Actually, no. The 3 highest paid QBs right now are Rodgers, Ryan and Cousins. Thanks to yesterday's manuever, we have more cap room than those 3 teams. In fact, we went from 31st to 23rd in cap room, and we're 12th heading into next season.
Even with Brees massive cap hit? They're gonna need it. Kamara and Thomas will be breaking the bank possibly.
NFL Network says Saints will likely sign DT Malcolm Brown away from the Patriots, for 3 years, $15M. They'll also likely let Alex Okafor go.
He signed with the Chiefs for 15m over 3 years. Not sure what he was making before or what (if any) we offered him to stay, but it wasn't no $5m per. Getting back to Ingram, he signed with the Ravens for 3 years $15m or 5m per season. We signed Murray for $14.4m over 4 years, or $3.6m per. WTF? You mean to tell me they couldn't negotiate over $1.6m per to keep him? I thought the amount he was looking to get was in the $8-10m range, which would have priced out the Saints but the contract he signed with B-more was fair and do-able, so I don't understand why they let him go. He's better than Murray and his teammates love him, so in my opinion, his experience and leadership alone justify his bump in salary.
I agree, and Loomis should get some negative press over that one. Surely they didn't go from no idea what to do, to "lets ask Drew to restructure" and then get it done, in 24 hours. That must have been the plan all along. So why couldn't they get Ingram to hang in there for a day or two, while that move was completed?
After looking at Murray's career stats he is a long, long long shot to replace the production of Ingram. A big fat fumble by Loomis. On the bright side Teddy Bridgewater agreed to a 1 year $7 million deal to stay with the Saints. Barring catastrophe Bridgewater is not going to play in 2019 so unless they know that Brees is going to call it quits after this season they should have thrown some of his money to Ingram.
I don't follow Murray's career but looking up his numbers, he and Mark around roughly the same... Both have Avg ypc at 4.7 or so and are decent at catching the ball out of the backfield. Murray fumbles less than Mark too... Dude fumbled 3 time in 3 years, 0 last year... Plus he's a bigger back at 6-3,230 that didn't have Drew... What we'll miss from Mark is locker room presence... Who Dat. .
I think that's what the team will miss most about him. I was reading that whenever there was tension, it was always Mark that did something to ease it by doing something funny and making everyone laugh. I HATE that he got away when we could have easily re-signed him. Like you said, Murray is a bigger back so maybe he can have a career year behind our line.
One of the plusses we hear about Ingram is that, thanks to Payton's multi-back system, he has less wear and tear on him than the average back his age. Murray and Ingram are the same age, and due to redshirting in a college and an early career injury, Murray has 400 fewer carries. So, is what's good for Ingram better for Murray?
