I'm ready to condemn Mickey Loomis with the official news that Drew Brees has been given the exclusive rights franchise tag. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning both had deals completed long before it ever got to this point with Brees. Mickey Loomis, pure and simple, has failed to do his job the smart way. Tagging Brees ensures he'll stay a Saint, mind you, but that's the absolute bare minimum. You see, tagging Brees was also the worst case panic button insurance the Saints kept in their back pocket in case things reached crisis mode. Now they have. And this situation could easily creep into July, at which point a number of terrible things could happen: no comments

When the Saints hired Gregg Williams before the start of the 2009 season, it was in an attempt to coach up a unit that had been anemic in the Sean Payton era. The Saints had been, and still are, so good offensively, that if the defense could just manage to perform decently the Saints are too tough to beat. The results of the Williams experiment in the end are mixed, and we're all left wondering if it was worth it.

2009 was magical. The defense led the league in turnovers and made a plethora of big plays mostly behind the sensational play of Darren Sharper. In 2010 the defense struggled to get turnovers but did a much better job stopping offenses throughout the season, before it completely collapsed in the playoffs. In 2011 the defense was atrocious most of the season, but the best offense in NFL history still carried them to a 13-3 record. In the end, though, Vernon Davis and the 49ers did this subpar defense in. So we basically got one fantastic year out of Williams that led to a Super Bowl title, and two mediocre years that led to disappointing playoff exists. While he had perhaps worn out his welcome, I think any Saints fan would say picking him up was a worthwhile move.

That is, until the public black eye the Saints suffered 24 hours ago that exposed the player bounty system that Gregg Williams operated during his time in New Orleans. Now we're left weighing the black cloud that surrounds the organization's reputation and the embarrassment that goes with it versus one Super Bowl victory in three years. So that's the big question: was winning the Super Bowl worth the "cheaters" label? Is the price the Saints will ultimately pay in fines, drafts picks, suspensions and bad PR worth a Super Bowl victory? I say yes. no comments

Gregg Williams left the Saints unceremoniously after that defensive #@%$show exit the last two years of the playoffs, but the D's performance at Seattle and at San Francisco are no longer the most notable negative impression Gregg Williams leaves New Orleans with. The Saints have now been publicly exposed with running a "player bounty program", which among other things rewarded the Saints' defensive players financially if they knocked opposing players out of games. Gregg Williams reportedly ran this program, which is completely against NFL rules. They layman term for this is "head hunting". The penalties, which will be levied in the next month most likely, could include fines, suspensions, and forfeiture of drafts picks. And you better believe the Saints will get heavily punished for this. The Patriots were blasted for spying... At a time where player safety is at a premium, you have to imagine that intentionally hurting players and getting paid extra to do so will suffer much greater penalties.
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I always thought Brees' contract situation resolving itself quickly and amicably was a more than reasonable thing to hope for, but apparently that wasn't meant to be. I still remain steadfast in my faith that things will get done before the Saints are forced to franchise tag him in 48 hours, and I refuse to buy into the media hype that things are critical for one second until it's been made official that Brees is tagged. Until that point, everything is just hearsay and postulation. I refuse to even allow myself to be worried until it's officially time to panic. Still, the latest news that Mickey Loomis allegedly claimed that things were taking so long because Brees is only a "very good" quarterback and not a "great" one dropped the anxiety bomb on all of us. That's not the news we want to hear. Whether it's true or not is really beside the point, the more worrisome component of this story breaking is that we've reached the point in negotiations where things are getting ugly and personal. Again, as Saints fans I think it was safe to assume it would never get there, and at this point the hope has to be that this dies a quick death.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! is the man who broke this story of Brees being defined by Loomis as "only very good". Here is my take on this claim, which originated from one of three possibilities:

A. Jason Cole decided to run with a story based on misinformation and partial truths because it made for sensationalized media. no comments

A restructured deal is being done today that will keep Will Smith as a member of the New Orleans Saints. Apparently, this move will reportedly save the Saints between $5 and $6 million worth of cap space. This is huge news because the Saints remain far apart in contract talks with Brees and Peter King of Sports Illustrated has theorized they are approximately $3-$4 million apart. This cap relief could help finalize the Brees deal, and help the Saints offer more money to both Carl Nicks and Marques Colston in attempts to retain them. Most importantly... no comments

In addition to re-signing Adrian Arrington, the Saints have also come to terms with long snapper Justin Drescher and backup safety Jonathon Amaya on 1 year $540,000 contracts. Amaya (pictured) is a special teams standout that came to the team in the Reggie Bush trade, and Drescher has had the long snapper job on lockdown the last year and a half. These guys are all exclusive rights free agents, which means they were never going anywhere anyway and were by far the easiest to re-sign. The last remaining exclusive rights free agent is starting center Brian De La Puente.

That's the good news. The bad news is Adam Schefter of ESPN has reported the Saints are still far apart in contract talks with Drew Brees and... no comments

The Saints have re-signed wide receiver Adrian Arrington for a 1 year contract worth $540,000 to remain with the team. No surprise here, Arrington was an exclusive rights free agent and couldn't go anywhere else even if he wanted to. With Marques Colston and Robert Meachem both being unrestricted free agents their return to the roster is in question. That means Arrington may get his best shot yet to get a real shot at substantial playing time. Welcome back #87, looking forward to seeing you compete in training camp for a roster spot again in 2012. no comments

I think we can all agree Drew Brees was the Saints' 2011 MVP, if not the MVP of the entire league. So my poll question was simple: who was the Saints' MVP behind Brees? 51.1% of you selected Darren Sproles as the runner up and most valuable player on the team behind Brees. Kind of shocking for a guy that was supposed to be a mere replacement for Reggie Bush... but I think Sproles was a superstar beyond all of our wildest imaginations this season. Sproles did get decent competition from Jimmy Graham, though, who received 39.9% of the vote. That's great to see too, by the way, as Graham is a sure fire Pro Bowler for years to come now after being in the league just two years. It's hard to believe neither of these guys were on the Super Bowl winning team and they're now Brees' two most deadly weapons.

Other players who turned in a very good season were Marques Colston (3.2% of the vote), Pierre Thomas (2.9% of the vote) and Thomas Morstead (2.9%) of the vote. Thanks for your participation in the Saints Nation poll and please vote in the newest poll on the left hand side of the site. Which Saints' free agent is most important to retain? no comments

The scary thing about how bad the Saints' defense has been the last two years is the looming fear that it's two most vocal leaders and players of most value, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma, could be gone. It's not being talked about because Drew Brees' contract is completely consuming the media/fans and rightfully so. But the Saints are going to be tight up against the cap once Brees is re-signed and the Saints attempt to retain both Carl Nicks and Marques Colston. It seems most people out there are slowly coming to terms with the idea that one of two, between Nicks and Colston, could easily not return to the Saints. If the Saints have any shot of keeping all three though (Brees/Nicks/Colston) it's going to take money to pull it off.  Even if one leaves, revamping the roster will come at a cost and the money that would be freed up by releasing both Smith and Vilma is substantial. The other and perhaps more palatable option is whether the Saints can restructure their two contracts to free up space, which would keep them in New Orleans. Lastly, they could just keep paying the two vets' contracts, but I have to admit I'd be surprised if that happened.

Will Smith is scheduled to make... no comments

Things have been relatively quiet on the Saints front in the last few weeks, but two big nuggets of news hit this week that are worthy of a few comments. First, the Saints volunteered to play the preseason Hall of Fame game in Canton and apparently the NFL has decided they will indeed play in that game. That means the Saints will play 5 preseason games in 2012 instead of 4. My first thought upon hearing that was the most sarcastic "great!" you could ever imagine. It adds another meaningless game to the schedule and gives the Saints 4 more quarters of chance for more key players to get injured. Needless to say I'm not a big fan of this at all. I get it, though. Willie Roaf will be inducted into the Hall of Fame which is a big deal for the Saints, so they want to accompany him on his big accomplishment. That's totally fair and in a way I'm glad the Saints are doing it for that reason. Drew Brees better not take any unecessary hits in that game, though.

Speaking of Drew Brees, he made a post Mardi Gras appearance at Jimmy John's in New Orleans (which he owns) in an attempt to promote and drum up business for his shop. Obviously his mere appearance created a huge mob of random customers, as well as a media frenzy. The big news here is Brees dropped an update on his contract situation that should make us all feel... no comments