NFL Source: Saints having a complete fire sale

[RelaxImaPro]

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Jason La CanforaVerified account‏@JasonLaCanfora

Saints aren't done making deals. Actively shopping disgruntled CB Keenan Lewis, asking teams not to divulge their inquiries ...

[MadHatter]

Graham is 29 and on the decline. He wasn't worth the enormous cap hit he was costing the Saints. The OG Grubbs the Saints dealt was another guy not worth his cap hit. Saints replaced those two with:

1. Pro Bowl center that was key cog for one of the teams in Super Bowl on a cheap contract

2. Pro Bowl CB that was key cog for one of the teams in Super Bowl on a cheap contract

3. an extra 1st R pick

4. tons of extra cap space in 2016 to sign even more players

It kinda sucks the Saints are making such smart moves, but they still need to do well in the draft and the rest of FA, both this year and next (ideally, they still need a #3 CB, a #4 CB, upgrades at all LB spots other than Galette, upgrades across the DL other than Cam Jordan, upgrade at OG, and another offensive weapon)

Bad arguement on Hraham. Saying he is 29 and in decline, thus not worth the cap hit...yet the Saints just signed him to the contract last year.

[AU-panther]

As I've said, Drew is untradeable right now. His salary became fully guaranteed in February. It would cost the Saints $7 million to cut or trade him. It's simply impossible to do this year, even if they wanted to. Which they don't.

 

Not exactly. 

 

The Saints would be responsible for the dead money from his prorated signing bonus.  Guaranteed salary can be traded. 

 

If another team was willing to assume his salary and to guarantee it the Saints could theoretically save cap space by trading him.

 

I always assumed the Saints would continue to push cap charges down the road until Brees retired.  At that point they would probably be really bad anyway and they could clear up the cap while getting some high draft choices.

 

Seems to me they are hitting the reset button early. 

[Montsta]

Never heard a thing about it, to be honest. Could he have? Sure. But it's really tough to get by without a concussion test being given now that he NFL has guys there just for that.

Not really. Edelman took a shot in the Super Bowl that even my daughter said wow daddy he got hit really hard he's having trouble getting up. It was clear to anyone that watched it that Edelman just got concussed, but he kept going. Happens all the time in the NFL.

[Guest]

I wonder if the Saints would draft Mariota if he's still available at #13?

In a recent mock he went at #12 to the Browns, which is certainly a possibility, but if the Browns pass on him, it would leave the Saints with an intriguing decision. They could take Mariota and have him sit behind Brees to learn the ropes like Rodgers did with Favre. Brees only has two seasons left on his deal, so if Mariota is there, getting his replacement could be an option for them if they are dead set on blowing it up and starting over.

[Mr. Scot]

 

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Jason La CanforaVerified account‏@JasonLaCanfora

Saints aren't done making deals. Actively shopping disgruntled CB Keenan Lewis, asking teams not to divulge their inquiries ...

 

 

So now they're asking teams not to let anyone know they're talking?

[TheNewStandard]

Jimmy Graham takes shot from Thomas Davis00:00/00:27

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/0ap3000000420314/Jimmy-Graham-takes-shot-from-Thomas-Davis

concussed

[saints4life25]

Not exactly.

The Saints would be responsible for the dead money from his prorated signing bonus. Guaranteed salary can be traded.

If another team was willing to assume his salary and to guarantee it the Saints could theoretically save cap space by trading him.

I always assumed the Saints would continue to push cap charges down the road until Brees retired. At that point they would probably be really bad anyway and they could clear up the cap while getting some high draft choices.

Seems to me they are hitting the reset button early.

The Saints dead money/cap hit for trading or cutting Drew Brees this year is $33 million. He is, untradeable.

[AU-panther]

The Saints dead money/cap hit for trading or cutting Drew Brees this year is $33 million. He is, untradeable.

 

$14.8 million of that $33 million is from his signing bonus.  Two years left at $7.4 million.  That money has already been paid and there is nothing the team can do to avoid the cap hit associated with it.

 

The other $18,750,000 is guaranteed in the form of his 2015 salary.  If he was to be traded another team could assume that guaranteed salary.

http://overthecap.com/player/drew-brees/1492/shows this breakdown.

Here is an article that explains some of the differences in the different types of guaranteed money.

http://overthecap.com/trading-dead-money-nfl-expiring-contract/