The first few days of the NFL free agency period are now done and most of the big moves have been made, making it a perfect time to take a step back and assess what has happened to this point.
Pro Football Focus analyst Mason Cameron recently put together a list of team’s that he considered to be winners and losers from the legal tampering period. The New Orleans Saints were one of the four “losers” for how they have have handled things so far. This is what Cameron had to say about his assessment:
“The Saints’ placement on this list is largely a result of years of poor cap management, as they continually kick the financial burden down the road… Through some creative restructuring, the Saints freed up marginal cap space but once again deferred the financial consequences to future years.”
Anyone’s evaluation of what New Orleans did in the early period of free agency basically boils down to what they think of the current roster construction, which is normally much lower than what the Saints seem to think of it.
Many thought that this would be the year that New Orleans would just take on the dead money from previous years and use it as a chance to reset. That is not at all what happened. The Saints have added talent where possible, re-signed a couple of stars that were set to leave in free agency and once again restructured a large number of contracts.
New Orleans, with new leadership in town, is planning to run it back for another season. Anyone that doesn’t think that they have enough talent to win will think that they have made a massive mistake this offseason. It does make sense as to why they don’t want to lie down and give up, though. While Mickey Loomis seemingly hasn’t felt much real pressure from Gayle Benson over the last few years, that can only go on for so long.
If they keep losing, no matter the circumstances, his job security gets lower and lower. Who is he to care what happens to the next general manager that comes in and has to deal with the money situation? As long is he is in office, the money can keep getting pushed around and they can try to win while they still have some talented veterans under contract.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: NFL free agency: New Orleans Saints among offseason’s biggest losers
