We think we know what we're doin', but that don't mean a thing. It's all in the past now, money changes everything.

Welcome to another offseason, bitches. It seems fitting that a season in which pigs flew, hell froze over and the Saints turned the whole damn system upside down would be followed by an offseason unlike any other. As in the regular and postseasons, most of us will be spending lots of time furrowing our brow in a vain attempt to understand the situation while wondering whether this is a momentary glitch in the normal order of things, or whether it's the beginning of some kind of crazy-ass "new normal." Either way, it's gonna take some getting used to.

For the most part, this is the crappiest part of the year: the longest possible time until more Saints football. That hasn't changed, of course. The good news is that it'll be by far the shortest offseason in Saints history. As I type this, there are 196 days until the Saints kick it off again. Which might seem like a long time, but consider that usually we're already almost two months into it by now. This year? It hasn't even been three full weeks yet since the Saints' last game.

Meantime, for many of us, this part of the year is almost as fun as the fall. It's usually those first 6 to 8 weeks between the Saints' last game and the start of free agency that's the really brutal part. This year, the Saints overstuffed that gaping void with bacon and aromatics and drizzled it with a reduction of balsamic awesome. And there are leftovers to the point where you can barely keep the freezer shut.

But before you know it, it's time to start cooking again. Already? The whole house still reeks of greatness! No Tupperware left in the fridge though. You wanna eat tonight, you better get to preheating.

In some ways, this offseason will be a whole lot like any other. The internets will fill with armchair scouts slinging buzzwords around. There will be much pointing and snickering at GMs who clearly OVERPAID(!!!)… I mean, $2 million a year for that guy is just ridiculous, he's clearly not worth a penny over $1.97 million. (On the other hand, if Benson weren't so cheap and Loomis weren't still dancing shirtless atop tables at various French Quarter establishments, we totally could have used that guy! LOOMIS!!!!!) There will be wacky trade ideas, a deluge of Mock Draft Version 17.8s (with trades!!!) and of course, more news "from my inside sources" than you can roll your eyes at. "No, seriously. Reggie will be the feature back this year and will get 250 touches. For real this time. It's straight from the source!"

But in other, more accurate ways, it'll be radically different. The Saints won't be "making a splash" in free agency, which at first glance seems like it probably ought to be filed under "same ole same ole." But the difference this time is that the terms of the collective bargaining agreement have all but shut the Saints completely out of free agency. Why? Because… *ahem*… THE SAINTS WON THE FUCKIN' SUPER BOWL! High five!

And perhaps more importantly, for once, the Saints don't really need to go balls out in free agency this year. Because… *ahem*… THEY WON THE FUCKIN' SUPER BOWL! High five!

Which is sure to piss off the sizable change-for-change's-sake crowd. After all, (cliche alert!) "if you aren't going forward, you're going backward." (Oh wait, I almost forgot the "…in this league" part. "In this league" has a way of lending any statement that extra little punch of credibility, doesn't it?) Why settle for the guy you've already got when somebody else might be better?

Obviously there's merit to that point of view. Just about anybody could be upgraded, and complacency has never gotten anybody anywhere, even right after you just… *ahem*… WON THE FUCKIN' SUPER BOWL! High five! But there's also merit to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Especially when you just…

But I have to admit, after years of looking forward to free agency like a kid at Christmas, it's hard to wrap your mind around the idea that this offseason is going to be primarily focused on keeping what you've got rather than sweeping changes to the roster, and that that's a good thing. It's like realizing that while that new bike might be pretty freakin' badass, your current bike is pretty badass in its own right, and you really did need those new socks.

Makes for a pretty boring Christmas morning, but it's all part of growing up. Which is what the Saints as a franchise are doing. And we fans would do well to get with the program and embrace the growing up part of it as well.

This just in: The Saints don't suck anymore.

Not for the time being, anyway. And while complacency might be the surest and shortest route back to the bad old days, so too is continuing to assume that anybody from outside the organization is by definition an upgrade over what we've already got. The first order of business, and maybe the only thing on the agenda until the draft, is keeping this particular band together. And for good reason.

Which isn't to say that the Saints won't find ways to upgrade the roster this offseason. It just won't be in free agency. We're pretty sure that everybody who reads this here blog is already fully aware of the situation. As one of the "final four" teams in 2009 (more specifically, FINAL ONE, BITCHES!) the Saints are not allowed to sign any unrestricted free agents until and unless they lose a UFA of their own. And even then, all you can do is sign one guy for each guy you lose, and the guy you sign can't be more expensive than the guy you lost.

Here are the Saints' UFAs: Darren Sharper, Scott Fujita, Jason Kyle, Mark Brunell, Billy Miller, Darnell Dinkins, Dan Campbell, Nick Leckey, Kendrick Clancy and Pierson Prioleau.

None of these guys are going to allow you to go out and sign anybody worth getting excited about. The two "biggest" free agents on the list, Sharper and Scotty Badass, are probably going to end up staying with the Saints anyway. And no, releasing Charles Grant doesn't help because releasing a guy doesn't count as "losing" him in free agency. After all, you're not really losing him, you're firing him.

You also can't trade for any guy you couldn't otherwise sign as a free agent under these rules, so forget that, there's no "loophole" there. The Saints can trade for players who are under contract, but sign-and-trades don't fly in the NFL. Mainly because anybody who's worth going to all that trouble for is going to want a signing bonus, probably a big one. The signing bonus is paid upfront by the franchise the player signs with. And I suppose there's a chance that I could be wrong on this, but I'm all-but-certain that the NFL doesn't allow "cash considerations" to be included in trades. So there wouldn't be any way for the acquiring team to compensate the trading team for the amount of the signing bonus. Which means you'd need the trading team to be willing to pay a guy 7 or 8 figures just for the privilege of trading him to you, and of course nobody's gonna do that.

So, seriously folks. Forget about Julius Peppers and Aaron Kampman and guys like that. It just ain't gonna happen. It can't happen.

Here's who the Saints can sign: restricted free agents and players who are released by other teams.

The good news is that there are plenty of restricted free agents out there who could help the Saints. The bad news is that restricted free agency is set up to keep players where they are. First you have to agree to terms with the player on a contract, then you have to be willing to give compensation in the form of draft pick(s) and finally the other team has to refuse to match your offer and instead opt to let him go. It's very difficult to clear all three of those hurdles.

The draft pick compensation alone severely limits the number of cases in which the Saints will consider it worthwhile to even pursue it. And in most cases, if the Saints consider the player worthy of the pick, chances are the other team would rather keep the player than take the pick too. And since they own right of first refusal, they hold all the cards. They match, and all you've accomplished is doing another GM's work for him.

I suppose it's possible that there could end up being a released player or two worth pursuing. It's difficult to predict who's going to get released, you have to wait and see. But for the most part, you'd be picking from a big bin of Charles Grants. And we already have one too many of those, at least for a little while longer until the Saints toss him into the bin.

That's especially true this year, when guys who might otherwise be "cap casualties" are more likely to be held onto by their current teams as long as they're still useful.

That won't be true in all cases, of course. Charles Grant is actually a good example of kind of a "reverse cap casualty." In a capped year, the Saints would be hard-pressed to release him because he has a ton of prorated signing bonus left on his contract, which would result in a huge cap hit for the Saints. But in an uncapped year, the cap hit is meaningless and the Saints can get out from under his "bad contract" far more painlessly than they otherwise could. After all, the cap will inevitably be coming back sooner than later. So might as well get out while the getting's good. And once the bad contract is no longer a factor, some team will sign Grant.

So who knows? Maybe some team will eventually put their own Charles Grant out there on the market, and it'll be a guy the Saints could sign to a more palatable contract and use. Fingers crossed. It's pretty unlikely though.

Far more likely is that there's gonna be precious little activity for the Saints in free agency, both coming and going. And what activity there ends up being will probably be a handful of departures by the Saints' own restricted free agents as the Saints stockpile draft picks.

Here are the Saints' RFAs: Jammal Brown, Jermon Bushrod, Zach Strief, Jahri Evans, Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell, Kyle Eckel, Lance Moore, Courtney Roby, David Thomas, Roman Harper, Usama Young, Chris Reis, Leigh Torrence, Remi Ayodele, Anthony Hargrove, Jeff Charleston and Marvin Mitchell.

We here at moosedenied have been saying since preseason that Jammal Brown has played his last down as a Saint. We still believe that that's been true all along, and that there was never any chance at all that the Saints were going to give Brown another contract after this year. The Saints actually got extremely lucky though with this situation. Brown's injury forced the Saints into finding his replacement ahead of time so that they won't have to go into 2010 not knowing who their left tackle was gonna be. And the CBA situation allows the Saints to get something in return, which wouldn't have otherwise been the case. Letting Brown go is now a case of "found money" and the Saints would be wise to take it.

Of the others, I suspect there's zero chance that Bushrod, Strief, Evans, Pierre, David Thomas, Harper and Hargrove are going anywhere under any circumstances. Usama Young has been tendered at a 3rd round pick, and I think the Saints would be more than happy to take a 3rd for him, and so would I, but I don't think it's likely that there are gonna be any takers.

And as I type this, word comes down that the Saints have tendered Bushrod at a 2nd. Introducing your starting left tackle for the 2010 New Orleans Saints.

YOUR DEFENDING WORLD FUCKIN' CHAMPION NEW ORLEANS SAINTS! High five!

It'll be interesting to see what they do with Bob Snagit. Again. After the week 6 win over the Giants, I promised that I'd never again take Lance for granted. And I intend to keep that promise. I can't imagine any team offering the Saints a pick worthy of letting Lance go. I'm just not sure that the Saints agree with me. After all, they priced him to sell last year and he barely even got a nibble on the market. I can't imagine it would be any different this year after his injury-plagued 2009. Which would be just fine by me.

Bottom line? Prepare to be bored as hell until draft day. Or until the Reggie Bush trade talks really heat up. Whichever comes first.

Until then, it looks like the biggest news the Saints will be making is turning Jammal Brown into a pick of some kind via restricted free agency, and maybe losing Darren Sharper as an unrestricted free agent. (Maybe, but I doubt it.) And that's about it, folks.

The good news? Things could get really exciting on draft day. (Only 56 days away, mind you.) I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that Jammal Brown could net the Saints a second first rounder. And if that doesn't do it for ya, how about a third first?

Come on, Pete. Come on, it'll be fun! You know you wanna.