AsylumGuido

Exactly. We potentially have one of the most dominant offenses in the league, but a large percentage of them have spent considerable time on the sideline in street clothes.

xan

I don't think that there are any bad teams out there. They field professional athletes who, individually, are attempting to either justify or improve their contract situation. There are coaches under the gun. Every team has an opportunity to lose or win, and my observation is that the healthier team usually wins. The Saints are not healthy. This is the third consecutive season where a significant number of playmakers are sidelined for extended periods. Unless there is an underlying pathology that links these injuries, it is neither managements nor the coaching staff's fault. No team is going to be successful with an inconsistent lineup, and that's proven to be the case year in and year out.

As for "rebuilding", injuries aside, what's to rebuild? The defensive scheme is sound(ish), the offense is roughly the same playbook for the last 12 years. Properly executed, the overall scheme is superior to almost every NFL team. Teams can't figure out what we will do on either side of the ball when our playmakers are healthy.

So, I'm imputing that "rebuilding" is a euphemism for giving up on some players.

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

The Dude

We would still be losers until we become more disciplined.

Boston Saint

How do you become disciplined? Repetition. They haven’t had that.

Boston Saint

I just did some looking up of preseason stats. I know the team had Winston and Thomas coming back from injuries. I also didn’t look at snap counts for O line (I think Penning played a lot). But here are some numbers from preseason action:

Winston 4 total passes.
Dalton 10 total Passes
Book 65

Ingram had 9 Rushes
Kamara had 2
Smith had 29 Rushes
Ozigbo, Jones Jr were in the teens.

Receptions..
Thomas 0
Landry 2

T Jones had 6
Merrit 6
Callaway 5
Smith 5
Olave 4

A brief look at tackles among the D shows a
similar pattern of backups or cut players dominating.

Now if you want to argue that they should have practiced together more in preseason then you run risks of getting hurt like Trevor did (still pissed at that injury caused by the WR). Not to mention Thomas and Winston couldn’t practice because of rehab.

Just some things to think about for those talking about how sloppy the team looks.

edit : If I got a stat or 2 wrong forgive me. The point is still there.

You think you know, but you don’t know...and you never will! Coach Jim Mora

AsylumGuido

Rugby Saint II

If we could just have our starting core together then Dennis Allen might look like a real head coach.

AsylumGuido

Yup. Backups are backups for a reason. No coach can make them look like starters if they don't have that level of talent.

Fortunately we aren't alone in this situation. Most of the teams in the league are dealing with tons of injuries. That's a big reason why offense is down across the league.

Rugby Saint II

The CBA has watered down the game. No tackling most of camp has led to sloppy tackles and injuries as well. These guys are not used to playing full speed and it shows in the game. No contact in practice has translated to the field.

Players aren't used to slugging it out and are getting injured because they are not conditioned for the actual hitting that takes place in every game after the kickoff. It's kind of like boxing in that they spar and box when they are training to get used to it when peoplestart hitting you hard.

AsylumGuido