NOLA

Cut Taysom Hill for sure (this simply has to be done). Try and trade Armstead or maybe even Kamara to both free up money and move up enough in the draft to ensure you get one of the QB's. Winston is only due 3 million so I think you may as well keep him. But the credit card bill is finally due for the Saints. Hell, keep Winston as the back up next season and play the rookie. May as well. There's a chance Taysom may never be the same with his foot injury, so him being cut is a given, IMO. The Saints D has been at a championship level for about 4 years now, and the core is locked up on that side of the ball (pending a resigning of Marcus Williams, which is expected). Saints FO believes the D will be their bread and butter for the next few years anyway, and an even decent offense makes them ready for a deep playoff run. Count me as strongly in the Jameis is the future camp. He is only 28, and when he got hurt he had led the team to 5-2 with 14 TDs 3 INTs. This with the absolute worst WR corps in the NFL and no real TE to speak of. They shore that up and this is a SB contending team. Credit card bill is finally due? Not buying that at all. They will do what they always have done and likely be adding, not subtracting this offseason.

How are they going to get under the cap? I know they’ve been excellent at maneuvering contracts to make it under the cap but at some point they have to pay the Piper. Figured it would be this season. The NFC South may be wide open but do they have a super bowl contending roster? They have a ton of guarantees and roster bonuses they'll restructure to push out. I mean, yea at some point they have to pay the piper so to speak. They probably will have to make some tough cuts this year. If Loomis wants to reign it in and not hand out too many back loaded contracts this year, they could probably be back well under the cap for 2023. Using OTCs calculator I got them to about 7M in space with 78M projected for next year. Maybe need to free up a little more space than that. A guy like Thomas is the interesting type of choice. Only 2M in immediate cap relief, but 16M in base salary you can save. And you can June 1 him to give yourself all the in season room you'd need. Granted that is with plenty of holes for 2022, but this would be the perfect year for a reset right? Let every good FA walk, replace them with minimum players, and collect some comp picks for 2023. That said, you can do stuff like restructure Thomas and laugh at the idea of resetting the cap all while handing out the type of FA deals they been known to do and keep most of their good players and figure out later where the exit ramp is. They've done it this long. Last I looked they have 261M in unaccrued guarantees and dead hits whereas the median team has about 150M and the smallest is at about 115M (Philly actually has even more future dead hits and guarantees to accrue). The Saints cap woes are nothing compared to last season when they had to let Trey Hendrickson walk. The will do what they always do, restructure deals and give out salaries as roster bonuses. A lot of local writers are predicting that they won't have to let anyone at all walk this year. The one real question is if they're going to pay Armstead, who is an All-Pro type LT but can't stay healthy. That defense is Super Bowl caliber, and the offense when healthy can be enough. My prediction is that they sign Jameis Winston on a 2 to 3 year incentive laden deal, draft a WR and sign a Ridley type WR from Atlanta, draft an OL and run it back out there.

Dennis Allen named HC of the Saints. They’re 100% not going for the rebuild ESPN seems to be projecting. They’re counting on better health and running it back out there in a wide open NFC South.

He was the mastermind behind the LSU offense that won a championship a couple years ago. Maybe, but I can tell you that most LSU media credits Steve Ensminger with that LSU offense in 2019, and were not surprised to see Brady fired at Carolina.

ugh. that's horrible. We have a hell of a long way to go, but at least that horsefeathers would completely destroy someone today. It completely destroyed Campanis back in the 80's, too.

Ironically, the Saints are all but certain to promote Dennis Allen to HC and are likely just going through the process with Flores. That has been the plan for when Payton retires for years. We'll see how that plays out then. The last thing any team wants to do is give the impression that Flores is a Rooney Rule interview The have interviewed or will interview Aaron Glenn, Leftwich, Flores, Pederson and Dennis Allen, so they are at least giving the impression that they're doing their due dilligence. Payton and Loomis have indicated in the past that they like to interview candidates sometimes just to learn the philosophy of other teams' staffs.

Ironically, the Saints are all but certain to promote Dennis Allen to HC and are likely just going through the process with Flores. That has been the plan for when Payton retires for years.

Yeah, I read where between graduation and the portal, they have lost TEN defensive lineman since the end of the season. The only downside of this is that all the Gus fanboys will be screaming about him being dismissed. As for the money loss, tons of programs lost money last year. Even LSU lost millions.

i was sure 49ers would beat bengals again in super bowl. I can't legally bet in Alabama, but if I could, I would take the Bengals and the under. I agree, but that Bengals O-line vs Donald and Von Miller is scary.

LA seems like a soulless place to live, but watching this NFC title game with 75% Niners fans kinda hammers it home. There’s a reason the 2nd largest city in America didn’t have a team for so long.

Tom Brady retires. Seems like a good time to mention this:

LSU fans being LSU fans, already trying to talk trash about how “cool” this is.

Still think this is a Rooney rule move and Dennis Allen will be the next coach, but I wouldn't hate this.

A little different language there. He’s not coaching anywhere for awhile. I think you can say Dennis Allen is the next HC of the Saints.

Both these teams are so good. The Rams probably could be but they’re the stupid Rams.

It’s early, give it time. Brady looking like ass, and then getting flagged for whining over getting bumped by Von Miller is the good stuff. A perfect playoff weekend thus far.

Dallas gonna Dallas. https://twitter.com/slaternfl/status/1482884132426428423?s=21

They could have taken two shots at the end zone.

Watching a star studded undisciplined Cowboys team implode brings me great joy.

Roughing Tom Brady. First down.