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Saints agree to terms with RT Zach Strief on new five-year deal

Zach Strief (left) will be protecting Drew Brees for a few more years. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) Drew Brees rolls right out of the pocket as much as any
Doug Farrar|
Saints agree to terms with RT Zach Strief on new five-year deal
Saints agree to terms with RT Zach Strief on new five-year deal

Zach Strief (left) will be protecting Drew Brees for a few more years. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Drew Brees rolls right out of the pocket as much as any quarterback in the league, which makes the job of the New Orleans Saints' right tackle a very important one. Since 2006, when the Saints selected him in the seventh round out Northwestern, Zach Strief has developed into that role. And on Monday, the Saints announced that they signed Strief to a new five-year deal. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the deal is for $20.5 million with $8.4 million guaranteed.

“We are excited to announce that Zach will stay with us into the future,” general manager Mickey Loomis said in a statement. “Not only has he done an excellent job at the right tackle position, but he has served us well as an offensive team captain for the past two seasons and has always been a great asset in the community since he first came here in 2006.”

Strief has played in 109 career regular-season games with 45 starts and has played in 10 postseason contests with four starts at right tackle. In 2013, he started a career-high 15 regular-season games, as well as New Orleans' playoff win over the Philadelphia Eagles and loss to the Seattle Seahawks. In 1,213 total snaps, he allowed four sacks, five quarterback hits and 29 hurries -- highly impressive numbers for a roll-right, pass-happy team like this one.

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The Saints had been talking with Strief for a while about a new contract, and he rejected overtures from the Miami Dolphins as the two sides worked things out.

"There is a mutual interest to get something done on both sides, and we had a good meeting and discussions," Strief's agent, Ralph Cindrich, said at the scouting combine.

Grade: A.

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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.

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