Interesting View on Roman Harper (1 Viewer)

[LSSpam]

Isn't this the last year of his contract?

No, he was a 1st round pick, he got a 5 year deal.

Patrick Robinson Contract, Salaries, and Transactions

As with most first round picks, the majority of the salary was guaranteed.

The way the NFL is set up now, there is almost never reason to dump a rookie contract unless the player is simply so bad they don't have a roster spot. This applies to Mark Ingram as well, FYI.

 

[CaliSaint4Life]

Just a small word on "bad contracts", I mean, they happen.

We made Harper play on his RFA tender in 2010, a restricted free agency that shouldn't have happened but did because of quirks in the uncapped year. So when he became a FA in 2011 he demanded, justifiably, market value. Well he was coming off two straight pro bowls and Eric Weddle, an admittly superior player, got 5 yrs / $40 million. Dashawn Landry, an inferior player, got 5 yrs / $28 million. We slotted Harper in right between.

It was a fair market price for a desirable 2-time pro bowl safety. Of course, then Vernon Davis ate him up, he got walked down by a quarterback, and why Sags even bothered playing him if he was going to put him in deep zone is beyond me, so yeah it looks bad now. But at the time it was a pretty reasonable deal.

You make good points.

 

[TruSaint]

great thing about rob ryan i he has no allegience to anyone on the team, he will play the best player at the position, if corey white or rafael bush beat out harper they will start, look at the bright side, next year when harper is gone we will have 6 mil more to spend atleast

 

[SuperRemo]

6 mill more to spend with Harpers money and 4 mill more to spend with Jenkins money...

Some of that goes to JG.....but we need to find 2 new safeties....

 

[winndaddy]

Kind of off subject, but I think we need new talent evaluator's. The Saints have struck out way too often on first round picks.

 

[ndcc]

With his speed, and as good a blitzer, run stopper and block-shedder he is... could Harper possibly be converted to LB?

 

[Merl]

Isn't this the last year of his contract?

No he signed a 5 year deal in 2010 also restructured last year which is why it would cost more to cut or trade him this year.

 

[stormin mormon]

The Saints do have some leverage on Harper. It's called benching him. A guy who has been a starter in the league since he entered it and making the money he makes does not want to lose his starting job. Once he is benched, he is an overpriced backup safety without the opportunity to prove he's anything more than that.

 

[MLU]

It would actually cost us money to get rid of Patrick Robinson, and he's pretty cheap.

Not to mention you need four solid CBs in today's NFL.

 

[JackDiesel]

The only player in our secondary we can cut without a significant cap hit in comparison to amount saved is Jenkins. And he's in the last year of his deal anyways.

He's proved to be a poor safety in coverage and in run support no matter who the coordinator is and it's naive at this point to think he can turn it around. We already have his proven replacement on the roster, if there was any player to be cut or traded (trade value of zero) to make room for Asomugha it'd be him.

 

[SaintsJunkie]

Maybe I need to watch more of Vaccaro, but right now I like Matt Elam more.

 

[TylerDurden]

With his speed, and as good a blitzer, run stopper and block-shedder he is... could Harper possibly be converted to LB?

What speed? I bet I could out run Harper. Plus, we just let a true LB go, in Casillas go via free agency, and he was faster, a better tackler, and block shedder, and better in coverage. May not have been as good as a blitzer, but he did not do it enough to be able to judge. We're stuck with Harper this year. Doesn't mean he'll be the starter, but I don't see a scenario where we can get rid of him. I like him, as an in the box safety, but we need more versatility out of our safeties.

 

[JimmyB1775]

You can throw P-Robs name in that possible trade as well

Trade has two sides. Nobody wants an inconsistent CB. Harper, while having some bad coaching and looking mighty terrible, has been a starter for a while. I don't think anyone takes Harper just because of his contract.

 

[bearze34]

It would actually cost us money to get rid of Patrick Robinson, and he's pretty cheap.

It will also cost money to keep him. He is a lousy player that has, if anything, regressed. You don:t keep a player and burn a roster spot strictly because of the cap implications. They could designate Harper a June 1st cut and save money and Robinson's dead money is so miniscule as to not matter. Both should go now!

 

[LSSpam]

It will also cost money to keep him. He is a lousy player that has, if anything, regressed. You don:t keep a player and burn a roster spot strictly because of the cap implications. They could designate Harper a June 1st cut and save money and Robinson's dead money is so miniscule as to not matter. Both should go now!

No, you don't. You're right. If he's so terrible he should be cut.

It's just that he's not, so he won't.