Competetion Wednesday
 

I don't think I am alone when I say we always want the best player on the field come Sunday. All players have good weeks and bad weeks but what do the Saints do to try and ensure we have the best possible player on the field for that week?

I was listening to Pat Kerwin yesterday on NFLSirius interviewing Pete Carrol. Now, I am not one that jumps up every week and wants to do what other teams do just because it looks good for them, but Pete spoke about his "Competition Wednesday" practices, and went on to recognize that players sometimes have ups and downs on some weeks and his Wednesday practices are how he tries to make sure he has as many players on an up week on the field come game time as possible.

There are some starters that are better at 80% than their back up but in some cases that fresh backup preforms better when they get in the game. In Pete's Competition Wednesday practices any player on the team can challenge a starter for their position that week, and if they win that battle they start. This provides a hell of a lot of value that week beyond just having the best man that week on the field, it also kind of screws with the opponents game plan when they plan for one match up and get another.

It seems like more than just theory, it is paying off high dividends in practice for Seattle. The Seahawks if I understand it have had one of the youngest defenses in the league the last few years and few can argue that they have done very well. Pat Kerwin made a comment to Pete in the interview where he said "Pete when you took the field against the 49ers last week there were a few starters that I had never heard of". We all know how well Seattle's defense fared against the 49ers.

We are deep at some positions and I believe we could benefit by getting some of the non starters more playing time on weeks that either they are having a very up week or the starter is having an off week.


Thoughts?

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

I love the ideal, it would keep everyone at their best!!

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

I like it. Keeps the vets hungry if a young buck steps up during the week and takes his spot on Sunday. Who wants to be put on the bench? Keep the fear of losing your starting job and I bet it will make you play harder or at the very least more conscience of your responsibilities.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

always need a healthy mix on the feild. But never be affraid to give the young bucs the reins. you gotta take the good with the bad as they develop. school of hard knocks

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

We have so many different personnel packages, who "starts" is pretty much irrelevant...

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Not in all respects, how different would Sunday have been against TB if Cadet or Khiry had beaten out Ingram and allowed to run?

If Graham or Colston come down with the dropsies one week I would rather have another receiver that is having an "on" week and catching everything on Wed be in the game on Sunday.

Special teams.... same thing.

Players are human just like us, we are professionals at work but we all have bad/off weeks.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Yeah, I have a feeling this only goes so far, which makes Carroll kind of a hypocrite. Something tells me we won't be seeing Tavaris Jackson starting at QB instead of Russell Wilson no matter how well he plays in practice.

In general, I think we play so many guys on both sides of the ball that anybody who earns playing time in practice will get it.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Not that different, Sproles and Thomas didn't have much luck running either. At some point, you have to give credit to the Bucs defense... :rolleyes:

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

PT averaged almost 6 yards per carry, just sayin'..

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

As a team we only ran for 75 yards... Doesn't matter if you have AP, if they don't get the opportunity to carry...

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

PT is 8th in the league in all RBs with 10+ carries. @ 5.1 YPC so far this season.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

PT is a bad man!!

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Cant have Competition Wednesday cause half of the competition is injured. I like the sound of it though. What's going on with Toon haven't heard about him

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Well Ingram did not practice Wednesday, so let's hope Payton embraces the idea of Competition Wednesday, starting uh, yesterday.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

I love the idea. Im all for going with the hot hand.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

And that is what it all about. The best chance.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

I like it in theory but don't believe it will work in actual implementation. For example, there's not a saint fan out there that would want McCown to start over a healthy brees just because brees had an off passing day in Wednesday's practice.

Looking at it at the running back position I can't imagine starting gerhart over a healty AP just because gerhart had a couple of big runs in Wednesday's practice

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Gerhart may not start but in that situation he'd get more touches.. Least that's what I'm thinking. So Competition Wednesday would apply to everyone besides drew and jimmy lol

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

lol I rest my case. I like the idea for certain positions but I'm not sure it can be applied across the board. Especially if the player is making multiple millions. You better have a better reason to give to the owner why his $12 million player is riding the pine other than "this is other guy really shined in Wednesday practice"

As much as I hate it, there's politics in everything.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

The fans would grit their teeth mighty hard at first.... Then if you get to 7-0 it would pass.

Also, only certain coaches could pull it off with out being lynched. Sean Payton would get some odd looks but we trust him, some other coaches wouldn't make it into the Stadium on Sunday.

Again, do you see McCowan beating out Brees? I don't. Could Watson beat out Graham if Graham is dropping everything like he does from time to time? Certainly, and I would rather have it that way.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

I would say McCown has no shot whatsoever to beat brees in passing drills 9/10 but as you know, drew does have a case of the romos/favres from time to time where he can make throws that are just a bad idea. I could honestly see this happening in practice once or twice a year.

As for jimmy, I think a lot of those drops had to do with his messed up hand. I don't think Watson puts the fear in linebackers and dbs that jimmy does so I would give him the benefit of the doubt for game planning reasons. Plus, it's easy to just give watson more snaps in game if jimmy is struggling for whatever reason.

It's a lot harder to do that with your franchise qb.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

I challenge! For leadership of the Clan!

Oh, and I'd like to start at WR this week too...

http://content6.flixster.com/questio...308012_std.jpg

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

We accept your challenge!
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/20/emujadum.jpg

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

2 men enter - one man leaves...

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4025/5...46054bf421.jpg

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Correct....
There can be only one.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

stupid...

I rather be preparing to play on Sunday. Competition for a job started in camp.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Thats my point, its not so much who is on the field first snap of the game... Its who carries the load.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

No U R:rolleyes:

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

I likey! Now,if there was only a way to tell Payton about this.....

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

All I can say is Seahawks is doing something right!!

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

If Ingram got out played on Comp Wednesday ... cut em , coming from his biggest supporter , I love the idea

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Ok we all buy into it. Now lets get the coaches on board.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Now I wouldn't go cutting any player for a bad Wednesday, I plan on having one next week...

I would bet good money these forums are browsed from time to time by members if the Org. I look at it this way, if I owned or ran the sort of business that had tens of thousands of fans brain storming daily, I would be a fool to not at least browse the ideas.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/20/y6e4apat.jpg

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Maybe we should implement this idea for posters on this board? Halo can be the judge, jury, and executioner!

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Whats the risk/reward?

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

And, if you see McCown trot onto the field???

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

It sounds good in theory.

Re: Competetion Wednesday
 

Maybe we only have 1 INT that game.