Tag: jacrabbit

Saints players make good-natured recruiting pitch to Lions corner Darius Slay

New Orleans Saints players Cameron Jordan and Marshon Lattimore made a joking recruiting pitch to Detroit Lions Pro Bowl corner Darius Slay.

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Don’t let anyone tell you that the New Orleans Saints are taking it easy during the offseason. Team leaders like defensive end Cameron Jordan and cornerback Marshon Lattimore are hard at work on Twitter, doing their part to try and talk Detroit Lions cornerback Darius Slay, a three-time Pro Bowler, into bailing on his squad to come chase a Super Bowl ring in New Orleans.

Yeah, that’s not happening. Slay is entering a contract year, and it appears he wants to join Xavien Howard and Josh Norman at the top of the market in the “$15 million per year club.” That’s not a price the Saints are going to pay for a 29-year-old cornerback, especially with Lattimore himself up for a new contract soon (at least the Saints can make things easier by picking up his fifth-year option).

But Jordan isn’t about to let reality get in the way of his dreams. He responded to a Twitter post from Slay advertising a giveaway on his video game streaming channel by jokingly asking if Slay was giving away his “rights and loyalties to the Lions” — and pointing out how much fun it would be for Slay to play alongside Lattimore and Janoris Jenkins, who also goes by Jackrabbit.

Then Lattimore chimed in, laughing about how “That wouldn’t be fair,” given the collection of skills sets; as seen in the six combined Pro Bowl appearances between Lattimore, Slay, and Jenkins. And that caught Slay’s attention. Good luck completing passes against that stacked secondary.

Still, this is nothing more than a daydream. Slay can’t get out of his Lions contract without demanding a trade, and he’s been too loyal to the organization that drafted him to do that. He’s set to play out the final year of his Lions contract on a salary cap hit north of $13.3 million. That’s just too much to tie up at one position considering that the Saints already have $11.25 million tied up with Jenkins. But wouldn’t it be fun if they could pull that off? At least Slay seems to think so.

While a trade for Slay is not likely, we should expect some movement at cornerback for the Saints this offseason. They only have three corners under contract right now between Lattimore, Jenkins, and veteran slot corner Patrick Robinson. Special teams ace and backup Justin Hardee is a restricted free agent, while starters Eli Apple and P.J. Williams will test unrestricted free agency. It wouldn’t be a big shock if some bold move does end up manifesting, whether in free agency or the draft.

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