New Orleans Saints offer guard Carl Nicks a deal
New Orleans Saints have made guard Carl Nicks a ‘respectable offer’ via his agent according to Carl Nicks on Twitter.
Carl Nicks made the following statement on Twitter:
"Y’all know I keep it real on this. My agent told me the saints made me an offer and it is respectable…"
It’s unclear what the terms or figures were with the contract offer, but this is something that the New Orleans Saints definitely waited until the last minute to do.
With the time before free agency winding down, up until this point the Saints had not contacted Carl Nicks or negotiated any type of contract to him.
The 2012 NFL salary cap was announced at $120.6 million yesterday, which left teams who were waiting until the announcement to make moves, scrambling to retain to key players.
In predictable fashion, general manager Mickey Loomis has clearly put in overtime with restructuring deals, signing players, and negotiating at the very last minute.
Plenty of teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Washington Redskins, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers were keeping eye on the developments with the impending free agent.
Carl Nicks is the best guard in the NFL next to teammate Jahri Evans who recently restructured his contract to free up some cap space for the team.
Nicks a young, talented, and premiere pass and run blocker who has been a major part of the New Orleans Saints offensive success since coming to the NFL in 2008 after being selected by the New Orleans Saints in the 5th round out of Nebraska.
Carl Nicks hasn’t decided whether or not to accept or decline the offer, but he did go on to say:
"Still need time to think and talk with my family"
He has made it clear that his goal is to become the highest guard in NFL history, surpassing the $8.5 million per year of New England Patriots guard Logan Mankins.
Teammate and right guard Jahri Evans signed a seven-year contract worth $56.7 million dollars, which has an average salary of $8.1 million over the course of his deal.
Nicks has repeatedly insisted that he’d love to stay with the Saints, though he felt as if the organization didn’t want him since they had failed to contact him or make him any type of offer to this point.
Monday, NOLA.com reported that Nicks would like to return to the New Orleans Saints next season and he hinted at a “hometown discount.”
"I know I’ve said I want to be paid a certan amount, but at the end of the day I said I want to be back with the Saints, and I’m waiting on any kind of offer… My goal is to get more than ($8.5 million per year). I feel like I deserve that. But I never told them, ‘If you guys are in the ball park, I wouldn’t consider it.’ I play with Drew Brees. We always have a chance to win. That counts for a lot."
So for now, we wait until 4:00pm eastern time Tuesday, March 13th to figure out whether or not we will see star guard Carl Nicks return to the black and gold for the 2012 season.