No executive order needed to get Saints down to fighting weight

NEW ORLEANS

The new, major assistant coaches are in the barn -- Mike Nolan (linebackers), Bradford Banta (special teams), Curtis Johnson (wide erceivers) and Ryan Nielsen (defensive line).

Team officials have decided to stay put for training camp and work from home in the summer suana. Ah, I can already smell the oppressive heat.

The owner and his three very rich estranged heirs have settled their monetary differences out of court. In other words, Tom Benson has shown them the money. Lots of it.

And there is contractual peace with ageless quarterback Drew Brees this offseason.

Thus, the easy part is over.

The difficult part begins in earnest for New Orleans Saints' GM Mickey Loomis and coach Sean Payton -- piecing together a roster under the constraints of a league-mandated salary cap that can go where this franchise has gone only once since 2011.

The postseason.

You remember, that exciting stretch of the NFL season annually reserved for the New England Patriots and 11 other Lombardi Trophy wannabes, when legends are made/fortified and champions are crowned on the first Sunday of February.

It has been an area cordoned off to the Black and Gold four of the last five years.

Oh, that postseason.

Now that the preliminaries are over, let's get down to work. The first order of business -- free agency, that necessary transactional practice of balancing the salary cap, when management retains some players at inflated or deflated salaries and discards others altogether.

Veteran fullback John Kuhn didn't bother with free agency. He re-upped with the Saints on Feb. 3, signing a one year, $1.08 million contract extension.

OK, of the remaining 18 unrestricted free agents (UFA) according to Spotrac, here's my top five considerations:

▪  DT Nick Fairley. A good player, not a great player with past baggage/issues. The concern here is the team will overpay him.

▪ RG Jahri Evans ... played well on the rebound last season ... may decide to retire ... turns 34 on Aug. 22.

▪  RB Tim Hightower ... a solid, complementary player. Now that he has retained an agent, I hope he doesn't price himself out of New Orleans.

▪  CB Sterling Moore ... signed off the street during the season and acquitted himself nicely. Not a starter in an idyllic world but there's a place on the roster for him.

▪ LB/special teams Michael Mauti ... as long as he can walk, there's always a place for him on my roster after that bone-rattling hit on Carolina quarterback Cam Newton in 2015.

There are other UFAs worth a mention.

▪ OLB Paul Kruger ... nothing special; sign him on the cheap.

▪ RB Travaris Cadet ... I'm not a fan of his ... if he could return kicks/punts, he'd be more attractive.

▪  LS Justin Drescher ... bring him to camp.

▪ G/C Tim Lelito ... how many opportunities does he get?

▪ S Roman Harper ... know when to say when ... a budding position coach.

▪ DE Darryl Tapp ... has the time come to Tapp out on a solid 11-year career?

Other orders of business:

▪ I'd make solid offers to five players currently under the Saints control: DE Kasim Edebali (restricted free agent), CB B.W. Webb (RFA), WR Brandon Coleman (RFA), WR Willie Snead (exclusive rights free agent) and K Will Lutz (ERFA).

▪ Also, I would restructure the contracts of S Jairus Byrd ($7.9 million base, $11.7 million cap hit) and TE Coby Fleener ($5.8 million base, $7.5 million cap hit). Better contributors have been asked to rework their deals.

And to think, I did all of this without penning an executive order.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 5:47 PM with the headline "No executive order needed to get Saints down to fighting weight."