Saint Spud
Hall-of-Famer
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2002
- Messages
- 15,051
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- 39,705
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- 45
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The Saints are about to become the victim of their own success, in a way. Yes, Mickey Loomis is one of the best in the business at manipulating the salary cap. But at some point, even the great Mr. Loomis can’t make every guaranteed dollar disappear. The Saints’ rise to the top of the NFC South since 2017 has also coincided with them drafting some very solid, maybe even elite, contributors.
Those players are about to get paid. Which means the Saints have two choices:
1. Lose some very good players and hope they can fill the voids via the draft.
2. Take advantage of the NFL’s great hack: a QB on a rookie deal.
Let’s assume the Patriots are the outlier here (as they are with everything). The Legion of Boom Seahawks were a great example of this. They won a Super Bowl with Russell Wilson on a rookie deal. It allowed them to pay their great defensive players to keep that core together.
But once Wilson’s rookie Deal ran out and he got (deservedly) paid, they couldn’t keep the core together. The players they did pay got older and the ones they tried to draft to replace them weren’t as effective. They’ve been pretty good since, but not nearly what they were.
The Broncos Super Bowl championship team had Peyton Manning on a relatively big deal (especially considering how much his play had fallen off), but they were fortunate to have Von Miller on a rookie contract, among others. Once they had to pay Miller and Osweiler didn’t turn out to be “the guy,” they’ve fallen off a cliff.
Philadelphia won a Super Bowl thanks to their starter being on a rookie deal. They were fortunate that a relatively inexpensive backup (Foles) filled in and led them to a title when he got hurt, but that doesn’t happen if they don’t have the cap flexibility to pay the core around their QBs.
And, of course, the Chiefs won with Mahomes on his rookie deal. He’s phenomenal, but they’re gonna have to pay him soon, too. And they’ll be at a similar crossroads.
That brings us to the Saints. We are in a similar spot as that Broncos team in that we have an aging QB on a big $ deal and no surefire successor on a rookie contract. Even if Taysom is “the guy,” he would have to get paid like “the guy” at some point soon.
I’m fascinated to see what SP decides to do. We know he loved Mahomes. There were plenty of rumors he loved Lamar Jackson. He’s known for awhile this crossroads was coming.
I don’t think we have a shot to trade up for Burrow, as much fun as the Pete thread has been. But given our current situation, I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see Payton make a jump for one of the QBs in a fairly strong class. It would allow us to transition from Brees to the rookie, and still pay some of our strong young players we’ve drafted.
Personally, I’d love to see Payton working with Jordan Love for a year. Or, we could see him draft potential successors to players we are going to lose if we pay Taysom. Regardless, it’s gonna be a fun few weeks.
Those players are about to get paid. Which means the Saints have two choices:
1. Lose some very good players and hope they can fill the voids via the draft.
2. Take advantage of the NFL’s great hack: a QB on a rookie deal.
Let’s assume the Patriots are the outlier here (as they are with everything). The Legion of Boom Seahawks were a great example of this. They won a Super Bowl with Russell Wilson on a rookie deal. It allowed them to pay their great defensive players to keep that core together.
But once Wilson’s rookie Deal ran out and he got (deservedly) paid, they couldn’t keep the core together. The players they did pay got older and the ones they tried to draft to replace them weren’t as effective. They’ve been pretty good since, but not nearly what they were.
The Broncos Super Bowl championship team had Peyton Manning on a relatively big deal (especially considering how much his play had fallen off), but they were fortunate to have Von Miller on a rookie contract, among others. Once they had to pay Miller and Osweiler didn’t turn out to be “the guy,” they’ve fallen off a cliff.
Philadelphia won a Super Bowl thanks to their starter being on a rookie deal. They were fortunate that a relatively inexpensive backup (Foles) filled in and led them to a title when he got hurt, but that doesn’t happen if they don’t have the cap flexibility to pay the core around their QBs.
And, of course, the Chiefs won with Mahomes on his rookie deal. He’s phenomenal, but they’re gonna have to pay him soon, too. And they’ll be at a similar crossroads.
That brings us to the Saints. We are in a similar spot as that Broncos team in that we have an aging QB on a big $ deal and no surefire successor on a rookie contract. Even if Taysom is “the guy,” he would have to get paid like “the guy” at some point soon.
I’m fascinated to see what SP decides to do. We know he loved Mahomes. There were plenty of rumors he loved Lamar Jackson. He’s known for awhile this crossroads was coming.
I don’t think we have a shot to trade up for Burrow, as much fun as the Pete thread has been. But given our current situation, I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see Payton make a jump for one of the QBs in a fairly strong class. It would allow us to transition from Brees to the rookie, and still pay some of our strong young players we’ve drafted.
Personally, I’d love to see Payton working with Jordan Love for a year. Or, we could see him draft potential successors to players we are going to lose if we pay Taysom. Regardless, it’s gonna be a fun few weeks.
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