Which Free Agent LB should We Target? (1 Viewer)

[JackDiesel]

Easy... Just find out which one of those guys will play free league min and which ever one says "hey, I'll play for the saints for nothing" you sign him and of all three say they will, then you have a mental health professional take a close look at them and sign which one is least crazy...

We have to cut 3 of our highest paid defenders to get close to the salary cap and we don't even have a left tackle under contract and we have jimmy coming up next year... We're not signing any big name free agents... We'll have several undrafted free agents making this team and getting playing time along with paper thin depth... That's reality.

Cut our 2 or 3 of our highest paid defenders, 2 of which don't even fit the scheme. Then we'll be able to restructure Brees and Evans contracts.

We also have roster bonuses with Lofton and Hawthorne that we can restructure as a signing bonus and spread the cap hit over the rest of the contract versus taking the entire hit this year. With Hawthorne we even have the option of straight up cutting him if we feel he's not a scheme fit.

Cap room won't be an issue, we won't be signing any Ellerbes, Krugers or Spencers but we'll be able to sign our left tackle and several mid-tier FA's.

 

[State Of Affairs]

Cut our 2 or 3 of our highest paid defenders, 2 of which don't even fit the scheme. Then we'll be able to restructure Brees and Evans contracts.

We also have roster bonuses with Lofton and Hawthorne that we can restructure as a signing bonus and spread the cap hit over the rest of the contract versus taking the entire hit this year. With Hawthorne we even have the option of straight up cutting him if we feel he's not a scheme fit.

Cap room won't be an issue, we won't be signing any Ellerbes, Krugers or Spencers but we'll be able to sign our left tackle and several mid-tier FA's.

Jack... You have to be kidding... We're $30 million over the cap... 30 MILLION!!! That's almost 1/3 of the cap... I didnt say anything about how anyone fit into any system... The reality is we cut Smith, Vilma and Harper and we're still over the cap... And we have no left tackle which at minimum, it will cost $7 million for an average one like Bushrod...

Just throwing out names and saying "restructure" doesn't get us under the cap and THEN create enough space to sign a TOP END free agent...

 

[JackDiesel]

Jack... You have to be kidding... We're $30 million over the cap... 30 MILLION!!! That's almost 1/3 of the cap... I didnt say anything about how anyone fit into any system... The reality is we cut Smith, Vilma and Harper and we're still over the cap... And we have no left tackle which at minimum, it will cost $7 million for an average one like Bushrod...

Just throwing out names and saying "restructure" doesn't get us under the cap and THEN create enough space to sign a TOP END free agent...

30 million!? I've never seen that number in my life. I've seen 14.7 million a lot. 16 million and spotrac (a site I use a lot) has us at just under 21 million. But 30 million is the wackiest number I've ever seen and would be a complete failure on Loomis' part if that were true.

I'll continue to operate under the more reasonable numbers that I've been seeing everyone report and if you look at the roster bonuses of guys like Hawthorne and Lofton or the base salaries of Brees and Evans (guys we know that will finish out their contracts) then it's completely reasonable to assume we'll have cap space to work with.

You don't need much room to sign players, Loomis signed 4 top tier FA's for all of 5 million cap hit last year. And with the salary cap set to increase soon we'll be able to do just that again.

 

[PHdeacon]

What????? 29 concerns you? He can easily play at the best of his ability for another 3-4 years easy.

I agree. The Saints have a four year window now,with Drew,Sean, & Mickey.If Ryan can do anything with the D, it should be a fun ride these next four years.

 

[Blessedog]

Jack... You have to be kidding... We're $30 million over the cap... 30 MILLION!!! That's almost 1/3 of the cap... I didnt say anything about how anyone fit into any system... The reality is we cut Smith, Vilma and Harper and we're still over the cap... And we have no left tackle which at minimum, it will cost $7 million for an average one like Bushrod...

Just throwing out names and saying "restructure" doesn't get us under the cap and THEN create enough space to sign a TOP END free agent...

Yeah I've never heard anyone mention that number. Where did you get it?

 

[Fleur de Lies]

We signed three big name linebackers last year. How many more do we need?

 

[reason2believe]

What????? 29 concerns you? He can easily play at the best of his ability for another 3-4 years easy.

Yes. If he can play, bring him in. Does RR like him. Does he like RR? If so, let's get it done.

 

[CanadaSaint2006]

We signed three big name linebackers last year. How many more do we need?

Lofton is the only one who's guaranteed to not be on his way out the door, especially with the scheme change.

 

[reason2believe]

We signed three big name linebackers last year. How many more do we need?

Big name LBs? Lofton is the biggest name, and I don't consider him that big of a name. It will depend on who we are keeping of course, but let's go get who we need to make this work.

We need to not just have LBs; we need great LB's.

 

[State Of Affairs]

Yeah I've never heard anyone mention that number. Where did you get it?

I swear I read that in another thread a couple days ago... It had a link to all the numbers for each team... Maybe I got that wrong but I'm pretty sure...

I'll look...

 

[State Of Affairs]

http://saintsreport.com/forums/f2/current-salary-cap-situation-286626/#.URbO3ii9Kc0

Ok ok... It's $20 million and ranked #30... My by bad... But let's be honest, I was only $10 million off... Chump hangs for most of us.. Right... =D.

But I'll still argue, cutting Smith, Vilma and Harper and signing a left tackle for $7 million doesn't get us under the salary cap... So now restructure a few contracts will not get a top free agent signed...

I think we're going to have to live with what we got this year and work on getting our cap under control...

 

[cdogg]

http://saintsreport.com/forums/f2/current-salary-cap-situation-286626/#.URbO3ii9Kc0

Ok ok... It's $20 million and ranked #30... My by bad... But let's be honest, I was only $10 million off... Chump hangs for most of us.. Right... =D.

But I'll still argue, cutting Smith, Vilma and Harper and signing a left tackle for $7 million doesn't get us under the salary cap... So now restructure a few contracts will not get a top free agent signed...

I think we're going to have to live with what we got this year and work on getting our cap under control...

If we sign a LT for an average of 7 mill a year, we can structure it so its only a couple mill against the cap this year.

 

[JackDiesel]

http://saintsreport.com/forums/f2/current-salary-cap-situation-286626/#.URbO3ii9Kc0

Ok ok... It's $20 million and ranked #30... My by bad... But let's be honest, I was only $10 million off... Chump hangs for most of us.. Right... =D.

But I'll still argue, cutting Smith, Vilma and Harper and signing a left tackle for $7 million doesn't get us under the salary cap... So now restructure a few contracts will not get a top free agent signed...

I think we're going to have to live with what we got this year and work on getting our cap under control...

That left tackle won't cost us $7 million in the first year, I'm thinking more like $3 million in his first year, especially if we can work out a 4-5 year deal with someone.

And we also have the option to cut 2 players right away and designate them June 1st cuts which would allow us to spread the cap hit over the remaining years of their contract.

We're in this situation nearly every other year and Loomis always makes it work. I have no reason to not think this year will be similar.

 

[BIG DAWG]

Ellerbe , Kruger, or spencer?

Freddie Kruger....

 

[Ragin Caucasian]

None Ellerbe if no Vilma but we good Galete can be better than Spencer!!!!

I hate to be the Grammar Nazi, but seriously.......?