Best plan for the New Orleans Saints to let Jahri Evans go and retain Carl Nicks?

Two-time Pro Bowl guard Carl Nicks wants to remain with the New Orleans Saints this season, but he also wants to make more money than fellow team mate Jahri Evans to stick with the team.

Evans, aslo a multiple Pro Bowl selection, was signed by the Saints to a seven-year contract worth $56.7 million dollars before the 2010 season, of which $25.7 million is guranteed over the first three years.

The deal effectively made Evans the highest paid guard in the NFL, and assured that the Saints had him locked up for nearly the next decade.

Now Nicks, much like Evans, is looking to become the highest paid guard in the league and he expects to get paid more or head into free agency barring the franchise tag, which he is clearly not a fan.

"I haven’t talked to (general manager) Mickey (Loomis) at all, I’ve heard a lot of rumors of the franchise tag, which is a lot of money, If you want to pay me, which I’m not a big fan of, what the franchise tag for an offensive lineman is worth, we might as well work on a deal. Yes, I’d be upset if I got franchise tagged, straight up and down. — Nicks Sirius NFL Radio interview"

However once the Saints finalize a new deal with quarterback Drew Brees then it becomes increasingly hard for the team to assemble this “mega contract” that Nicks is hoping to achieve.