Charles Woodson had an outstanding career: 15 years solidifying the backfield for the Oakland Raiders until 2005 and the Green Bay Packers until a couple of months ago. Right there in the previous sentence you can find a hint of why he shouldn’t be signed by the Saints. Go back and read it one more time. Did you find it? Yeah, you got it! It’s the number 15. The guy is 36 years old and that’s not an upside if your task is to track down receivers all over the field or to stop running backs off to the races.

Don’t forget that last season he played just seven games: he was forced to sit with a broken collarbone for two months. Almost any kind of injury would make him lose an awful amount of time. At his age, it would probably decree the end of his career.

Not to mention the financial situation. As of now the Saints are around $2 million under the cap, but part of that money will be used to sign the five 2013 draft picks and possibly some undrafted free agents. Those signings will supposedly take away around $1 million: do you think that a player who made four consecutive Pro Bowl appearances in the last six years (2008-2011) would play for less than $1 million? I hardly doubt it. Plus, I don’t think Mickey Loomis is going to spend all of that money to sign a single player but it will be more reasonably used to add a couple of “cheaper” free agents.

Unarguably, he would bring some experience to the DBs and add some depth to the bench, but remember that (at the moment) the Saints already have Malcolm Jenkins, Roman Harper, Kenny Vaccaro, Isa Abdul-Quddus, Rafael Bush, Jerico Nelson and Jim Leonhard competing for a chance to play at safety.

That being said, I believe he’s gonna end up somewhere eventually: there are a couple of teams who could benefit from the acquisition of Woodson, at the right price. I just don’t see him wearing a black and gold jersey next season.

Dec 30, 2012; Landover, MD, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) throws a pass during the second half against the Washington Redskins at FedEX Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA Today Sports

A stalemate in contract negotiations between the Dallas Cowboys franchise and their star quarterback Tony Romo has threatened to carry over the March 12th deadline but no more. The first signs of progress surfaced with the Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones crooning love songs over the radio at The Fan, KRLD-FM 105.3:

“I think on this particular situation with Tony is we think we have a great quarterback and we want him to be our quarterback here for the next four to five years.”

The word is that Tony is finally willing to talk, yet even Jones describes the initial talks as informal. An interesting aspect of the message the Cowboys executive vice president is sending Romo seems to be indecision as to just how good the team thinks he is. Consider these three different quotes:

“We have a good quarterback and we want to reward him.”

“We have a great quarterback and he deserves to be paid.”

“We’re fortunate that we have a really good quarterback, if not a great one.

Now the worry about the contract time frame slips back in:

He’s in the last year of a contract and our goal is to not let the quarterback run out of contract.”

Now, notice how Romo’s status declines back to merely a “good quarterback” when the salary cap is mentioned:

“When you have a good one and you’re fortunate enough to have a good one, then he’s going to take up the biggest part of your cap space, so you have to be partners with one another and you have to do things.”

Hmmm… Interesting… As with any romance the two parties are interested in what the other has to offer. Tony Romo and his agent want to know the size of the “Dowry”, and Jerry Jones (who hasn’t done any singing yet) will be concerned with the ring: A nice new shiny Super Bowl ring.