One of the items that was on my ever-changing to-do list yesterday (I was sidetracked by an unfortunate mishap with a nearly-full 20-ounce bottle of Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi that was perched on my desk without a cap, that I knocked over while reaching for my new Palm Pre, and that then did this once I turned it upright) relates to the apparent impasse between the Saints and first-round draft pick Malcolm Jenkins.
Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis recently said that he sent an initial proposal to CAA more than a week ago, and that Loomis has received no response.
“I talked with Ben [Dogra] and Tom Condon on a two-way hookup, and that’s the only time we’ve talked,” Loomis said Thursday. “So I would say there’s no progress at all on Malcolm. I’m pessimistic in terms of having anything done with him in the near future.”
On Friday, it was more of the same. “I said yesterday that I was pessimistic, and that hasn’t really changed a lot,” Loomis said.
Frankly, we’re not sure that calling out Dogra and Condon is the right approach here. It’s not like they aren’t getting deals done. So far, CAA has negotiated contracts for the first overall pick (Matthew Stafford), the second pick (Jason Smith), the seventh pick (Darrius Heyward-Bey), the thirteenth pick (Brian Orakpo), and the fifteenth pick (Brian Cushing).
Indeed, the fact that CAA represents the players taken just before and just after Jenkins at No. 14 should result in the deal getting done fairly quickly.
So maybe in this case the team is the party that’s being unreasonable.
Either way, rhetoric and posturing from Loomis won’t make it happen.