Saints, McAllister Delay Decision On Roster Bonus As ACL Rehab Continues

The New Orleans Saints and tailback Deuce McAllister agreed to push back his $1 million roster bonus from March 15 to April 15, giving the team a better chance to gauge his health before making any financial decisions.

McAllister, 29, is recovering from surgery on both of his knees in late September. He expects to be ready for the team’s summer minicamp, usually around June 1, but he said he was agreeable to the postponement because it gives him more time to prove he’ll “make good on the investment.”

“I think, honestly, if I would have pushed for it, I think I could have gotten it. But in doing that, they probably would have wanted to lower my pay,” said McAllister, who is scheduled to receive a salary of $3.6 million this season, in addition to the $1 million roster bonus and a $100,000 workout bonus.

The Saints still might ask McAllister to take a pay cut next month, but McAllister will be further along in his rehab, which will put him in a better bargaining position.

“It’s pretty much both parties working together,” he said. “It’s not something they were interested in doing if I was healthy, but at the same time, they want to make sure they’re protected.”

Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis declined to expand on the decision, saying that there is no need to read too much into it and that both sides were in agreement.

McAllister has been rehabbing in Birmingham, Ala., for most of the winter, but he came back to New Orleans on Friday night to catch the Hornets-Los Angeles Lakers game at the New Orleans Arena before showing up for the start of the team’s offseason conditioning program Monday.

He said he will split time between Metairie and Birmingham during the next few months.

McAllister is jogging and doing light running and agility drills, but he said he hasn’t been released to do any hard cutting or planting. He also said he has been able to stay in shape and keep his weight down.

McAllister tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in Week 3 against the Tennessee Titans at the Superdome last season. When he had surgery to repair that knee, he also had a microfracture procedure on his right knee to clean up some of the damage left over from when he tore his right ACL in 2005.

Microfracture surgeries have become more popular and effective in recent years. Several small holes are drilled into the knee bones to promote cartilage growth.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily behind as far as pace is concerned,” McAllister said when asked to compare his recovery to his 2006 timetable. “The ACL is fine. We just want to be careful with the right knee as far as the microfracture is concerned. We want to make sure they heal extensively and not aggravate them.

“Without the surgery on the right one, I would have been doing some hard planting by now.”

It’s difficult to compare microfracture surgeries, because some are more severe than others, and the technique has become more refined. McAllister said his was not very extensive, and his expected recovery time is about six months. That sounds similar to the timetable of Portland Trail Blazers rookie Greg Oden, who practiced for the first time this week after having microfracture surgery in early September.

In the past, basketball players such as Amare Stoudemire and Penny Hardaway required longer recovery times. Saints safety Steve Gleason was not able to fully recover from a microfracture procedure in the past year. But the Carolina Panthers’ DeShaun Foster is an example of a tailback who returned successfully.

McAllister and the Saints will know more a month from now.

There’s no reason to expect the Saints will cut McAllister outright. They aren’t financially strapped, so the $1 million isn’t that big of a deal. But they may try to convert some of McAllister’s base salary to incentive clauses.

The Saints still are close to $20 million under the salary cap, but they have some important financial decisions coming up. They need to decide if they want to sign defensive end Will Smith, receiver Marques Colston and guard Jahri Evans to long-term contract extensions. They also have the 10th pick in the draft.

- Mike Triplett, NO Times Picayune