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…
a lot better about the situation. Indeed, Brees confirmed he feels very optimistic a deal will get done before March 5th which would force the Saints to franchise tag him. If the Saints don’t have to franchise tag him, they can use in on one of their other high value free agents instead (Carl Nicks most likely, but maybe Marques Colston). The big statements to take from Brees’ appearance are “I wouldn’t say we’re ‘very far’ apart. I think there’s been progress made,” and “There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll get a deal done.” I’m sure his agent Tom Condon isn’t in love with the complete lack of a poker face from his client, but there you have it. Hopefully we get some good news this week. The goal is to have Drew Brees signed before 3/5 which is a week from Monday.
Lastly, I thought I’d share this 7 round mock draft that was done for the Saints only. A well done piece and I could live with this draft. The first and last pick of this mock are probably my least favorite, but none the less it’s a mock draft that’s well put together and makes sense for the most part.
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