New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton and GM Mickey Loomis have engaged in something of a roster purge thus far this latest league year.
Gone are Jimmy Graham, Kenny Stills and Ben Grubbs. Former Pro Bowler Jahri Evans is reportedly on the block. They kept running back Mark Ingram with a new deal and paired him with the electrifying C.J. Spiller. They added center Max Unger in the Graham deal, nabbed cornerback Brandon Browner on the open market and linebacker Dannell Ellerbe in trade with Miami.
They're reportedly working on a new deal to keep hometown cornerback Keenan Lewis happy. And the 2015 NFL Draft is still over a month away.
While the simple answer as to why they decided to make such sweeping changes all at once is that the team failed to make the playoffs last season and that's no longer acceptable for a Saints franchise and fan base that has become accustomed to perennially winning ways, there may, in fact, be deeper issues at play here.
The already acrimonious legal battle between owner Tom Benson and his heirs could be the nadir of the organizational changeover and the pending outcome could portend greater and more fundamental change for the Saints in the not-too-distant future.
"As Benson, who has been forced to comply with court-ordered tests on his faculties and ability to handle the daily management of his sports and car dealership empire, has become increasingly hands off in recent years, it's well known in New Orleans how much power and autonomy Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis wield," writes Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports. "There are few if any checks and balances from above; Payton and Loomis can more or less do as they please, and they have curried extreme favor with Benson's third wife, who the owner recently made the beneficiary of his teams after stripping it from his daughter and grandchildren."
For the time being, the push to change the roster is almost assuredly coming solely from Payton and Loomis. Turning the Saints from an also-ran into one of the league's elite affords them a little leeway in that area.
"But, should Rita Benson prevail over her grandfather and regain control of this franchise after his passing, it's also just as clear that the days of Payton and Loomis doing as they please are over. In fact, their days would immediately become numbered, with the unsightly court battle taking place within the Benson family these past few weeks only further illuminating the schisms and discord."
As La Canfora notes, Payton has already drawn interest from college teams like Texas and Michigan. He'd have no shortage of suitors at the NFL or college level were he to become available.
The same can be said of his long-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Drew Brees.
Brees, 36, has now accrued 15 seasons of NFL wear and tear on his body. In a down season last year he still posted 4,952 passing yards and 33 touchdowns for a 97.0 quarterback rating.
He's no longer the player he once was - he also threw 17 interceptions last season - but he still has enough left in the tank to lead the team to the Promised Land - at least one more time.
"Because this could well be it for Brees in New Orleans," writes La Canfora. "If the Saints want to lower his cap number in future years (he is currently scheduled to count a massive $27.4M against the 2016 cap, the final year of his deal), they cannot do so without adding new seasons, and it remains to be seen what kind of financial commitment they make. Barring them figuring out this challenging equation and committing new money to future years with a 36-year old quarterback, then 2015 has to be viewed as potentially it for Brees with the Saints."
What would the secondary option be were Brees' days in a Saints uniform to, in fact, be numbered?
How about a trade-up in the 2015 NFL Draft for Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota?
"No shortage of football execs I spoke to looked at Mariota as a terrific fit with what Payton wants to do at the quarterback position, and with the Saints now having two first round picks and a bunch of extra mid-round selections, they could easily join the Eagles and Browns as prospective players for Mariota via trade."
While a move for Mariota seems farfetched with Brees still in-house, what could be most troublesome is if Payton does nothing.
As La Canfora reasons, if Payton chooses to sit tight from here on out and move forward into next season with Brees on his current deal - essentially a year-to-year proposition at this point - it could mean that he senses the end of his time in New Orleans drawing near and is preparing for his, and a number of expensive veterans like Brees, Marques Colston, David Hawthorne and Brodrick Bunkley, exit.
