TheOak

After twice being chopped down to size by Seattle's defense, more specifically the Seahawks' secondary, the New Orleans Saints threw caution to the wind and unloaded the money truck in front of prized free-agent safety and turnover machine Jairus Byrd. In turn the Saints have become more like their tormentor -- at any cost.

The Seahawks present the latest model of success with players such as Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor at safety and the ever-popular Richard Sherman at cornerback in their vaunted "Legion of Boom." The Saints felt like they had their Chancellor with Kenny Vaccaro and their Sherman with Keenan Lewis. All that was missing was their Thomas.

Enter Byrd -- a three-time Pro Bowler of the Buffalo Bills with twice as many interceptions (12) in the past three seasons as former Saints starting safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Roman Harper combined (six).

Even Thomas recognized the trend as he said via Twitter, "Copy cat league ..#NFL" less than an hour after Byrd agreed to terms with the Saints.

Oh, Thomas has been keeping tabs on Byrd and the Saints. One week ago, Thomas took exception to a Pro Football Focus article comparing Byrd to him, saying via Twitter, "Lol..smh Jairus Byrd doesn't have Earl Thomas speed, but he does have Earl Thomas range. Kinda..."

Thomas quickly followed up with, "To clear up my last tweet, my beef was with some of the comments the author of the article made & not aimed at J Byrd who is a great player."


(Thomas also said via Twitter last Friday, "I think @drewbrees is elite Qb in the league because you can't trust him.. Lol." I have no idea what that means or the context.)

So it's obvious at least one Seahawks player is maintaining close tabs on what the Saints are constructing. And what the Saints have concocted in about a year's time in drafting Vaccaro and signing Lewis and then Byrd possesses all the makings of another Seahawks-type secondary.

The Saints' defense performed a near-miracle turnaround from being the worst defense yardage-wise in NFL history in 2012 to a unit that ranked second in pass defense and fourth in total defense and scoring defense last season.

"Anytime you can have a defense with what they had here last year and have an offense that's already potent and explosive, it's kind of like a yin and the yang," Byrd said Wednesday afternoon. "They work off each other. Anytime you have that explosive offense, you're going to need a defense that can hold teams down.

"You need both. In this league, especially the way it's going with everyone getting better, you can't just blow everybody out by a bunch of points. It's just something that's necessary. You have to have a good defense when you have a great offense."

A lack of takeaways was a primary factor in the Saints being a wild-card participant last season rather than the NFC South winner and No. 2 seed. The Saints finished 29th in the league in takeaways with a barren second half of last season. New Orleans created 15 turnovers in the first eight weeks, but only four in the final 10 weeks, including the postseason.

Byrd said his penchant for takeaways -- 22 interceptions (the second highest total in the league since 2009), 11 forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries -- can migrate down south to New Orleans.

Jenkins wasn't going to deliver that type of production. He never has, despite flashes of greatness. It's why the Saints let Jenkins walk without an offer and never blinked twice about it.

Either Corey White, Patrick Robinson or maybe even a high draft pick in May will battle for the other cornerback role opposite Lewis, with Rafael Bush set to receive another hefty amount of playing time as the Saints' third safety. If those players are the Saints' fourth or fifth best players in their secondary, New Orleans is in pretty solid shape on the back end.

Now, did the $9 million per season offer from the Saints probably help drive Byrd to visit New Orleans and leave town Wednesday night with a contract for the next six seasons? There's no question. There's no narrative of taking less money to play for a winner going on with Byrd.

The price could become a bargain if the Saints' secondary takes the next step into greatness with the likes of Byrd, Vaccaro and Lewis pestering Cam Newton, Matt Ryan and whoever winds up taking snaps in Tampa Bay into poor decisions for the next several years. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan could be picking up celebratory tabs at Ms. Mae's on Magazine Street for the rest of the decade.

The Saints are making the commitment on and off the field in the secondary, and they're on the front end of the big three contracts. It's the one advantage over the "Legion of Boom" as Sherman and Thomas are waiting for their paydays.

Byrd, Lewis, Vaccaro. Sure beats the days of Jason David and Josh Bullocks.
New Orleans Saints fielding their own 'Legion of Boom' | Commentary | NOLA.com

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