New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Breaking News Saints reach 4 year deal(12 million) with Pierre Thomas

New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com (https://blackandgold.com/community/)

- Saints (https://blackandgold.com/saints/)

- - Breaking News: Saints reach 4 year deal(12 million) with Pierre Thomas (https://blackandgold.com/saints/32610-saints-reach-4-year-deal-12-million-pierre-thomas.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAINT_MICHAEL (Post 287824)

This doesn't excite me either. I was hoping the team would look into getting a bigger, more solid, less injury-prone back via the draft or free agency to handle the work load. I give credit to Thomas and everything he has done for the Saints. But I've grown sick of looking through the injury depleted running back corps over the past seasons and wondering from game to game who was going to shoulder (or knee, ankle, etc) the load. Going back to the last few injury plagued seasons of Deuce to Antowain Smith, to Aaron Stecker, to Mike Bell, to Thomas, to Hamilton, to Ivory it seems like the team thinks they can just throw a body out there and it will be good enough to get the job done. I don't agree with this. The most productive back in the team's history was obtained with a first round draft pick. Why the HECK is Payton satisfied with oft-injured unknowns to handle one of the most important spots on the roster.
I know a good run game requires good run blocking and that was lacking last season. But if we had a Stephen Jckson type back it would help our offense vastly. Rather than being able to run sometimes because teams feared the passing attack, we would be able to actually run the ball when we want to, which would open up the passing even more. Who knows, they may even be able to convert those 3rd and 4th down short yardage situations (Seattle playoff game anyone) that they seem to not get so often.
I dearly hope I am wrong and Thomas runs for 2,000 yards during the upcoming 18 game season, leads the Saints to their second Superbowl title and makes the pro bowl. But I don't expect it and I sure am not all excited about the prospect of the Saint's best running back being a guy who has averaged 41 yards per game and 5 games missed for injury over the 4 seasons he's been on the team.
Now go prove me wrong Pierre! PLEASE!

u have good points s.m. but i'm sure if a ingram or leshoure is there at 24 he will grab one. and about s. jackson, he's been hurt the last few years besides 2010 so its just badluck involved in these injuries and our luck sucked the most i sure agree with it there.

Saints re-signed RB Pierre Thomas to a four-year, $12 million contract.

In light of Thomas' injury-marred 2010 season that landed him in coach Sean Payton's doghouse, the deal comes as quite a surprise. Thomas was reported to be holding out for Steven Jackson money last offseason. The terms aren't in yet, but you can bet he settled for considerably less this time around. With Chris Ivory coming off a Lisfranc injury on top of shoulder, knee, and hamstring woes, Thomas should assume the nominal starting job. Payton mixes and matches his backs so often that neither will have more than inconsistent RB2 value in 2011.

Source: NewOrleans.com Mar 3, 3:28 PM

4 years for 12 million tells me the front office knows what the hell they're doing. I love it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDeuce (Post 287860)

I like PT, so I'm glad we got this done. What it tells me is that we are now committed to the "Running Back By Committee" approach. You can debate whether that's a good thing or not, but PT is not a feature back like Steven Jackson so we are going to run different RBs out there depending on the situation. PT, IMO, is the best running back in the league at catching balls out of the backfield, especially on screens. He is such a threat and a great weapon in that capacity. The Saints now need to make sure they have enough depth to balance the load.

i'm glad u brought up the screens to him. but its the decoy he lays out before the screen is played out hes a master at it and he makes teams bite at a run or a dump the opposite direction then back to him. u can see it developing, masterpiece p.t. think about it, he's not the whole back just a piece of a championship backfield.:bng:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAINT_MICHAEL (Post 287852)

PT is hardly in the top 10 backs in the league. Signing/drafting a guy like that (a top 10 caliber back) would excite me. But re-signing a guy who missed 10 games last year and averaged 3.2 YPA when he did play, not so much. The Saints had the 5th worst rushing offense in the NFL last year. Let that sink in....5th WORST. If re-signing Thomas is enough to make you and others here jump for joy, rave about his artistic running and shout HELL YEAH!!!!, then good for you. Myself, I have higher hopes and expect more from the front office. If they go into next year planning on PT being the featured back, then I will consider them short sighted, be very disappointed, and will expect them to have continued RB injuries and be searching other team's practice squads for bodies to sign just like they did last year. Time will tell if I am right or not.

Chris Ivory NFL & AFL Football Statistics - Pro-Football-Reference.com

Pierre Thomas NFL & AFL Football Statistics - Pro-Football-Reference.com

Steven Jackson NFL & AFL Football Statistics - Pro-Football-Reference.com

I think you're basing everything of a simple YPA for a single season, not a good judgement call, and Thomas, Bush, and a lot of our other RB's played very little in 2010, so being 28th in rushing is understandable. Ivory running more than everyone didnt improve that stat either.

IF you look at the stats, it will explain things better for you.
Jackson has always had almost 2x the Attempts at running that Thomas has. Thomas could easily clear 1200-1600 a season if he was given 324 Rush Attempts and 51 receiving attempts that Jackson is getting, all of the stats prove that.
Instead Thomas has 147 Rush attempts and 39 receiving attempts at the most in a season, and his YPA rushing was 5.4, and YPA receiving was 7.7. In 2007-2008 Thomas had even less attempts and still did a 4.8 rushing and 9 receiving.
Thomas in 2009 did better than Ivory this year, way better because Ivory had almost no receiving yards.

The problem with playing on the Saints is you have to be selfless. Colston will never get the numbers to put him in the HOF, because we play as a team and spread the ball around. Thomas, Ivory and Bush will never get their attempts either.
12 million for 4 years is a steal for an all around RB with PT's consistency and abilities. If we could get 4 RB's with the ability of PT for 48 million over 4 years, Id be in heaven.

Really cant understand why you have a problem with it. Especially sense Payton is crazy happy about it, and Im sure he knows PT's abilities better than anyone on this board.

Quote:

Originally Posted by papz (Post 287755)

Cause someone that knows someone that's friends with someone who is related to someone who told someone that someone said Pierre Thomas wanted Steven Jackson money.

Masterfully worded!

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/l...pple_1-1-1.gif

I appreciate the explanation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pherein (Post 287987)

I think you're basing everything of a simple YPA for a single season, not a good judgement call,

I was hardly basing everything on this one stat. It was a reply to your comment about how artful PT is and his superior vision skills over Ivory. Since you brought up how much better PT is, I wanted to point out Ivory's YPC advantage. Simple as that. I even state I'm not sold on Ivory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pherein (Post 287987)

Thomas, Bush, and a lot of our other RB's played very little in 2010, so being 28th in rushing is understandable. Ivory running more than everyone didn’t improve that stat either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pherein (Post 287987)

IF you look at the stats, it will explain things better for you.
Jackson has always had almost 2x the Attempts at running that Thomas has. Thomas could easily clear 1200-1600 a season if he was given 324 Rush Attempts and 51 receiving attempts that Jackson is getting, all of the stats prove that.
Instead Thomas has 147 Rush attempts and 39 receiving attempts at the most in a season, and his YPA rushing was 5.4, and YPA receiving was 7.7. In 2007-2008 Thomas had even less attempts and still did a 4.8 rushing and 9 receiving.

These statements actually help make my point. Thomas (and the others) played very little in 2010 because of Injuries! Thomas has yet to play in all 16 games in an NFL season. True, Jackson has been hurt as well, but he has been hurt shouldering 2-2.5 times the number of carries PT has and still racks up 1,000 yard seasons. It's easy to say if PT had the carries he'd have the stats. Guess what, he doesn't. Part/most of that is because of our offensive game plan design. But you have to admit that part of it is because he can't take that pounding the way Jackson can.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pherein (Post 287987)

The problem with playing on the Saints is you have to be selfless. Colston will never get the numbers to put him in the HOF, because we play as a team and spread the ball around. Thomas, Ivory and Bush will never get their attempts either.
12 million for 4 years is a steal for an all around RB with PT's consistency and abilities. If we could get 4 RB's with the ability of PT for 48 million over 4 years, Id be in heaven.

True, the Saints spread the ball around on offense, but receivers are different than RBs. There are generally only one or two of them on the field at a time to hand the ball to versus 5 receiving options, so numbers alone explain why receiving stats are more "spread around" than rushing stats. I believe that if Payton had a bell-cow type back he would use that guy enough to get Jackson type yards which, in turn, would help the pass game. Instead he has to use a stable of backs because injury/performance has not enabled one guy to take the job by himself. I don’t believe that Payton wouldn't rather have a guy he can count on for 200-300 carries per season than have to sign guys off practice squads.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pherein (Post 287987)

Really cant understand why you have a problem with it. Especially sense Payton is crazy happy about it, and Im sure he knows PT's abilities better than anyone on this board.

I said earlier in this thread that it's good to have him on the team. But it doesn't excite me because I think the RB position needs an upgrade and re-signing Thomas doesn't provide that. It can be hoped that he will play 12-16 games over the next 4 years and produce what he did in 2008-2009 (50 Rush YPG, 20 Rec YPG, 10 TDs). However coming off the year he did, it’s reasonable to wonder about his ability to produce for the next four years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by st thomas (Post 287963)

i'm sure if a ingram or leshoure is there at 24 he will grab one.

That would be nice!

pt,bush,ivory......3 headed monster....need em all

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewT (Post 287896)

I personally do not believe the Saints are done at addressing the RB situation. If Mark Ingram is available when the Saints pick in the first round, which is highly unlikely, my bet is they pick him. Another guy they may go for is Mikel Leshoure. I am not saying the Saints will draft a RB in the first round, but the chances are very likely if one of those two are available. I know there are some pressing needs on defense, but it was pretty obvious to me the lack of running game kept the Saints from making a strong run at a repeat.

I'm fine with them resigning PT but we need a back that is durable. People say there is no way we have the luck we did last year but if we keep signing injured players it's more than feasable. Ivory, PT, and Bush are going to go down if you go by their history. The only way to fix it is to either get a durable RB in the draft or keep getting warm bodies off the street which we all know how that worked out.

Now get Bush signed with a reasonable contract commensurate with his production, then we got options at Running Back; though, I don't believe in today's NFL you spend a No. 1 on a RB...

The highest I'd geaux is a back-end round two pick...