I’m surprised that Brian de la Puente has made it this far into free agency. Evidently the center has yet to receive the offer he was hoping for. The New York Giants expressed interest in de la Puente a good 20 days ago but nothing has come to fruition as of yet. Ten days ago de la Puente had a visit with the Redskins, but again no contract was finalized. Since then, the Redskins signed guard/center Mike McGlynn which may have taken them out of the running for the Saints’ center. The center market is starting to move, slowly, with the Patriots also retaining Ryan Wendell to the tune of 2 years $6.85 million late this week. The most significant contract this offseason has been Evan Dietrich-Smith who signed a 4 year $14.25 million to go from the Packers to the Buccaneers. Based on all these numbers, you figure de la Puente’s market is in the approximate range of $3 million per year, and maybe slightly more. Given that the Saints have about exactly that much in cap room, I have my doubts they’d be willing to spend that much. Now granted the Saints could sign him to a long term deal that’s cap friendly in year one, but with the amount of availability out there at center in free agency it is uncertain. I still think his return to the Saints is the most likely end game but his departure is a very real possibility too.
CBS Sportsline ranks BDLP as the second best center on the market behind Alex Mack who has been slapped with the transition tag. Dietrich-Smith was on that list just behind de la Puente, and Wendell ranked 6th overall. Currently five of the seven players on this list do not have a contract with a team. That tells you all you need to know about where NFL teams have put the center position on their list of priorities. Walter.com has a more involved list of the available options and it lists BDLP as the best remaining available player if you assume Mack isn’t really an option with his designation. BDLP ranks 3rd here with Jonathan Goodwin the next best available at #6. The 4th player on this list, Roberto Garza, is 35 and just got 1 year $1.5 million to return to the Bears, so that appears to be the market for Goodwin. Only 9 of the 25 players on this list have contracts resolved and a couple of them have come in the last 48 hours.
It remains to be seen how long it will take for de la Puente to sign with someone, but you get the feeling the Saints will stand pat and not address the position where they have a starting hole until de la Puente’s situation resolves itself. I’ve maintained all along that my preferred course of action would be to make a smaller investment in a center, specifically Goodwin. Goodwin could then be a stopgap starter for the Saints for a season or two, and they could draft a guy in the 3rd or 4th round that could be Goodwin’s understudy for a small period of time before stepping into a starting role. One thing that’s for sure is I do not think Tim Lelito is anywhere near ready to take over that position, and the Saints won’t go into training camp without giving him serious competition.
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