Not a good sign (1 Viewer)

[busdriver]

If Saints Violated a Rule they need to be punished.

 

[texasjefe]

NFL fosters this crap by opening up the signing period right after the draft, and we know that tapping the UDFA pool has always been a priority for the Saints' overall player acquisition strategy.

NFL should either put in a 2 week waiting period before signing UFDA's. Better yet, restore rounds 8-12 in the draft, 2 weeks after rounds 1-7 and have yet another televised mega-draft event.

If Goodell responds with fangs and punishes the Saints, tough toodles. What else were the Saints going to do? They wanted Stevens and if they had simply reported Carolina to the league office, the league office would have said 'we don't care' and Stevens would be a Panther. The league needs to change the rules on this, instead of making the UDFA signing process a black-market crack dealership.

 

[Pbody]

Whats funny is King has the nerve (backed by Goodell) to state " The only way the league will be able to enforce this and make it a real rule is to hit offending teams hard. It’s always been one of the league’s most flouted rules, agreeing to deals with undrafted guys before the draft ends and signing that night. If the league really wants it to stop, a hefty fine to a confirmed offender would go a long way toward stopping it.“

Why hasn't the league acted before?

Because now its the Saints and we were brazen enough to talk about this "Most flouted rule". If it does get legs from the NFL office then the first question should be how many more investigations into this and what other teams. Otherwise its a sham.

 

[Saint Greg]

In my opinion, the thread title needs a change. It makes it seem a lot worse. Like Bountygate II. It isn’t gonna be that severe.

And it doesn’t tell you what the thread is about “not a good sign” as a thread title is click bait.

 

[gavinj]

If Saints Violated a Rule they need to be punished.

Do you think the NFL should just investigate the Tommy Stevens situation or should their investigation include other teams and the circumstances of the signing of their “priority undrafted free agents”?

 

[VPCajun]

In this morning’s column Peter King wrote this about the Saints drafting Tommy Stevens away from Panthers, . “I think it’s good to see the league, via Mike Florio’s reporting, emphasize that undrafted free agents cannot reach agreement with any team before the end of the draft. The only way the league will be able to enforce this and make it a real rule is to hit offending teams hard. It’s always been one of the league’s most flouted rules, agreeing to deals with undrafted guys before the draft ends and signing that night. If the league really wants it to stop, a hefty fine to a confirmed offender would go a long way toward stopping it.“
We all know that Peter King has been a mouthpiece for the commissioner over the years enjoying an inside status. You can bet Goodell planted this with King making it look like the respected writer agreed with his actions BEFORE he announced them.
The question is will Goodell settle for just the hefty fine King suggests which would be good news for Saints and Panthers or will he dock draft picks to use them as examples to other teams to discourage this practice going forward.
There is no way to conclude (based on the rapidity of each teams announcing their UDFAs within minutes of the end of the draft ) anything other than ALL teams did exactly what the Saints and Panthers did. If the Saints get docked draft pick(s), I would blow up the whole system by divulging their experiences with every UDFA in the last effin ten years and how many had offers by named specific teams.
At what point do you continue to take unfair treatment sitting down? All that being said, this is just another example of the arrogance and stupidity of Coach Payton talking about this publicly. The league has been out to get the Saints ever since he threatened to embarrass the commissioner by boycotting the post Super Bowl winning press conference because of a bad hangover. He needs to grow up at some point:

That's exactly what the Ravens, Steelers and Patriots have been doing for years!

Oooooo - Rogers HATES them So Much.

He is so mad at them that he's going to give The Saints another year of punishments!

 

[TheGooch]

The first rule about negotiating UDFA contracts before the draft is over is that you don't talk about negotiating UDFA contracts before the draft is over.

 

[busdriver]

Everyone wants to play dumb, but during Bountygate, individuals were rewarded for hitting other players.

 

[Meachemdat]

If the league truly decides to crucify us for something so stupid then they might as well shut the whole thing down. The Patriots were actually proven to have cheated, TWICE and the only thing they got was their QB suspended for 4 games....

If you want a statement, cool, take away everyone's 7th rounder next year. Sounds like the only thing that got hurt here were some feelings and they went crying to Goodell about it.

 

[Mississippi Saints Fan]

My thoughts are, yes, the Saints broke the rules in attempting to reach an agreement with Stevens before the draft was over. We also highlighted along the way that the Panthers had already broken the rule. It paints the picture that, as many have already said, no teams are really abiding by this rule. If we get punished, it won't be a surprise. We do seem to be the team that gets made the example of.

 

[WhoDat_SB44]

Everyone says that every team does this and we all know that is the case. What we don’t see is a coach saying this to the media on the record. It was a dumb move on his part by Payton. Did he not know that the league will do whatever they can to hurt this franchise due to coach Payton. I don’t think it will be anything more than a significant fine to the team and coach will have to explain himself to Gayle. This will continue to happen, but players, coaches, and GMs won’t say anytime to another coach, GM, or the media going forward

 

[tomwaits]

I don't understand why the league even cares if teams do this. It does not seem to unfairly advantage any one team or cause any unbalance in competition. If a team really wants a guy, they can draft him (just like the Saints did).

What problem are they trying to solve with this rule?

 

[BlueChimay]

I do hope this thread will not ignite the classic Duncan, King & usual suspects hatred. I noticed that when anything remotely negative related to the Saints is discussed, the mob lynching squads are forming. This is a fan board, not a Taliban board.

 

[GTSaint]

From the OP:
“I think it’s good to see the league, via Mike Florio’s reporting, emphasize that undrafted free agents cannot reach agreement with any team before the end of the draft.”

Saints did not have a deal before the end of the draft. Saints did not violate the rule. Carolina had an agreement. Carolina broke the rules. Because Carolina had an agreement, Saints had to draft the player. So technically, Saints did nothing wrong here. Now we did probably discuss offers before the end of the draft, but we did not reach agreement.

 

[Mississippi Saints Fan]

From the OP:
“I think it’s good to see the league, via Mike Florio’s reporting, emphasize that undrafted free agents cannot reach agreement with any team before the end of the draft.”

Saints did not have a deal before the end of the draft. Saints did not violate the rule. Carolina had an agreement. Carolina broke the rules. Because Carolina had an agreement, Saints had to draft the player. So technically, Saints did nothing wrong here. Now we did probably discuss offers before the end of the draft, but we did not reach agreement.

I wouldn’t say we did nothing wrong just because the player didn’t agree with us. Had he said yes, then there would have been a mutual agreement (ala a violation). The fact is we still attempted to do something against the rules. Again though, it doesn’t seem like a huge deal since most teams are seemingly doing the same thing. The problem is now it’s in the spotlight and the NFL will probably use us and Carolina to make an example. Hopefully it’s nothing major, but I definitely think Payton shot himself in the foot making this info public.