Believe it or not these players actually want to win. That's why they so commonly lobby to bring in any player who they feel will make the team better. Knocking a second year player down a rung on the depth chart would only have a negative affect on a team that had a crippled culture to begin with.

Speaking of lobbying, looks like Mathieu is taking an active role in recruiting Simmons.

https://twitter.com/aidangmurray/sta...63084495098236

Believe it or not these players actually want to win. That's why they so commonly lobby to bring in any player who they feel will make the team better. Knocking a second year player down a rung on the depth chart would only have a negative affect on a team that had a crippled culture to begin with.

Speaking of lobbying, looks like Mathieu is taking an active role in recruiting Simmons.

https://twitter.com/aidangmurray/sta...63084495098236

The Saints record the past 3 years in a very weak division does not indicate a thriving culture. The sub .350 career winning percentage of the Saints current head coach does not indicate he has a history of building strong cultures or improving the cultures he inherits.

I think you are wrong about the lobbying by players. First of all, an NFL roster has 53 players, so it 2-3 players on a team tweet in favor of an acquisition it does not mean all players want it. The culture is such that any player tweeting in favor of a potential acquisition has little to lose, if we get outbid or decide not to pull the trigger, nobody will question that player. But if a player tweets 'don't sign DeShaun Watson, he's overrated, rusty, injury prone, and a predator' thats going to get very awkward if the team does sign him and he is a new teammate. Also, a player suggesting the Saints should not be interested in signing a player they are bringing in for tryouts could be seen as questioning the boss who brought them in for tryouts, and being defiant. So players speaking out in favor of signing a given player does not mean the players are all for it because they want to win. It means some players, maybe even a minority of players, are for it, for any number of reasons. And maybe even more players are against it, but its not worth the risk for them to say so.

Now, why could a player want another player to sign? To win? Sure thats one reason but there are many other possible reasons. They could have the same agent and be doing what their agent says. They could be friends from past teams or hit it off at the senior bowl or whatever. A veteran like Mathieu could believe they will outrun father time, and that belief could lead to a bias that believing a fellow 30-something safety will do the same, and thus they could believe that player is a great value because they start with a biased premise. They could dislike the player currently at the top of the depth chart that player will replace. They could be tired of competing with younger faster players and prefer the team sign players who face the same aches and pains of age they do. They could want to get paid more and extended, and feel the team spending big on other aging players sets a good precedent for that. They could be married with kids and want more teammates for playdates at the park with their wives not 4AM at the club.

Look, if the Saints were brining in Colin Kaepernick or Jake Paul or Russ Wilson for a tryout somebody on the team would tweet in favor of signing them. Someone would agree with Colin on politics or see social media opportunities collaborating with Paul or prefer Wilson to Carr. To me, this 'recruiting' by other players is often noise. It could be a benefit if the Saints are fiercly competing for a highly sought after free agent, but in this case when that free agent has been on the market for 6 months with no takers at their price, we dont need that help.

It's incredible how fantastically attuned you are to the innerworkings of a NFL locker room. You are so immensely impressive with your extensive knowledge of everything great or small!

It's incredible how fantastically attuned you are to the innerworkings of a NFL locker room. You are so immensely impressive with your extensive knowledge of everything great or small!

I dont even think this is unique to nfl locker rooms. Lets say you work at Nike in the marketing department and a guy you are vaguely acquainted with on linkedin who used to work in marketing at reebok before a layoff posts he is excited about his interview with nike (i am saying he posts because such a visit would not be in the news). If you comment on his post ‘hey man that would be great, good luck’ does that neccessarily mean you are the most dedicated employee and believe this guy will make Nike have a better year and is cleary preferable to filling the position by promoting from within. I doubt it. Maybe you are just being nice. Maybe you have no idea if the guy is good at his job but you liked having a beer at the convention and think he could replace the guy who forgets to set his lineup in your fantasy league. Maybe you are networking. Maybe you hope your boss sees the comment and sees you as being a team player for helping to recruit. Maybe you privately tell the boss this guy has a bad rep and maybe dont hire him but publicly you say ‘good luck man, hope you come aboard’ because you dont want to be seen by him, or your boss if he still wants to hire him, as interfering. Maybe you know he is struggling financially and needs imsurance for his sick kid. None of this makes you a bad employee, a lot of times you just havent worked closely with acquaintences applying to your employer so you cant say if they are good or bad but you recruit or encourage them for various personal and networking reasons other than surety of their greatness and your dedication to your department being #1. Linkedin/twitter work networking encouragements just arent all about company greatness first in any job.