Dreaming of Fantasy Football: I Am Concerned about Bountygate and Brees' Contract Issues

Last year, most of my fantasy teams benefited from the fact that I had someone (and usually several someones) from the New Orleans' Saints on my roster.  Drew Brees, Darren Sproles, and Marques Colston (when healthy) were all fantasy football gold (Brees may have even been considered to be platinum).  Heck, even someone like Lance Moore or Pierre Thomas proved to be valuable on occasion.  Sometimes the only thing that slowed the Saints' offense down was the fact that they were so far ahead of their opponents.  

If everything had remained the same in the off-season, you could be assured that I would have been greedily filling my fantasy roster full of Saints' players like a little kid stuffing his mouth with candy.  However, now I'm not so sure I will even touch this team.  

The Saints have failed to reach a deal on a long-term contract with Drew Brees.  Instead, the team chose to place the franchise tag on him.  That worries me a lot for one of two reasons.  First (and worst), Brees might choose not to sign the franchise contract.  If he doesn't, he will likely hold-out if/until he receives a long-term contract.  That is not good news, as the offense is immediately downgraded by several levels if Brees does not play.  Chase Daniels is probably a great guy, and he might even be a very good quarterback; however, he is very likely not on par with Drew Brees (otherwise, he wouldn't be the back-up).  Second (and almost as scary as #1), Drew Brees signs the franchise tender.  Angry birds is a great game; I am not sure if I will enjoy watching angry Brees.  How will the quarterback play if he is a) still stewing about the club's decision not to sign him to a long-term deal and b) worried about an injury destroying his value as a free agent next year.  Again, if he signs the franchise tender, he may play brilliantly, and my concerns may be moot; however, right now, it is a cause for concern.

Secondly, how will the Saints play without their head coach and some other personnel?  I don't know, and that is bad.  I don't like going into a season not knowing how a team will respond to adversity, especially something like Bountygate which doesn't have any precedents.

I have a few months to think this one over; however, I get the odd feeling that I might be just as undecided about things then as I am now.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Orleans_Saints_at_Tiger_Stadium.jpg

Author: Original uploader was Mrbrown at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Date: 2007-07-30 (original upload date)

Permission:  Released into the public domain (by the author).

Caption as provided by owner/author:  Picture of en:Tiger Stadium (LSU) at one of the New Orleans Saints games.