The Saints can’t afford to not pay Nick Fairley (1 Viewer)

[kennydfresh]

If I'm Fairley's agent I would talk to Cleveland first and if things fell apart there then I would come back to the Saints. Rankins can do the same things Fairley can at a cheaper value. People tend to forget Rankins missed 9 games and still got 4 sacks, imagine if he began the season, he would be sitting on 8 and in the pro bowl.

 

[whosyadaddy]

If I'm Fairley's agent I would talk to Cleveland first and if things fell apart there then I would come back to the Saints. Rankins can do the same things Fairley can at a cheaper value. People tend to forget Rankins missed 9 games and still got 4 sacks, imagine if he began the season, he would be sitting on 8 and in the pro bowl.

When Rankins was healthy enough to play, Fairley was on an absolute roll, rated top 5 in the league and looked virtually unblockable. Offensive lines naturally were paying him more attention (along with Jordan) with blocking schemes and allowing Rankins to have the success he had. You take away that disruptive force (Fairley) and it will undoubtedly be that much harder for Rankins to dominate the way he did.

Bad thing also about losing Fairley is the added hole it creates at DT in addition to CB, DE, LB, G. People have said just draft another rookie and plug him in. Not a fan of that strategy at all, two 3 techs without 16 games between them? Don't see it. Plus we are wasting a pick that could be much better used on CB or DE, we need a young playmaker at one of those to build around. FA will help us and we have a good bit to spend , but I think the Saints do better keeping Fairley and scratching DT from the need list before the draft. I just hope the numbers are reasonable and teams like Cleveland do not put a ridiculous bargaining price on him

 

[jamesbhack]

there is a 99% chance Fairley will be a saint for a while or for good. No reason to make a one year bet on a guy and go south when it plays out perfectly. To add, we know this regime pays for continuation even to a fault.

I'm not worried in the least.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

9.3 - 9.5 seems about right. It's all about peer recognition. Crawfords contract is just Jerry my throwing money. He's easily better than Rankins this very moment as a passrusher. There's risk..but the money has to be spent. We like Fairley , Fairley likes us, he's one of our guys. Be fair to Fairley.

 

[tthier2]

9.3 - 9.5 seems about right. It's all about Pierre recognition. Crawfords contract is just Jerry my throwing money. He's easily better than Rankins this very moment as a passrusher. There's risk..but the money has to be spent. We like Fairley , Fairley likes us, he's one of our guys. Be fair to Fairley.

9.5 per year?

 

[AARPSaint]

What we don't know about is how the chemistry works. This seems similar to the Cooks/Thomas/Snead situation on the offensive side. Do we really want to break that up?
Similarly, the Saints' defensive woes were not due to the lack of interior pressure, but rather to slow linebackers, the lack of an adequate DE opposite Jordan, an unbelievable number of injuries in the secondary, and the pathetically low number of takeaways. None of those problems centers on the interior DL, so why create a problem where none exists to any extent?
I don't know if the Saints can afford not to retain Fairley, but letting him go seems like a poor alternative to retaining him--unless a ridiculous bidding war results.

 

[bobad]

If you're going to overpay a player, let it be a DL or OL... especially a productive interior DL. They tend to have long, healthy careers, and get better every year until about 30.

 

[SuperSaint]

He's been a player in the past whose had effort drops after getting paid big money, I'd be careful. Offer him 8M with reachable incentives that could get him to 10M.

If he refuses that, let him go.

 

[RevDeuceWindham]

He's been a player in the past whose had effort drops after getting paid big money, I'd be careful. Offer him 8M with reachable incentives that could get him to 10M.

If he refuses that, let him go.

He's never gotten paid big money.