Nick Fairley‘s tenure with the Saints has come to an end. ESPN’s Field Yates reports (via Twitter) that the team has cut the defensive tackle with a non-football illness designation.
Fairley signed a four-year, $28MM ($14MM guaranteed) deal with the Saints this past offseason. However, he was shelved prior to the season after a team doctor discovered a heart condition. After receiving multiple opinions, the organization ultimately placed the defensive lineman on the non-football illness list.
Yates tweets that Fairley was due a $750,000 roster bonus this week, and his $4.25MM salary also would have become fully-guaranteed at this time. Nick Underhill of The Advocate tweets that the grievance over that money is still ongoing. Both sides had previously filed a grievance with the NFL’s Management Council over how much guaranteed money would ultimately be owed to the 30-year-old.
The 2011 first-round pick spent the first four seasons of his career with the Lions before bouncing between the Rams and Saints. In 2016, Fairley finished with 43 tackles and a career-high 6.5 sacks for New Orleans.
Ill never forget Cam Newtons press conference before playing Detroit and Cam said he was preparing for “Donkey Kong Suh and my former Auburn teammate Nick Fairley” lol
Good times!