Latest / AFR Saints / 3 Franchise Tag Options For Saints | Does It Make Sense For New Orleans To Use Tag?

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3 Franchise Tag Options For Saints | Does It Make Sense For New Orleans To Use Tag? · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: dot org. Golf dot Breck dot org. With the New
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  Speaker 1: Orleans Saints, we're focused focusing so much on Kellen Moore,
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  Speaker 1: building his staff, and what they're going to do in
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  Speaker 1: free agency, what they're going to do with Derek Carr,
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  Speaker 1: so many giant question marks that the franchise tag is
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  Speaker 1: sort of an ancillary piece of this roster. But here today, Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: the ability for teams to use the franchise tag designation opened.
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  Speaker 1: That window opened, and so you were missing. We didn't
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  Speaker 1: at least talk about it first. If you're not familiar,
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  Speaker 1: the franchise tag effectively is a tool that willow you.
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  Speaker 1: I know, I just I know probably a lot of
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  Speaker 1: you understand it, but let me just explain for maybe
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  Speaker 1: those of you that don't. The franchise tag is a
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  Speaker 1: tool that allows teams to retain their free agent talent
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  Speaker 1: without committing to them long term. Now it's very expensive,
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  Speaker 1: but it allows you to keep your better players without
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  Speaker 1: making the long term investment. Think of it as renting
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  Speaker 1: as opposed to buying. Like if you go rent a house,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of times it costs you more per month
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  Speaker 1: to rent than your mortgage would if you buy a
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  Speaker 1: house or a thirty year mortgage, right, but you're locked
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  Speaker 1: into a thirty year mortgage as opposed to you have
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  Speaker 1: a lease where it's monthly or whatever you can get
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  Speaker 1: out of it. So that's kind of the purpose of
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  Speaker 1: a franchise tag for the New Orleans Saints. And by
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  Speaker 1: the way, the value of the franchise tag is the average.
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  Speaker 1: The average salaries are the average contracts of the top
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  Speaker 1: five players at that position over the previous five years
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  Speaker 1: or one hundred and twenty percent of your previous contract,
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  Speaker 1: whichever number is higher. But basically it's it's generally always
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  Speaker 1: going to be the average of the top five salaries
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  Speaker 1: of the previous five years, and it goes by position.
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  Speaker 1: So if you look at the players that are free
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  Speaker 1: agents for the New Orleans Saints this year. I really
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  Speaker 1: think there's only three. There's only three that you would
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  Speaker 1: even consider like that we would even entertain the conversation
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  Speaker 1: about using the franchise tag. It's Chase Young, Juwan Johnson,
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  Speaker 1: and Paulson Nadibo. Now I'll be very clear before you
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  Speaker 1: go any further. I do not think the Saints should
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  Speaker 1: and I do not think the Saints will use the
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  Speaker 1: franchise tag for any of these players. Okay, but just
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of having this conversation, Chase Young, the
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  Speaker 1: the franchise tag price this year for a defensive end
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  Speaker 1: is twenty four point seven million dollars. So if the
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  Speaker 1: Saints wanted the franchise tag Chase Young, it would cost
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  Speaker 1: him twenty four point seven million. For Paulson a debo,
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  Speaker 1: the franchise tag number for a cornerback is twenty point
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  Speaker 1: three million, and for a tight end, if they wanted
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  Speaker 1: the franchise tag Juwan Johnson, that number is fourteen point
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  Speaker 1: two million. Over thecap dot Com, for example, looks at
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  Speaker 1: metrics and numbers and all that and puts together a
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  Speaker 1: valuation and projected valuation for each player. So I told you,
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  Speaker 1: Chase Young, if they wanted the franchise tag him, that
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  Speaker 1: value would be twenty four point seven million over the
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  Speaker 1: cap estimates. Chase Young's valuation at thirteen million dollars, so
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  Speaker 1: you're talking at eleven million more than his valuation, Juwan
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  Speaker 1: Johnson his valuation at six million dollars, and paulson A
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  Speaker 1: Debo his valuation at one point million. Remember Debo's coming
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  Speaker 1: off the really devastating leg fracture, which, God, it sucks
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  Speaker 1: for pulse In and Debo. I'm super sympathetic there. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: this is a guy that was in his contract year
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  Speaker 1: going into a free agency, has been a starter, has
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  Speaker 1: been a very has been a good player for you,
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  Speaker 1: and in his contract year he suffers a broken leg
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  Speaker 1: and it effectively just neuters his free agency value. Has
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  Speaker 1: told you, like, the franchise tag for a cornerback would
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  Speaker 1: be twenty point three million dollars over the cap estimates
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  Speaker 1: pulse and Deebo's value at one point two million average
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  Speaker 1: annual value. So that sucks, I mean, just sucks for
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  Speaker 1: pulse In and Debo. I think the So I do
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  Speaker 1: not think the Saints or even going to entertain the
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  Speaker 1: franchise tag the last time they used it was Remarcus
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  Speaker 1: Williams back in twenty twenty one, so it's been five
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  Speaker 1: years or four years even since the Saints used the
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  Speaker 1: franchise tag. I think the bigger question is do you
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  Speaker 1: have the opportunity unity to retain those three players I
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  Speaker 1: just mentioned in free agency? And there's a couple of factors.
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  Speaker 1: Number One, you got to clear up your cap situation
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  Speaker 1: to get within cap compliance and free up enough money
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  Speaker 1: to where you can afford to sign your free agents.
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  Speaker 1: That's one. Number two, what is the market for these players? Like,
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  Speaker 1: are you gonna have to get into a bidding war
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  Speaker 1: for these players and have somebody outbid you in theory?
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  Speaker 1: And the number three is like do they want to
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  Speaker 1: come back or do they like, do you want to
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  Speaker 1: come back and be part of what is a perceived
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  Speaker 1: rebuild or do you want to go try to win?
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  Speaker 1: Now you have three relatively young players there with young
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  Speaker 1: Johnson and a debo that I don't think any of
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  Speaker 1: them feel like they're staring at the light at the
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  Speaker 1: end of their tunnel of their career and it's getting brighter.
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  Speaker 1: But I mean it's also odd to think. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: the Saints have missed the playoffs, for four consecutive years now,
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  Speaker 1: So are you wanting to hang around and keepee the
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  Speaker 1: playoffs when you've never tasted that. Regardless of what we
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  Speaker 1: all perceive the success of this franchise have been over
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  Speaker 1: the last two decades, the recent history is Saints aren't
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  Speaker 1: playoff team. They have made the playoffs for four years.
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  Speaker 1: If I look at each of them individually, Young, Johnson,
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  Speaker 1: and Adebo, I think Chase Young is gonna have a
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  Speaker 1: very healthy market. The question for Chase Young through for
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  Speaker 1: his first four years in the NFL had been can
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  Speaker 1: he stay healthy? He was healthy as a rookie, he
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  Speaker 1: was healthy a year ago, and he was very productive.
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  Speaker 1: The middle two years when he suffered injuries, it became
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  Speaker 1: more complex. He played all seventeen games in New Orleans
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  Speaker 1: this year. One of the league leaders in quarterback Hurries
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  Speaker 1: played seventeen games at five and a half sacks. He
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  Speaker 1: showed he could stay healthy and be a productive player
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  Speaker 1: at creating pressures off the edge. There's going to be
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  Speaker 1: a market for Chase Hung. He said he's open to
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  Speaker 1: returning to New Orleans, but is New Orleans able? Like
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  Speaker 1: one thing, it's so odd with the Saints because this
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  Speaker 1: is a team that the way they spend and the
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  Speaker 1: way they structure and then restructure is so fiscally irresponsible.
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  Speaker 1: It's counterintuitive that an organization that is so fiscally irresponsible
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  Speaker 1: with how they structure and restructure deals like has hard
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  Speaker 1: and fast limits on what they'll spend on their free agents.
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  Speaker 1: Right Like whenever mark Ingram left New Orleans for Baltimore,
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  Speaker 1: we learned that the difference in the contract ends up
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  Speaker 1: ended up being just a couple a couple hundred thousand dollars,
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  Speaker 1: like something so negligible. But like they had their number,
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  Speaker 1: they weren't going over. So chances are with a guy
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  Speaker 1: like Chase Young where he has a market, the Saints
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  Speaker 1: are going to have their number. They're not going to
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  Speaker 1: go over. My guess is some other team will. It's
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  Speaker 1: interesting about Juwan Johnson because we also kind of had
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  Speaker 1: this perception that he was kind of quote unquote disappointing season.
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  Speaker 1: But in a year where Chris olave, Rashi Chihi, Taysom
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  Speaker 1: Hill all were injured, Juwan Johnson was your top pass
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  Speaker 1: catcher this year. He caught fifty balls for five hundred
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  Speaker 1: and forty eight yards to go along with three touchdowns.
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  Speaker 1: Now Juwan Johnson met with reporters about a month ago
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  Speaker 1: and talked about his sort of impending free agency and
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  Speaker 1: what he was looking at.
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  Speaker 2: It is interesting, but I feel like the biggest thing
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  Speaker 2: is just embracing what I have now. I mean, I've
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  Speaker 2: been here for five years, undrafted guy, seeing a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people come and go. I think the biggest thing
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  Speaker 2: is just en joint on what I have here with
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  Speaker 2: the guys that I have. Honest, you never know how
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  Speaker 2: it looks next year. People go different places. I'm may
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  Speaker 2: go different places. You just never know. It's the business.
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  Speaker 2: It's just what it is.
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  Speaker 1: It's an interesting way to look at it. You remember
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  Speaker 1: that was a guy who went to Penn State, transferred
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  Speaker 1: to Oregon, was a receiver, came to New Orleans, was
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  Speaker 1: a big bodied receiver. That converted him to tight end,
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  Speaker 1: and they've made it work to where he's been a
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  Speaker 1: productive player. He made the team as an undrafted rookie
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  Speaker 1: free agent and has been a productive player for the
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints. However, my hope for Juwan Johnson the
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  Speaker 1: human and look, I mean, since he's been here, Juwan
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  Speaker 1: and his wife got married. They've you know, they very
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  Speaker 1: publicly chronicled their journey through uh, their their their their
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  Speaker 1: attempts to become pregnant and and then having their their
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  Speaker 1: child born. They like, they've been very public about that
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  Speaker 1: on social media. I'm sure there's an emotional tie to
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  Speaker 1: the city and the franchise and everything that it's been.
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  Speaker 1: The Other part of that is, man, like, you may
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  Speaker 1: only hit free agency once in your career where where
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  Speaker 1: you have where you're a young veteran, and you have
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  Speaker 1: value and you have to maximize it. So I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: blame Juwan Johnson one bit if he went and tested
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  Speaker 1: the market and and cashed out to whatever the highest degrees,
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  Speaker 1: and maybe that's in New Orleans, it'd be great. If
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  Speaker 1: he's back, he wants to be here, that's awesome. But
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  Speaker 1: I also wouldn't fault the guy if, at this point
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  Speaker 1: in his life he said, look, this may be my
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  Speaker 1: one shot at signing my my biggest contract. I'd be
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  Speaker 1: doing myself a disservice. But I didn't go at least
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  Speaker 1: see what the market would bear.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's pauls Nadibo, who, as we talked about,
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  Speaker 1: it just sucks for him. Man. You know, that was
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  Speaker 1: a guy that opted out during the COVID year, slipped
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  Speaker 1: a little in the draft. As a result, Saints pulled
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  Speaker 1: the trigger. He's been a starting player for New Orleans
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  Speaker 1: ever since he came into the league and he just
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  Speaker 1: had this devastating injury in his contract year. So where
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  Speaker 1: does that leave It probably mutes the market a bit
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  Speaker 1: for him, and if that's the case, that may end
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  Speaker 1: up being to the Saints benefit. And you know, I
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  Speaker 1: know we've talked a lot about Paulson Adebo and his
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  Speaker 1: issue with penalties things like that since he's been in
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans. But when I look at what you have
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  Speaker 1: with Alante Taylor, who I don't know that he's a
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  Speaker 1: boundary corner in the NFL, and kool Aid McKinstry, who
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  Speaker 1: used a second round pick on a year ago and
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  Speaker 1: played a lot for you out of necessity. Both it's
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  Speaker 1: slot in boundary corner. Like I don't know if Taylor
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  Speaker 1: and kool Aid are guys that can be boundary corners.
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  Speaker 1: We know Paulson Adebo can be that. I'm not saying
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  Speaker 1: he's an All Pro, but he's a starting cornerback in
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  Speaker 1: the NFL, and that injury may end up being to
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  Speaker 1: the Saints benefit. If you end up getting a debo
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  Speaker 1: on what amounts to a bargain basement deal as a
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  Speaker 1: result of him seeing his marketing vaporate because of the injury.
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  Speaker 1: It would suck if it happened that way, but it
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  Speaker 1: might be to the Saints benefit. So again, franchise tag
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  Speaker 1: window is open. I cannot see a reality where the
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  Speaker 1: Saints use it, but the three players that are going
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  Speaker 1: into free agency that you would love to have back
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  Speaker 1: in some way if it would work, Chase Young, Juwan Johnson,
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  Speaker 1: Paulson Adebo. We'll see what the Saints are able to
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  Speaker 1: make work with a new coach, Kellen Moore,