METAIRIE, La. ― Pierre Thomas is finally under contract with the Saints.
But he's still holding out.
Thomas' agent Lamont Smith said the Saints' leading running back from 2009 has signed his one-year tender offer.
According to The Associated Press, Thomas will still hold out for a long-term contract with the team.
The move keeps Thomas from losing nearly $1 million, which would have happened if he hadn't signed his tender by midnight tonight.
Meanwhile, Jammal Brown once again skipped the latest Saints’ OTA.
Additionally, Roman Harper missed Monday’s session, which is voluntary by league rules.
All three, along with Lance Moore, entered Monday morning as unsigned restricted free agents.
Complicating their situations, however, is the deadline for them signing their tenders. Players have until midnight to sign their tenders before the team can reduce their offer to 110 percent of their 2009 salary.
“I don’t know that with the guys we’re waiting on whether that will affect whether they will practice for the last couple of OTAs,” Saints Head Coach Sean Payton said. “These are voluntary, regardless of whether they’re under contract or not. But in regards to whether or not they sign their tender, we’ll report that as soon as we find out.”
For Moore and Brown, the tenders already are 110 percent. The Saints tagged Moore with a $1.759 million offer while Brown, a former first-round pick, was tendered at $3.619 million.
Harper, however, stands to lose a large amount of money.
In 2009, Harper, a strong safety, played for $550,000. The Saints tendered him at $2.521 million. Should he not sign before the deadline, the Saints could drop their offer to $605,000.
For Thomas, his offer would have dropped from $1.684 million to $506,000. In 2009, he played for the league minimum, which was $460,000.
Thomas said prior to offseason training started that he would attend workouts. While he participated in offseason conditioning, he has been a no-show for OTAs since they began in late May.
Brown, meanwhile, didn’t play in 2009 after having surgery to repair a hip injury and a sports hernia in August.
Harper has attended nearly all of the offseason workouts and Moore hasn’t missed.
