A month ago the Saints looked possibly screwed. Marques Colston and Carl Nicks were free agents and the team was far apart in negotiations with Drew Brees. They also had the looming penalty coming down for BountyGate. However, a month later, they might actually be getting an upgrade at coach. I know Sean Payton has a ring, but he’s an offensive coach and Brees has pretty much got that side of the ball taken care of himself. Parcells would greatly help their defense, even at 71 years old.

They resigned Colston to a steal of a deal in an offseason where Pierre Garcon, Laurent Robinson, and Robert Meachem were highly overpaid. They lost Carl Nicks, but they signed the only slightly inferior Ben Grubbs to replace him. They signed Brodrick Bunkley to fill their biggest need at defensive tackle and now they have filled their 2^nd biggest need at linebacker by stealing one of their divisional rivals’ best defensive players for a reasonable deal, 5 years, 33.5 million.

Aside from Nicks, who they replaced, only Tracy Porter was their biggest loss this offseason and Drew Brees and the team look like they’ll get a deal done before the season. They did all this without having to cut Jonathan Vilma or any other key players from 2011. How the hell are they doing this? Weren’t they supposed to be backed up against the cap?

Grade: A