RockyMountainSaint

Vilma has knee surgery, expected back for opener | ProFootballTalk
Well, now we know why Jonathan Vilma was in Philadelphia, and what he was getting a second opinion on.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Saints linebacker is having knee surgery today.

Vilma is expected to miss the rest of the preseason, but is expected to be ready for the regular season opener.

Vilma’s viability has been a question on several levels. He missed six games last year because of knee problems, and had to take a pay cut just to keep his spot with the Saints.

There’s also a reasonable question of how good a fit he is in a 3-4 defense, and that question will now have to be answered without the benefit of preseason snaps to work on it.

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|Mitch|

I was thinking this morning. Who started at ILB in the Chiefs game? If they were Lofton & Hawthorne, they had better tighten up their coverage...

K Major

Love me some Vilma, the intensity & leadership however it's time to consider retirement because that knee is not gonna hold up.

Boutte

JV should walk away while he still can.

blackangold

The coverage was lacking from OLB as well. I think Humber should take Vilma's spot, the guy was on fire in the preseason game and does great in coverage.

I am worried about all of our LBers not playing in the preseason; might make for a tough week 1 opener.

Atkins looked good at OLB
Humber looked good at ILB
Richardson looked good at OLB

I think we have the depth but the starters need playing time before the regular season.

Cruize

Humber had a good game at ILB against the Chiefs.

|Mitch|

The starters are/should be Galette and Wilson... We won't see Wilson until at least week one and Galette maybe we'll get to see him this week.

Danno

That wasn't the problem. The problem was we stayed in a base 3-4 for evaluation, even when KC went 1RB, 1TE, and 3WR's.

It wasn't the normal defensive package to counter the alignment KC put on the field. That would never happen in the regular season. We'd typically have 5 DB's to counter that personnel. We stayed in base.

BTW: we completely crushed their running game, which ILB's are an integral part of.

I feel pretty good about Hawthorne/Lofton in the middle, and I like Hawthorne more than Lofton. In fact, with a healthy Hawthorne, Galette and Wilson in the line-up, I think Lofton may actually be the weak link. But right now its all on paper so we'll just have to see how it all develops.

homerj07

Well Piss & Willie!

RaginCajun83

Love it when rumors started "over there" get busted up