UncFelix28;4378696 said:
lol @ people getting excited over adam schefter report, he doesn't know a thing just speculative reporting.. They can easily franchise him if Brees is signed before the franchise tag deadline
Really?? They can do that "easily"??
I guess you know what their current cap situation is then... kindly share with us how much they're currently under the cap, what kind of cap room they're likely to have after they sign Brees to a typical contract for a franchise quarterback... then fill us in on what other free agents they have that they'd really, really like to re-sign (cough, cough, Marques Colston, cough, cough)...
Bottom line, if you're informed as to all the questions I've just asked, then you know it would not be "easy" at all for the Saints to sign Nicks to the kind of deal that a franchise guard will command... in fact, it will be very, very difficult for them to do so, and would almost undoubtedly lead to them losing Colston...
According to ESPN, the Saints currently have 106 million dollars (approximately) committed against the 2012 salary cap... the cap this year was a little over 120 million, the few projections I've seen of what it will be this year seem to settle in at around 122 mil... so at the moment, they'd be 16 million under the cap...
Now, consider that the franchise tag for a quarterback this year is in the 14.5 million dollar range... Brees might give a bit of a hometown discount, but not a huge one... so factoring in the cap tricks like bonuses that reduce the first year hit of a multiyear deal, figure that they can re-sign him for a cap hit of around 10 million... now, they're 6 mil under...
And the franchise tag for an offensive lineman will fall in the 9.5 million dollar range, again the first year cap hit can be minimized via the creative use of bonuses, so you can figure that a deal for him would likely come in at around 7.5 million... of course, this assumes that he's amenable to signing a multiyear deal once he's franchised, if he's not then his cap hit would the full 9.5 mil for a one year deal...
So, you'd need 7.5 million to 9.5 million to ink Nicks, and you're only 6 mil under the cap... renegotiation time... that would be doable, but again, would hardly be "easy"...
And again, Marques Colston and his 449 catches for 6240 yards and 48 TDs in 86 games is a free agent too (along with a number of other Saints, fellow receiver Robert Meachem comes to mind)... you have to think that the Saints would be quite eager, bordering on desperate, to re-sign their best wideout, a guy who has 1000 yard receiving years in 6 of his 7 years in the league... he's a franchise type wide receiver for sure; and the franchise tag for a wide receiver is also right around 9.5 million... so once again, a reasonable first year cap figure for him if he signs a multiyear deal would be 7.5 million...
Now you're at 9 to 11 million over the cap, to re-sign your top 3 free agents... that's before you've set aside any money for the draft (2-3 million for a team drafting where they will be), signed any of your other free agents, or signed any free agents from any other team... with the draft alone, you're now looking at 11-14 million over the cap, let's call it 12 million to settle on one number... I'm being conservative here...
Clearly, either Colston or Nicks will have to go... knowing that Nicks was a free agent last year and the Saints only signed him to a one year deal, and knowing that they're already paying Pro Bowl money to their other offensive guard, the smart money says that Nicks is the odd man out...
Clearly, it will be a long way from "easy" for the Saints to keep Nicks in New Orleans...