JOESAM2002

As some of the rest of you, I agree that I like Venturi, he's a nice guy and very loyal but I don't think he's the answer for co-ordinator. I did however I see a name that's now available to get. Ray Rhodes is now available for the job. I think this guy knows defense. I do hope the Saints at least talk to him. I believe he could be the man to get our defense up to par. :)

[Edited on 13/1/2003 by JOESAM2002]

ScottyRo

When I read the article about Rhodes quitting I have to say that I initially agreed with your assessment. However, after thinking about it more thoroughly, I\'m not so sure.

Rhodes has been a good defense coach for a long time now, but do we really want someone whose defense suffered a similar meltdown to the one the Saints\' team suffered this year? I mean the Broncos were 6-2 and finished with same 9-7 record that the Saints did.

I do agree though that Haslet should at least interview him and find out what types of ideas he might have for fixing the Saints\' D. I also agree that Haslet should look closely at replacing Venturi as D Coordinator and as a \"thank you\" for all the loyalty over the years let him keep his Asst. Head Coach job. Maybe Haslet would put him in charge of 4th-down and 2 point conversion decisions.

Now, I don\'t know of any available, but I\'d like to see us sign some young and innovative D minded genius to run things on that side of the ball. Some friends of mine expressed an interest in getting Jim Mora, Jr. if he were to come available if/when Mariucci loses his job. What do you think about that?

JOESAM2002

I do agree that Mora would be a good one. I think Rhodes might be better though, he has more experience. I also think his defense broke down because of injuries to key players. He had them at one time, one of the best d\'s in football.

WhoDat

Rhodes is a great D-coordinator. The problem is I think he is looking for a little bit more. If not, he has ties with other teams. I also like Campo and Fazio. They\'re both solid. Better yet might be Nick Saban, although I don\'t know if he\'d leave a head coaching job for a coordinator job. Maybe they should look at college teams that had great defenses... obviously you want a pro, but anything is better than Venturi at this point.

billyh1026

Venturi & Jim Mora Jr both bite.

lumm0x

I\'m not saying this is the guy to get, but, whatever happened to Zaven Yarelian?