Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Think a lot of us have been saying this for a while.

Brees in his prime, turned a bunch of unwanted Receivers into basically all pro's and Saints Legends. Ever since then, I think Payton sees that position as not needed as much so chooses to address it via UDFA.

Now we don't have that level of QB, that sort of thought process won't help Jameis out at all.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Well when you ignore drafting @ WR for 3 consecutive seasons, this is often the end result at this level. Way too many undrafted guys at WR on this roster for my taste.

I'm hopeful Kenny Stills can take some heat off Callaway until Mike returns.

The Saints being currently ranked #32 in passing yards is something you never see in a Sean Payton offense.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

I don't understand that either, K. With Brees they got Sanders to take pressure off MT and help Brees out. Why would they not do that for Jameis or Taysom knowing they aren’t at that level. I would of traded up in that draft in the second and got Marshall. Did they seriously think Tre’Quan could be trusted to play 17 games? That’s a lot of misplaced trust

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Not only the injury factor either, Trequan is not someone that you could think "yeah he'll bail Winston out when he's in trouble."

Guy has like 1 or 2 decent games a year. The rest he's either injured or invisible.

Seems like Winston isn't set up for success with a bad O line and no talent at WR.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Sanders could of been that guy they hoped Quan could be. I don’t know if they even tried to resign him to a decent contract if he wanted to stay. From what I heard MT delaying the surgery hurt us a lot. He was supposed to be ready week 1. That’s why CSP was so pissed, cause it threw a major monkey wrench in the offense. I’ll say this though I still wouldn't of been sold on Quan as our no. 2

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Agreed, even if Trequan was healthy, Callaway and Harris are above him in terms of talent in my opinion.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

The o-line isn't bad. 80% of the league would give their right nut to have the Saints offensive line.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Callaway is naturally a no. 3 but if you got a MT or Hopkins type guy that no matter how many people covering them, they still get separation and make tough catches. He can be a ok to decent no. 2

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Always lots of WR's in the 3rd-5th round who can play, but we rarely seem to
get one - usually because of lack of picks due to trading up

:doh:

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Jimmy Graham wants to come back to New Orleans. He’s “old” now though.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Wonder if he still has the hops to dunk over the crossbar ?

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

The points about receiver are legitimate, keep in mind a lot of decisions made was due to a very bad salary cap situation. The Saints currently have very good talent at the receiver position, but as of now they do have issues getting open and may not be the best fit moving forward.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Just searched dropped passes. NBC sports says Saints have had only 2 drops.
Seems to me that blaming receivers is off.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

It seems to me that the o-line and protection issues were the biggest failures in the last game. So I agree with not putting blame on the WRs. But you have to get open in order to have the ball thrown to you. Also have to block well and pick up hot reads. Again, not saying these things were missed, just saying there is more than just dropped passes to look at.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Jimmy has some regrets. That's life. He's spending time now wondering what might have been. Marketing himself as a WR was a large error in judgement on his part. Good luck in life Jimmy. You could have been in the HOF.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

I believe that Payton has built a strong roster minus the problems at receiver. We have been going after players we covet and trading picks to move up. Personally, I think that is how we built such a strong roster. I've always been a fan of quality over quantity. In my fraternity I black balled more pledges each year than everyone else combined.

Payton is smart but I believe that he out thinks himself and has painted us into a corner with UDFA's for receivers. Both in the WR room and the TE room. Part of the problem may be that we've done well in the past with Colston and Lance Moore when Brees was in his prime. That time passed long ago though. Still, I don't have a problem with moving up to get the players that Ireland scouted for us because he has shown that he knows what he is doing.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

It was actually the NFLPA that was marketing him as a WR. They had been looking for an opportunity to challenge the franchise tag rule that gave the team the ability to mandate the position of hybrid type players in the tag process. WR/TE and DE/LB were the two most common scenarios. It just so happened that Graham's situation gave them the first opportunity in 2014. It was NFLPA lawyers that filed the challenge and handled the entire case. They lost and Graham immediately signed an extension at TE numbers. At no point in the entire process did Graham ever personally claim to be a WR or demand to be paid as one. In fact, his twitter bio remained declaring himself as an NFL TE throughout.

A couple of years earlier in 2012 the NFLPA filed a similar challenge stating that the franchise tag assigned to Drew Brees by the Saints was in fact his second given the fact that he was franchised by the Chargers earlier in his career. The Saints and the league office argued that it was only his first tag with his new team and therefore would come at the lower cost threshold. The NFLPA won this one.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Ireland has been a godsend. It stopped Payton from picking those scrubs on defense in the draft and FA

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Our offense was littered with first round picks in our heyday: Henderson, Meachem, Bush, Shockey (Giants pick but still a first rounder.)

The problem was that our defense turned so abysmal that we had to rebuild that with high draft picks.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Let’s go for Gordon!!

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Loomis maxxed out the credit cards, the repo man came and towed away the fast cars except the tesla that is at the body shop waiting on parts, now Winston is the fall guy while Payton says the bikes from goodwill are faster than cars and fans wonder why we cant keep up. We could not afford to keep or replace sanders or cooks with expensive free agents, but we should have at least addressed the position in the draft or got a low price but not league minimum free agent. Instead we not only ignored the position and lied about imaginary depth, we actively sought ways to trade away those 3rd-7th round type picks that will tend to get you receiver prospects with more talent than most undrafted rookies, in order to trade up for positions of lesser need.

Re: Si.com/Bob Rose | Saints Shortcomings at Receiver Hampering Offense
 

Our receivers having few dropped passes does not mean they are not the problem. David Ortiz did not drop many of the balls thrown to him when he played first base, but there is a reason he was not drafted as a wide receiver in the NFL, he wasn't great at running routes or getting separation. So, a lack of drops is nice, but it doesn't prove they are better receivers than David Ortiz.

I think it is good that we traded Graham. No matter where he went or if he stayed, his body type and style of play was going to lead to chronic injuries, loss of a step, and hesitation, that was going to diminish his play. We already saw that elite corners and well schemed defenses could take him out of games, while he feasted on lesser competition and lesser games. He did not have what it took to dominate physically, he was a finesse athlete asked to repeatedly extend his body in defenseless positions in the middle of the field, and without tony gonzales' ability to avoid taking the big hits. He is a great guy, he meant well, but he was not a good investment and we did better with the trade. Tight end is a notoriously difficult position to evaluate college talent, stay healthy at the NFL level, learn a new system, change teams, etc. I think it is a mistake to draft the position high or pay big for a free agent or extension. The best bet is to have mid prices depth from middle round draft picks or mid priced free agents who have the tools but didnt work in another system. Troutman is an interesting project but betting everything on one project is a mistake.