There are still numerous free agents of their own who’s situations are up in the air. Many of their futures will be based on what type of contracts players at their position get and for some like Brian De la Puente and Robert Meachem, it’ll be whether the Saints choose to replace them with someone else. The list of notable New Orleans free agents includes both the aforementioned De la Puente and Meachem, along with Malcolm Jenkins, Zack Strief, Parys Haralson, Charles Brown, Joe Morgan, and Jed Collins. The likeliest of that group to return are Haralson and Collins. The Saints liked what they saw in Haralson last season and they still believe that he can provide good depth to their linebacker unit. Collins is a no-brainer, considering how effective he is as a fullback in the Saints offense.
The futures of Jenkins, De la Puente, Stief, Meachem, Brown, and Morgan are a bit cloudier. Both Meachem and Morgan will depend on whether New Orleans signs any cheap options to try and bolster their offensive attack. Either or both could even be signed after the draft, should the Saints choose to wait and see who they can get their hands on out of the rookie class. As for De la Puente and Strief, who were both starters on the offensive line but largely the weak spots, it may take a couple of days or weeks for other top players at their positions to sign with teams and set the standard for the rest of the guys. There aren’t many notable free agents at the center position, so a decision on De la Puente may come first. The only way I could see Charles Brown returning is for a really cheap one year deal for nothing more than depth. His fate was sealed in the Saints’ ugly loss to the St. Louis Rams late in the season, when Brown was benched for rookie Terron Armstead after being embarrassed by Robert Quinn.
The most important player on this list and possibly the biggest question mark is Malcolm Jenkins. Despite the emergence of Kenny Vaccaro and Rafael Bush last season, Jenkins is still a key player for Rob Ryan’s defense. He’s certainly had his struggles at times and has too been often criticized by fans, but he still has very good ball skills and he is a tremendous leader. Also, Vaccaro was best used as a wild card, being moved all around the field last year, so to best utilize him, he needs two other starting safeties on the field. Jenkins will be waiting to see what type of deals fellow safeties such as Jarius Byrd and Donte Whitner get, so expect more chatter about him to pick up once those first few dominoes fall.
The players we’ve yet to discuss are Darren Sproles and Pierre Thomas and that’s because it’s still unclear what exactly the Saints are doing with him. They had announced last week that they were looking to either trade or release him, though nothing official has been done as of today. My guess is that there are certainly multiple teams interested in his services, so the Saints are going to make the best decision for themselves, while also being respectful of his future. He only has one year left on his contract, but I would guess that they wouldn’t do something like trade him to the Oakland Raiders. Sproles’ impending exit is certainly the most surprising out of the entire group, because he’s still been very effective, while still showing signs of slowing down. Since signing with the Saints before the 2011 season, he leads all running backs in receiving touchdowns. He has been a great fit for Coach Payton and he has also provided help on special teams. As for Thomas, his future is even more cloudy, because unlike Sproles, there is still a possibility that he remains with the team, though there’s a good chance he doesn’t. He, too, is heading in to the final season of his contract and is on the books for $2.9 million, which could all be saved against the cap if he was cut. There have been no distinct suggestions on his future, other than him being possibly traded or cut.
That’s pretty much where the Saints stand with their roster from the 2013 season. Although they’ve made plenty of big decisions, there are still numerous questions to be answered. Those questions will become more clear once the league opens for business this afternoon. Stay tuned as we stay on top of any other moves the Saints make!
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