re: Cap update: ~$2m over, Will Smith update: still fat

Plus he has relatively little experience as a 5 tech. There will be depth options available in FA that are more proven and possibly even cheaper than whatever Smith is willing to accept. Or maybe the Saints could be interested in spending a bit more cash and going after a good aging vet that won't have any long term offers (someone like Cullen Jenkins or Richard Seymour at $4-5m this season instead of Smith at $2-3m).

As for Harper, I think cutting Smith and Vilma would give us some cash to spend and a chance to be patient with him while we keep an eye out in FA. Between a new player's prorated bonus + base salary, I don't think that we'll be able to get some big upgrade over Harper for the $5.25m we save this year (if we don't accelerate his 2014 portion of his signing bonus), but SS is probably the best position on defense to be bad at. Someone like Abram Elam (who played for Ryan in Dallas) or Jim Leonhard could be cheaper, aging stopgaps. And from what I saw, Quddus was better last season than both Harper and Jenkins anyway. I just think that picking up a cheap vet + making SS a mid-round priority (Shawn Williams?) and rolling with those two instead of Harper would be worth the nearly $5m freed up to spend elsewhere, like maybe on a FS that's not a twat.