So while the Saints haven't been hampered nearly as much as I could have predicted by the wide open spending market, the final eight rule that was implemented in this uncapped year has handicapped them severely. The rule is, simply put, that the Saints cannot sign an unrestricted free agent unless they lose one. They lost Scott Fujita to the Browns earlier this month, so that means Mickey Loomis (pictured) has the luxury of signing one whooping unrestricted free agent. Granted this doesn't include players with recently terminated contracts (Tomlinson and Delhomme, for example), but most of those guys are less desirable in general because obviously they weren't worth keeping around for their previous teams. The thing is, those rejected players are MORE desirable to the Saints because they don't count against their ability to sign free agents. Sure the Saints aren't interested in a major overhaul anyway, but it really makes it tougher on them to replace lost starters in Fujita and Charles Grant. Should they lose Darren Sharper, that would give them another opportunity to sign a new player, but it also leaves them with another glaring hole on defense. So get used to this long and uneventful offseason and hope the Saints can retain as many of their pieces as possible, because replacing them will be harder than ever.
