saintswhodi

No prob Who.

yasoon

I\'m not saying that Brooks\' shortcomings are all coaching problems. I personally think he\'s just a flake. He\'s not as coachable as I would like to see, but at some point you\'d like to see him step into throws and get the ball out earlier. (I think these things can be coached through repitition, I just don\'t think any one has taken charge of AB.)

I was personally a fan of JT...hated to see him go even if we did get a solid corner. Now, we have no back up plan and getting rid of Brooks either means getting another QB in return or having a rookie start which rarely works out (unless you have Pitt\'s D).

As for Kitna (his name keeps coming up), I work with a Bengals fan who really knows his football. He\'s got the Sunday ticket and watches all the games. His take on Kitna: we can have him. He said he actually has trouble watching them play with Kitna at the helm. I don\'t know that he would be much more than what we have. My guy: Volek, but I don\'t think the Titans are gonna let go of him. We might have a better shot without McNair getting ripped in half every year and teasing retirement.

Alex Smith? Interesting. Maybe we grab him and put the heat on AB, possibly ditching him after next year. I picture our D with a rookie at QB and cringe...but hey, AB looks like a rookie sometimes, so maybe I\'m wrong.

RDOX

Leon is not a \"flake.\" Leon is an immature, low class, petulant child with a low IQ. AB looks like a rookie because he\'s been coddled by Hazlett, McCarthy, and Sheppard in the hopes that he would \"rise to the occasion\" grow up, and be a professional QB. After 4 years of Leon, guess what? He hasn\'t and in all probability he won\'t.

I have continued to concede that Brooks has an immense amount of raw talent and above average physical tools. The problem is that he either cannot or will not listen and be coached. I suspect that his belief that he is in the \"top 5\" among quarterbacks is one of the reasons for his lack of coachability. You can\'t coach someone who won\'t listen.

In another thread, I was chided for calling Brooks \"Leon.\" My name of preference is \"Fumbles the Clown,\" but that bothered Danno, so I stopped. Mutey came up with the \"Leon\" thingy and I believe that the name fits Brooks to a Tee. Why? Because he is all about himself and not the team.

I also honestly believe that Leon has worn out his welcome with both fans and teammates here in New Orleans. After all of his comments this year and in the past, any and all of his flaws, mistakes, and gaffs will be subject to the microscope of the media and the fans. Sadly, he has little, if any credibility here. But, his \"stats\" are good.

He honestly needs to go. We would do much better with an average, team oriented QB like Maddox, Volek, or even Kitna who can hand the ball to Deuce, throw catchable balls, and cross the goal line for 6 with whatever line he plays behind. Because that line will work for a team member, not an individual who believes that he alone is a superstar.

Tobias-Reiper

..if you look at the more athletic QB\'s, they are usually \"uncoachable\"... they\'ve used their pure physical ability to play the game since they started playing the game, and will always trust their physical prowess over their brains... it is rare to find a QB with exceptional physical talent who also is a student of the game and relies more on what he learns than on his pure physical skills...

WhoDat

Great post RDOX, I agree sompletely. Some people continue to insist that it is absurd to even suggest that A) Brooks\' play could have any negative impact whatsoever on his line, WRs, coordinator, or team, B) he may have to start taking responsibility for his own shortcomings, C) he might not have progressed very much meaning all that \"raw talent\" is pretty useless, or D) maybe it\'s time for a new identity. Apparently those of us who criticize Brooks either have blinders on, don\'t know football, or simply skew everything purposely b/c we hold a grudge against Brooks. I\'m glad to see more and more people coming around and viewing Brooks the same way now that BMG, Gator, myself, and others viewed him three years ago.

\"Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s all anyone ever makes for the New Orleans Saints’ organization.\" - Eric Narcisse


\"Being a Saints fan is almost like being addicted to crack,\" he said.[i]\"You know you should stop, but you just can\'t.\"

saintswhodi

Absolutely. A great post RDOX. summed Leon up pretty well. I saw what someone said about calling Brooks Leon. All I can say is, if the shoe fits.... Noone calls anyone out for calling Sullivan a steaming pile of poo anytime the defense is discussed so who cares if Leon is called Leon. Keep on trucking man.

xan

A great primer on why the arrogant and stupid should not lead, RDOX.

I do want to point out that, even with that key obstruction, McCarthy couldn\'t put together a plan or teach his offense how to get the job done. Brooks is only one of 11 guys on the field. Duece seems to be a reasonably intelligent chap, he could look at the defense and get Brooks to audible in critical situations. It just takes delegation and enforcement of the plan. I\'ll bet no one considered giving Brooks a hand in that area. Receivers all over the league are coached how to read defensive coverages and alter patterns appropriately. That coordination appears to be lacking in the Saints schemes. Either McCarthy can\'t plan for it or teach it, or Brooks is incapable of implementing. It explains a lot for why the 1st 15 \"scripted\" plays don\'t seem to do much.

Calvin: "I wish I was a Tiger."
Hobbes: "Common lament."

yasoon

I never said it was respectable. I\'m saying that, depending on what stat you look at, this offense was middle of the pack. We put up some yards when we were down 2 or 3 scores that made the final yearly totals look better than they actually were. I personally believe this offense should be in the top 5 in the conference/top 10 in the league. We were a little worse than the 21.8 points a game we averaged especially when you factor in pretty solid special teams all year. When this offense was not clicking it was just plain ugly. There were games like SD where we might as well have been shut out, but we posted 17 meaningless points when the outcome was completely out of reach. Also, the Carolina game looks OK at 32-21, but anyone who watched that game knows that we were done before the O did anything.

My point is that the offense was even worse than the stats bear out because they couldn\'t even get first downs for large stretches of time. Sometimes, it\'s not about scoring, it\'s about getting the ball out near midfield and giving your bad defense time to rest and better field position.

Ummmm...not apologizing for the D here. I\'m tired of Venturi\'s D and ready for him to go. I stated \"2 rookies at LB/Fakhir/MacKenzie would make our D 3 times better.\"
Yes, that would be the last 4 games of the year. Did you think I was saying that we had a good D all year? That would certainly not be a very easy argument to win.
As for Points per Game and takeaways, the last 4 games, we had one of the best defenses in the entire NFL, if not the best. I said 3 times better, maybe i should have said ten times better. Better than what? Better than their performance the rest of the year.

Sorry if I wasn\'t clear. The D is awful and has to be overhauled.... Knowing that we weren\'t going to shut people down going into the season, I was hoping that the O could take some pressure off of them with the personnel we have. My main point is, going in, we needed to score points this year. The O didn\'t really show an ability to hang in shootouts. The game where the D really let us down was MIN because we scored some points and still lost. If you look at the other point totals, our D was bad...real bad, but our Offense didn\'t score points in our losses.

Look at the losing point totals 7, 10, 17, 31, 17, 13, 21, 21

I think we all knew going in that we weren\'t gonna have alot of sub 20 point games on D. (When\'s the last time the Saints won a 10-7 game?)

Just saying that the D was statistically worse than the O...for sure. But I was more let down by the offense because I was hoping they would win us a couple of games 35-28 or something. The elite Offenses in this league usually bail their D out a few times a year. Our O just made a bad D even worse.

saintswhodi

Couldn\'t have said it better myself.

dberce1

Riddle me this though: did the offense wear out the defense, by keeping them on the field after going 3 and out?? Our did the defense wear out the offense, by allowing the opponents to go 1 and score???

Note: the preceding was a rhetorical/humorous question. no true answer is expected/needed.