Saints Face Serious Cap Pressure

"We've been one of the higher-paying teams the last couple years, so that's catching up to us," Loomis said, pointing out the big-money deals doled out to Brees, Smith, Grant and top-10 draft picks Bush and Sedrick Ellis. "So we're not going to have the ability cap-wise to go out and make a significant one-guy, big-time deal and still have the ability to sign our own unrestricted free agents.

"We have to pay attention to the resources. I think this is different than maybe the past four, five years. We're going to have some cap pressure on our team."