It's hard to write about this Saints this offseason without addressing the whole bounty thing. My first order of business is to refrain from making too many Boba Fett jokes. But seriously, I will only say that I think what they did was horrible and, ultimately, damaging to the game if not punished to the fullest extent. I'm glad they lost draft picks and I hope the coaches have severe suspensions.
The unfortunate side of the whole bounty thing for the Saints, in terms of this offseason, is that because they lost high draft picks, really the only way for them to fill needs is through Free Agency. The hard part about this for the Saints, though, is that they have some pretty harsh cap problems. While the Front Office has worked around that in general, it has resulted in them losing a few players that they may have tried to keep around otherwise.
Their big loss, I think, was OG Carl Nicks to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The dude was pretty darn good, you know. He will be missed on that o-line. They also lost WR Robert Meachem and CB Tracy Porter. While neither of these losses is huge, they seem like the type of guys the Saints may have kept around with more cap room.
The big victory for the Saints this offseason would be the Franchising of Drew Brees. While the Saints still need to get him happy and signed to a long term contract soon, I'm sure they are feeling good that he never had a chance to even test Free Agency. Alongside this, they re-signed WR Marques Colston, and brought in OG Ben Grubbs, LB Curtis Lofton, and DT Brodrick Bunkley.