Uneasy and unhappy with the way his veteran teammates are being shipped out of town, New Orleans Saints cornerback Keenan Lewis said he wants the Saints to guarantee the final three years of his contract or let him go.
Otherwise, Lewis told ESPN he plans to skip organized team activities and minicamp and vowed, “I will be a distraction if they can’t do that for me, period.”
Lewis, 28, has three years and $13 million remaining on the deal he signed with the Saints in 2013.
The New Orleans native insisted that he didn’t want to come across as selfish and that he isn’t asking for more money, even though he feels his deal is well below market value compared to the deals being signed by other top cornerbacks around the NFL right now.
But he said he wants more security.
“I’m not happy. The team’s being broken apart,” Lewis said, pointing to the trades of Jimmy Graham and Darren Sproles over the past two years and the releases of Pierre Thomas and Curtis Lofton over the past week. “I want to be here. But if they can’t do that for me, (I’m not sure they feel the same).”
Lewis has been a key acquisition for the Saints, emerging as a No. 1 cornerback after signing a five-year, $26.3 million deal to come from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has six interceptions and 22 pass defensed over the past two years, but his biggest value has come in being matched up often against the opponent’s No. 1 receiver.
Lewis was arguably the most valuable player on a struggling defense last year -- though the other defensive MVP was probably Lofton, whom the team ultimately deemed expendable because he was due $7.25 million in salary and bonuses this year.
