Saints are ready to retain 13 free agents with new contracts

As many as eighteen players now wearing the New Orleans Saints jerseys will become restricted free agents after the March 5 deadline for free agency, and the Saints have plan to retain thirteen of them and have tendered qualifying offers them.

The thirteen will-be free agents are offensive tackles Jammal Brown, Jermon Bushrod and Zach Strief, safeties Roman Harper, Chris Reis and Usama Young, defensive linemen Remi Ayodele and Anthony Hargrove, wide receivers Lance Moore and Courtney Roby, linebacker Marvin Mitchell, tight end David Thomas and running back Pierre Thomas. The detailed terms of the offers have not been available.

Before agreeing to any contract with the current team, the thirteen players all may just wait to see if they can receiver better offers from other teams who are hunting in free agent market. But as restricted agents, they should allow the Saints to match any offer.

Worry about free agents

At the moment there are roughly 120 unrestricted free agents, including big-name players such as Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison, Derrick Brooks, Willie McGinest, Shaun Alexander, and less famous players such as Pete Kendall, Mark Tauscher, Dewayne Roberston and Amani Toomer.

So many free agents will compete for the limited vacant positions in the league. And many of them have problems of age, declining production and injuries. Bright ones such as Toomer and Kendall, who make sense for a lot of teams, know that they have to compete for a job. So they have been woking hard to keep in shape and productive. And also they do not aim to high, a one-year, veteran-minimum-type deal will just be ok.

Anyway, if they are working in the right way, the free agents still have chance since injuries are a part of the game and most teams will be looking for help from free agents.