By Mike Triplett
A look at the New Orleans Saints’ contract situation
The full list of players who are scheduled to be free agents this season. Under the previous CBA, players with four years of experience or more were unrestricted free agents, and players with three years of experience were restricted free agents.
By Editorial page staff, The Times-Picayune
Saints fans were shocked last year when fewer than a dozen Colts fans met their team at the Indianapolis airport after Super Bowl XLIV.
Even if the Saints hadn’t won in Miami, there would’ve been a celebration when they came home. Of course, our guys did win last February. And the biggest crowd anyone could remember filled downtown streets for a victory parade two days later.
By James Varney
The New Orleans Saints will hold their first 2011 draft meeting later this week with a plan to turn their full focus on that matter during the Senior Bowl later this month.
The game is scheduled for Jan. 29 in Mobile, Ala., and the Saints, like every NFL team, will have scouts and assistants frisking around the proceedings leading up to the game. The meeting this week will be devoted to evaluating the Senior Bowl rosters, Coach Sean Payton said.
By Mike Triplett
The New Orleans Saints‘ draft slot was set after the first round of the NFL playoffs.
They’ll pick 24th in Round 1.
The four losing teams in Round 1 of the playoffs pick in slots 21-24, based on their record.
The Saints (11-5) had the best record among first-round playoff losers.
By Mike Triplett
New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton declined to discuss any of his team’s prospective free agents or potential salary casualties when he met with the media Monday.
But clearly, the Saints’ coaches and front office will spend a great deal of their time in the coming months on those player evaluations.
The Saints have 27 players that will likely become unrestricted free agents, depending on the terms and timetable of a new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL’s owners and players. That list is led by names like tailback Pierre Thomas, safety Roman Harper, offensive tackle Jermon Bushrod, receiver Lance Moore, linebacker Scott Shanle, center Jonathan Goodwin and defensive tackle Remi Ayodele.
By James Varney
Nothing happened in the Seattle playoff loss to add significantly to the New Orleans Saints injuries woes, according to Coach Sean Payton, but the team does have some lingering issues on that front.
Safety Malcolm Jenkins, for example, still has swelling on his right knee but the team hopes that will subside and no surgery will be needed, Payton said in his post-season press conference Monday. Similarly, defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove’s knee will hopefully dodge the knife in the off-season, Payton said.
By Bob Marshall, The Times-Picayune
SEATTLE — The New Orleans Saints were in the playoffs Saturday, and once again pigs grew wings and Satan was forced into an igloo as football history was made.
But there will be no party with the Lombardi in Who Dat Land this time.
Instead, the Saints will have a long offseason searching for cures to the shortcomings exposed when the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks, the first losing team to make the playoffs in a nonstrike season, humbled the 11-5 defending Super Bowl champs, 41-36.
And anyone who followed this team knows there’s a lot of work to do.
Jan
09By James Varney
SEATTLE – Injuries aside, the New Orleans Saints‘ roster is liable to look much different in 2011. The exact nature of the upcoming free agency market remains unknown because the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union will end the first week of March.
But by the rules that existed under the old arrangement, the Saints would have a whopping 28 players as unrestricted free agents. Those with six or more years in the league are running backs Ladell Betts and Julius Jones, fullback Heath Evans, center Jonathan Goodwin, safeties Darren Sharper, Pierson Prioleau and Matt Giordano, linebacker Scott Shanle, Kawika Mitchell and Danny Clark; defensive linemen Anthony Hargrove and Jimmy Wilkerson and long snapper Jason Kyle.
The following players have five years experience: safety Roman Harper, cornerback Leigh Torrence, wide receiver Lance Moore, wide receiver/kickoff returner Courtney Roby, tight end David Thomas and offensive tackle Zach Strief.
By Peter Finney, Times-Picayune
Cherish the memories.
There went Tracy Porter, on Feb. 7, picking the pocket of Peyton Manning, carrying a pass back 74 yards to sew up a 31-17 Super Bowl victory.
What a moment that was.
For our heroes.
And there was Porter on Saturday, being brushed off by Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks, as Lynch was on his way to a 67-yard touchdown gallop to sew up a 41-36 victory that ended the dream of the defending world champion Who Dats.
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