Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

This time of year is known as the "lying season" in the NFL. They talk about that all the time. You can't believe anything that is said. And, no, there is no obligation to give out any info on players except during the actual season.

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

We have to address the D line early IMO.

So let's fix one side of the line at #14. IF Fashanu is 1, Latham is 1A.

Then sign either Peat or Beckton to hold the other side for a season or two while a later round pick like Blake Fisher or Kiran Amegadji develop like Strief did.

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

You make a good point for the advantages of lying but I think you need to consider the disadvantages. Sure, a team should try as best as it can to disguise its draft intentions. That could include exaggerating Ram's injury or it could include exaggerating positives such as saying there is a lot of time left before the start of the season and things could turn around, or that they feel good about the development of Penning and Young.

But if you overstate career threatening injuries to your star players, you are are not just lying, you are lying about your employees. How would you feel if your boss took you to a major industry conference and told all his competitors "Keith is probably retiring soon, he has a bad back, he can barely work, heck he is popping those pain pills so often I don't know if he is addicted or the surgeon left his scalpel in there?" While that could trick his competitors into thinking he would be hiring for your replacement soon when in fact he is looking to hire a totally different position, it would also be a lie that damages your reputation. If Ram's recovery is going great, I don't think he or his agent would want the head coach openly lying to the media and saying its going poorly, because that could damage Ram's reputation, his future marketability to other teams if the Saints ever move on, his negotiating leverage on future contracts since those would be based on his perceived market value to other teams, and his ability to garner endorsements, appearance fees, media employment, etc since a player who is damaged goods on the field is also less marketable off the field. If a team lies about how great a players recovery is going, the player and their agent may not mind, but if they go the other direction and overstate an injury as being career threatening when recovery is going great, that could create a lot of bad blood that makes the player less invested in the team.

Lying about a player also reduces trust with fans. Teams try hard to sell their moves to fans. When an injured players is restructured or extended, the team often tries to present their recovery process as going well. When a team chooses to release a player who is injured, they may overstate injury concerns if they simply cannot afford the player or don't like them in the scheme but they are a fan favorite. But too much lying to fans will create distrust. If Ram and Jordan are both ineffective this year, and Carr struggles with injury in 2024 but the team restructures and extends him anyway while giving glowing reports on his injury recovery, it may be hard to market season tickets in 2025 because fans may lose trust that any such glowing reports are real, and not want season tickets to Nathan Peterman.

Also in poker, if you always bluff, its less effective than if you bluff occasionally.

If a team is going to lie to deceive about its intentions in draft and free agency, it makes sense to do it more sparingly, and in a way that avoids blowback. If Ram is really recovering well, ****ting on his reputation in public would not be a good move. Even if he sees the advantage for the team, it would clearly hurt his reputation, leave him perceived by the league and fans as a Tua type who was a coin flip from retirement and is not worth investing in. If the team burned him that way and it was not true, he might start making noise about his contract after recovering, take plays off, or demand a trade.

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

I was always down on Strief. Felt like he was a huge downgrade from Stinchcomb.

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

If its fix the offensive or defensive lines im fixing the offense line first. No point in having money thrown at Carr and bringing in a new OC if you can't keep your QB upright and we have seen enough that Carr isn't a QB thats going to stand up well when under pressure. All this comes down to bad drafts since 2017

Too early to tell on many of last years picks but Foskey is just looking again like whoever is scouting the DE needs to go. Davenport(vastly over paid in picks) and Turner.

On the plus side they can spot a good DB.

But not near enough production from top picks and not enough good finds in the mid/late rounds

Just because they have started games, doesn't mean they are a success either.

2018
Marcus Davenport
Tre'Quan Smith
Rick Leonard
Natrell Jamerson
Kamrin Moore
Boston Scott
Will Clapp

2019

Erik McCoy
C.J. Gardner-Johnson
Saquan Hampton
Alizé Mack
Kaden Elliss

2020
Cesar Ruiz
Zack Baun
Adam Trautman
Tommy Stevens

2021
Payton Turner
Pete Werner
Paulson Adebo
Ian Book
Landon Young
Kawaan Bake

2022
Chris Olave
Trevor Penning
Alontae Taylor
D'Marco Jackson
Jordan Jackson

2023
Bryan Bresee
Isaiah Foskey
Kendre Miller
Nick Saldiveri
Jake Haener
Jordan Howden
A.T. Perry

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

Believe it or not there were 24 teams that allowed more sacks than the Saints last season. We were down near the bottom in sacks allowed. Kubiak's offense should be getting the ball out of the QB's hands much quicker than Carmichael's anemic version.

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

Simply by looking at this list is reason enough to know why we've regressed.

2018
Davenport should be quicker/better with only four fingers.
At least Boston Scott contributed, albeit on the Eagles.
2019
Ramz and CJ ...both solid contributors
2020
Ruiz... I guess.
2021
Werner, Adebo, and Landon
Better but still not good enough.
2022
Best class in a while, top to bottom. Every class needs to be more like this one.
2023
Ditto from above... is this a trend since SP left? Last two years?
Are we to expect a similar outcome this year?

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

I disagree on 2022 and 2023 being a real improvement in drafting.

2019 is the best of those drafts. 5 picks that year due to the stupid Davenport deal. Also no 3rd or 6th due to other trades. We pick in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and two 7ths. We come out with 3 quality starters in 5 picks: Erik McCoy is a pro bowl center, CJ Gardner Johnson has been to the playoffs 4 of his 5 nfl seasons, and Kaden Ellis is a quality starting linebacker.

2022 we traded an immense amount of future draft picks to secure two first round picks. To get an extra first rounded in 2022 we gave up our 2023 first rounder, and our 2024 2nd rounder. To trade up again for Olave we gave up 3rd and 4th round picks I believe. Trevor Penning has looked like a major bust so far. Olave looks like a good #1 receiver but not necessarily a world beater, he has 9 total TDs his first two seasons, has missed a game or two each year, had some issues with effort at times, and has not generally been a player to take over games per se. He is not known for blocking or moving the chains, but is a big play threat on a team without the oline to give the qb time to throw. He seems more like a receiver in the Brandin Cooks, Jaylen Waddle, Devonte Smith, Amari Cooper sort of tier than one of the major elite receivers like Jefferson, Chase, Hill, Adams, MT13 in his prime, Lamb, Brown, Evans, etc. When you consider all the assets we gave up in 2022, and we came away with Olave and Taylor, its not so impressive to me.

We did get back some of the picks we used to trade up in 2022 by trading Sean Payton in 2023. But I don't think thats a reason to ignore the costs.

I don't think we can call 2023 a good draft yet. We got a DT who is still a backup on our depth chart despite every sane person agreeing our starting DT's are very meh. He picked up a good amount of sacks for a part time DT but he has yet to play full time and show he can be well rounded and durable. Bragging about a pick before they start based on like 6 plays is ridiculous. The jury is still out on Bresee. Besides him, we finally found some value in the late rounds, but whiffed in the 2nd round with Foskey so far. Miller looked good in one game, but that was one game against a losing team in a game that was turning out to be meaningless where he averaged 5.6 yards. Thousands of NFL running backs who never became regular starters had one game where they averaged 5+ yards per carry for 70+ yards, so the jury is completely still out on Miller.

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

Re: Ramczyk’s Future In Doubt
 

Apparently a return in 2025 is still in the cards for Ramczyk according to this.