Will Smith had to take a huge pay cut to stay a Saint. Now, he’s making another significant adjustment. According to Larry Holder of the New Orleans Times Picayune, Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis said Smith will open OTAs as an outside linebacker. The Saints need help at the position, as signing former Cowboys backup Victor…
Last year was anything but normal for the Saints. The bounty investigation dominated their offseason and suspensions to coach Sean Payton, assistant head coach Joe Vitt and General Manager Mickey Loomis robbed the team of big parts of their brain trust for big parts of the season. Everyone is back at work now with Payton’s…
The pre-draft press conferences held by NFL general managers are normally short on specifics, but Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis did own up to something on Tuesday afternoon. He admitted that the Saints have engaged in trade talk with the Jets about running back Chris Ivory. The Jets hosted Ivory on a visit before he…
Early on Monday, there were reports that cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha’s visit with the Saints didn’t include meetings with either General Manager Mickey Loomis or coach Sean Payton because they’d already left for the owners meetings in Phoenix. As it turns out, Loomis and Payton were able to multitask on Sunday. Loomis and Payton met with…
Sean Payton isn’t the only member of the Saints with a new five-year contract. Saints vice chairman Rita Benson LeBlanc told Mike Garafolo of USA Today that the team also secured General Manager Mickey Loomis’ services for the next five years. Both Loomis and Payton are now under contract through the 2017 season, which gives…
Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said Wednesday that his team’s 7-9 season was “beyond disappointing,” but that they had to be careful not to make it only about the absence of head coach Sean Payton. “We’ve got a higher standard than we’ve ever had here,” Loomis said, via Mike Triplette of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.…
It’s been a rough year for ESPN’s Outside the Lines. From the Bernie Fine fiasco or the Mickey Loomis wiretap witch hunt, Bristol’s investigative unit has been doing plenty of swinging — and plenty of missing. Friday’s supposed bombshell in the concussion cases against the NFL, while not erroneous in its factual content, makes an illogical…
Suspended Saints coach Sean Payton “absolutely plans” to coach the team in 2013. The Saints absolutely expect to have him back. Absolutely. That’s the word of the moment in New Orleans, based on the comment provided by G.M. Mickey Loomis to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “I absolutely expect Sean to be our coach next year…
Lost in the fact that the contract extension signed by Saints coach Sean Payton was rejected by the league office due to a term that would have invalidated the deal upon the departure of G.M. Mickey Loomis is the question of why that language was in the contract in the first place. A league source…
Tonight, after the final gun of the game between the Eagles and Saints, the eight-game suspension of G.M. Mickey Loomis will end. And Loomis will be able to immediately commence the process of finalizing the September 2011 extension to coach Sean Payton’s contract. According to Larry Holder of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Saints are…
When the final gun sounds on Monday night’s game between the Eagles and the Saints, the eight-game suspension of New Orleans G.M. Mickey Loomis will end. And he’ll have a very good reason to get back to work, quickly. In the wake of Adam Schefter’s report that coach Sean Payton’s contract extension was rejected and…
The Saints are going to have three familiar faces watching them face the Chargers on Sunday night. Will the presence of Sean Payton, Mickey Loomis and Joe Vitt be enough to help the Saints get their first win of the season? We’ll be talking about that on Friday’s edition of PFT Live when Mike Triplett…
Sean Payton, Mickey Loomis and Joe Vitt aren’t going to be the only notable names in attendance at an NFL game this week. Gregg Williams is going to be in attendance at another Rams game on Thursday night. The NFL confirmed to PFT that Williams will be in the stands as the team he was planning…
The decision to make offensive line coach Aaron Kromer the interim to the interim head coach in New Orleans came from the top of the organization, with owner Tom Benson and G.M. Mickey Loomis making the choice. But they sought plenty of input from the men whom Kromer will be leading for six games over…
Once the preseason ends, Saints interim head coach Joe Vitt will begin a six-week suspension. But it’s still not known who the interim to the interim will be. At least not by Vitt. “[G.M.] Mickey [Loomis] and [owner Tom] Benson are making that decision,” Vitt said Tuesday, via comments transcribed and distributed by the team. …
The investigation regarding possible eavesdropping at the Superdome is forgotten but not gone. Nearly four months after a dirt-digging expedition by ESPN’s John Barr produced a report that Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis had the ability to eavesdrop on opposing coaches during games played in 2002, Louisiana State Police Colonel Mike Edmondson tells the Associated Press…
Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis is suspended for the first eight games of the regular season for his role in the team’s bounty program, but the suspension won’t keep him from meeting with Saints owner Tom Benson and other team officials. Benson recently bought the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets and installed Loomis as the director…
After an offseason marred by a pay-for-performance/bounty scandal and subsequent allegations of G.M. Mickey Loomis having the capacity to engage in illegal wiretapping, Saints owner Tom Benson wanted clarity as to the goings-on within his team. He got it from former FBI director Louis Freeh. A league source recently tipped us off to Freeh’s involvement…
When Saints owner Tom Benson bought the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets, we joked that Saints coach Sean Payton could spend his one-year suspension working for the team. As it turns out, Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis will spend his half-year suspension doing just that. Mike Triplett of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Loomis “likely” will…
Earlier this week, Drew Brees made no secret about his unhappiness with the pace of negotiations on a new contract with the Saints. Brees made a strong case that the Saints are dragging their feet during a radio interview on Wednesday, saying that his camp has reached out several times without a response from the…