I don't feel your sense of urgency in your remarks. There is a window of opportunity for teams and I don't want it to close before Brees is past his prime.

The time is now and we are nowhere near ready to take on the elite teams, given injuries, lack of depth and mediocre players at key positions.

The 06 Saints and the 07 Saints were very similar personnel-wise. However, the 06 Saints had a much better season.

The difference was the running game. Our O stayed on the field with good third down stats and kept our D and opponent's O on the sideline.

I don't see any 08 solutions to the 07 problems.

RB / TE / DB

The Saints were 30th in the league in pass defense last year.
The Saints gave up 32 TDs in the air last year.
The Saints gave up 54 pass completions of 20 yards or more last year.
The Saints gave up 15 pass completions of 40 yards or more last year (tied for the league high).
On the other hand the offense finished 4th in yards and 12th in scoring last year.
I think taking a cornerback was a prudent move.
SFIAH

PT23 started against the Bears. He only rushed for a buck and caught a buck in passes in that start.
Reggie started against the Seahawks. Rushed for 97 with a 5.1 YPC average in that game.
Aaron Stecker started against Atlanta. Rushed for 100 yards on 20 carries.
Now while I will admit that for each this was their best performances last year, it shows that they have the capability to start for this team.

Payton doesn't run the ball with any consistency no matter who is back there. In 2006 Deuce only got 1057 yards on 243 carries. That's only 15 carries per game.

We have backs that will do the job the offense needs done.

The Saints two top TE caught 74 passes for 709 yards and 4 TD last year. Each of those stats were better than the coveted Jeremy Shockey. It's only one less catch than Gates (though admittedly his yards and TDs were much better)

There was only one premier CB in free agency. I understand the Saints made a play. He chose to go somewhere else.

The Saints signed 2 free agents and drafted a CB in the 2nd round. They also drafted a CB in the 3rd round last year. They signed a smart ballhawking safety in KK last year.
What exactly do you want them to do at the position?

At RB we're running 4 deep. The problem seems significant last year because the top 3 backs all got injured. PT23 showed his heart in that Chicago game, and now Coach Payton will trust the guy enough to give him some playing time. He'll spell Deuce, which will make him available deeper into the season.

Could we benefit from having an All Pro TE? Pf course. But the guys we have have certainly proved serviceable, especially Billy Miller. I'm going to trust the staff on this one, because both Johnson and Miller were free agents, and the Saints resigned both guys. If they didn't fit into the scheme, they could have simply walked away from both of them.

The secondary problems have a primary cause from the front 7. Safeties needing to be up for run support coupled with a lack of pass rush left them exposed. When you make an insurance salesman (Redmond) and two rookies (Gray and Mohr) look like Pro Bowl QBs then you have a problem up front in addition to the secondary. With a significant upgrade both at DT and MLB, the pressure will shift from our secondary to the opposing QB. The Saints secondary is going to look at lot better in 2008.

The only urgency at this point is health. Guys like McKenzie, Deuce, Grant, Vilma, and Morgan have to be healthy and ready to contribute.

In closing I can see talking about the secondary. Their performance last year was flat awful. But I really don't understand the continual pounding on the offense. This offense runs off Drew Brees. As long as dude is upright, then everything else falls into place. Last year there were changes in receivers, backs, TE, and O-line positions. Still finished 4th in yards and 12th in points. Consider the constant in all of that.

SFIAH

Enough said about the RBs. We are fine. Unless you took Stewart and maybe Mendenhall in the first round, there was not a surplus of bruising backs. I love Matt Forte and he will be a great player but you make a very simple mistake in equating 220 to a powerful runner. It takes a lot more than bulk to be able to run through the tackles. (See TJ Duckett).

Again, what player in the draft would you have taken at TE that could come in and be a consistent blocker and receiver in the offense from day 1. NO ONE. The best TE in the draft was Keller and he has several years of development ahead of him to refine his blocking skills.

McKenzie, by the way, is according to all reports, doing great and is expected to be back by Game 1

in 06, we had deuce who came off of surgery just like this year and had one of the better years in his career, reggie.. who was a rookie in 06 and is now poised for a breakout year.. and stecker, who was a descent back up then and still is... and now we also have a good young player in PT..

i think you are undervaluing the presence of reggie.. he takes alot of heat off of the other guys just b/c of the gameplans that defenses put up just to stop him.. and if you think that they arent.. then you are sorely mistaken...

TE, which hasnt been a threat in N.O. for years wasnt really a factor in 06.. we still had the #1 offense in the league.. and in 07, we had the #5 offense.. even with an upgraded TE position from 06...

DB has been improved.. 06 we had fred thomas who was horrible and jay bellamy who was also horrible.... last year we had JD who was also horrible but had been playing in a zone heavy defense for the previous 4 years... i look JD to have a much better year, Harper has taken over for bellamy and has improved the play at the SS position...the addition of Gay will improve the depth at CB and McKenzie is coming off his best year as a DB and should be back to full form by the start of the season.. T. Porter an U. Young should both improve this year and will be fighting for a starting job either next year of the year after...

in addition to that... i think you are lookin at the wrong area of problems.. id say our biggest problem areas in 07 were DT, LB and CB and Oline..

we have improved the oline..

gotten a probowl MLB.. drafted a runstuffing penetrating DT who will take pressure off of w. smith and c. grant.. signed depth at LB and DE which will help our guys from getting worn out... we have signed several CBs which give us depth at the position...

id say our biggest problem in 08, is adding a better backup qb and finding another reciever to compliment colston...