The negotiations between the New Orleans Saints and free agent tight end Jared Cook have been strangely prolonged, beginning with a March 14 visit and continuing to the present with no end in sight. It’s bizarre, and possibly due to the Saints juggling several different free-agent deals against the salary cap, between Cook, center Nick Easton, punt returner Marcus Sherels, and maybe a trade for pass rusher Robert Quinn,. Whatever the case, it’s odd to see talks drawn out so long.

So Ian Rapoport of NFL Network brought a welcome update to the Around The NFL podcast. Rapoport was definitive in his reporting: “It is happening. The actual contract I don’t believe has been agreed to language-wise, but they had an agreement in principle on like (March 20) … so that’s gonna happen. This is kind of interesting because every year we all talk about the Saints have no money, they have cap issues … and they kind of find the space for stuff they really need. It’s gonna be $8 million fully guaranteed in year one, it’s really just a one-year deal. (The New England) Patriots came in at the end and had a big-time push, a big presentation to Cook. But in the end I think this is something Sean Payton needed and was willing to pay for.”

That checks out with other reports that the Patriots tried to get Cook to reconsider his options, but he remained steadfast. If the Saints are truly going to get Cook on a one-year contract at around $8 million, they’d be stealing. Avoiding tying up long-term resources to an aging player would be a great move from a team-building perspective.

Then again, maybe Rapoport means that there are more, non-guaranteed years built into Cook’s contract — giving New Orleans an easy way out if the signing doesn’t go how they hope. As he said, agreements are only in principle so far as both sides work to clear up contract language. We should know more in the coming days, but it looks like the Saints are doing well for themselves in free agency.