BakoSaint

I hadn't seen much news of this, but Marcus Williams of the Ravens has a 42.9 PFF score on the season no injury and has been benched. Basically, dude is done, washed.

People complain about Tyrann Mathieu but at least he has a 58.5 which is mediocre and a major drop from 2023, but passable as a fill in.

Marcus Maye has been serving primarily as a backup, but has made 3 starts, and has a 70.5 pff when called into action.

I think all this just goes to show that football is very unpredictable. Father time is undefeated but locks are .500.

For many years my anti-Loomis argument has been that we need to rebuild, but this sometimes gets confused with a different anti-Loomis argument that if we had just spent everything differently we could have gone all-in a different way and kept Williams, Armstead, Hendrickson, etc.

Honestly I feel a bit redeemed to see Marcus Williams struggle. I was done with him after the Minnesota Miracle. He has always been a physically talented finesse safety without the killer instinct or extra gear to get the job done in the big moments. He racked up good stats in the regular season but would never dominate the game, and demanded big money in an era of plentiful and cheap safeties. When a players career is defined early by a major error, it can be hard to recover and ever redefine it as a warrior, and Williams never did that. The Ravens paid him big money and all they have got is 2 year of 'pretty ok when not injured' and now he is washed.

Ultimately if hindsight was 20/20 we should have kept Hendrickson, but I see the reason for getting rid of all 3. All 3 had a lot of talent but a critical flaw. Armstead is great when healthy but never stays healthy. Williams has all the talent but is finesse and the big play in the big moment gets made against him. Hendrickson had the motor but would always be undersized. What we should have done is fix our cap while giving underdogs with potential a chance. And when we let Armstead walk, we should have brought in at least a passable left tackle to replace him, or a guard and played Peat at tackle while Penning developed. With Williams, we should have traded him before he became a free agent.

SmashMouth

Kansas City Chiefs seem to understand that lately

BakoSaint

Apparently the Dolphins are releasing Maye due to needing to clear a roster spot for Shaq Barrett unretiring. Maye could potentially go to Baltimore and replace Williams for a second time.

dizzle88

Mathieu's grade to some extent is even better, considering we have zero pass rush.

Maye was absolutely awful here, the amount of QB's that he let run around him because he was scared to make the tackle was unreal.

Our D is damn old though, we need to get younger in each area.

The annoying thing about getting rid of Hendrickson, is they basically gave Jameis some of that money to do nothing.

K Major

Watching this NFC playoff game with Philly vs Packers made me bring this thread back to life. How are the Eagles able to get the most out of our former players? Hendrickson (led the league in sacks)? Ceedy? And Zach Baun is an ALL PRO & playing big time (pick) today. So Allen couldn't find a spot for Baun to shine on his defense?

Saints let go young BALLERS, for old players with bad contracts.

It really shows you how inept Dennis Allen (so called defensive mind) was DEVELOPING TALENT at defensive coordinator.

This is why you need to fire everyone on this Saints coaching staff, Loomis can step aside as GM ... Jeff Ireland as well.

The Sinner has stated it before, "there will be pain". It won't be a quick fix for New Orleans, but it starts at the top.

SmashMouth

There's a rhetorical question if I've ever seen one... Will the new Saints HC understand this concept, I wonder?