New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram is set to become an unrestricted free agent next week. Both he and the Saints want to work something out long-term, but New Orleans' tight salary cap situation will make that difficult. The Saints are scheduled to be more than $20 million over the cap this offseason. Still, head coach Sean Payton is confident the two sides will hammer something out.
"I spoke with him today," Payton said of Ingram. "The good thing about Mark is that we're real close with his agent. We work a lot with Joel (Segal). [Owner] Mickey [Loomis] will talk with him quite a bit. Obviously he's someone that we want to keep. Hopefully we can do that."
Typically, the tone of public comments made by head coaches is not so positive when there stands little chance of keeping a player. And even though Ingram has been rumored to be leaving in free agency, possibly to replace DeMarco Murray in Dallas, Payton maintains a sense of strong optimism. That's why his focus this offseason will be on Ingram and other Saints free agents.
"You have to handle your own team, which is always challenging," Payton said of free agency. "You're seeing it around the league with different players that all of us know that are getting released. Mickey and I will work closely on that with regards to our own players. We'll also be pretty selective and try to identify if there's a fit for us in free agency."
Ingram is coming off the best season of his career in which his career highs in several categories including rushing attempts (226), rushing yards (964) and rushing touchdowns (9). Ingram, along with Murray and Ryan Mathews, will be one of the most coveted running backs in free agency this offseason.
