BlackandBlue

You\'re talking about a best case scenario, that reinforces your case. I can come up with all kinds of scenarios all day long, but let\'s look at facts.

DE- Grant and Howard. Howard has proven his worth in the past. Time for Grant to step up, start every game, and prove why he was selected in the 1st round. Could be as good as Howard, but I doubt it. What he will accomplish is, the better he gets, the better Howard will be. Look for the Saints to draft a DE mid to late rounds, as we have no depth at this position.
DT- Hand and Jackson. Both have proven they can be effective in the past. With the addition of a drill seargant in strength and conditioning, this could remedy the poor play by these two from the past couple of years. We have depth with Chase and Smith. If Smith, who has only played for only 2 years, feels as if he can step up and challenge one of the starting positions, then we\'re even better at this position. Depending on what occurs in the draft, will determine whether Hand is cut outright or has his contract restructured.
LB- Allen, Ruff/Smith, Hodge- This is the year for Hodge to either play up to his potential or pack his bags. Allen is well thought of by the team, so I have nothing at this moment, as I haven\'t seen him play too often. Don\'t get me started on Ruff/Smith.
CB- As of right now, our starters are Carter and Ambrose. If you think about it, this whole teams fate will fall on Carter, especially if they do not select a CB in the 1st round. There is not another player that will have a greater effect on our success on defense. If he stays clean and healthy, I believe he will put together a highlight film in one year and lead this team through the playoffs. If he drinks and gets suspended, or re-injures himself, or his play begins to suffer due to his age, then we might be scrambling to fill his spot. Ambrose- why we let you go a few years back is beyond me. The great thing about Ambrose is he is consistent- never any controversy, he goes to work and does his job. He\'s always going to give you 45-55 tackles a year with a handful of interceptions. He knows the adjustments he must make to cover different recievers in the league. And he\'s got a good work ethic. Depth at CB is Craver (who could develop into a Ambrose clone, but that\'s it, and that\'s not good enough to be your shutdown corner) and Fred Thomas, who is an over-achiever, and who flies around the ball. Despite being an over-achiever, it is still not enough to make you good enough for the #2 position.
S Enough talk about TJ has been done on this board to fill a book. Mitchell, I\'ve always liked, and am excited that this will be his year to step up and start for this team. With Knight gone, he is our heavy hitter. Depth- Bellamy.
This is total of what I know. Do I know whether or not Chase and Hand will re-live their glory days? No more than I know whether or not Carter will stay clean and healthy. But reviewing what I know, and unless some new info is out there that I don\'t know about, I\'ll stick to my guns on CB and LB being the primary focus of this draft, over any other position. But with this draft being so weak at LB, we may not have the opportunity until the 2nd round.

PS- You\'d think that an NFL player could control his weight, but sometimes it doesn\'t happen, especially in a city that has the GREATEST food on earth. Oh, and pray that we DON\'T draft Kennedy this year- you think Hand has a problem with eating, Kennedy could balloon to 400lbs, he\'s done it in the past.

The waiting drove me mad....
I don't want to hear from those that know...
Everything has changed, absolutely nothing's changed

Eddie is a....draftnik?

iceshack149

Good posts B&B. And I\'m not just saying that because of the cool tag that you have at the end if your posts.
We all know that this defense full of maybe\'s. I think that the most promising maybe of the three (cb\'s, dt\'s, lb\'s) is cb. But the Saints are not very deep in that position. The lb\'s are a big question. And there are so many good dt\'s to choose from in this draft that they can wait. It just seems to make the most sense to take a cb and lb in the first round and get a dt in the second. Of course that would depend on what players are available to us by #17. If we keep the current picks of 17 and 18 we wont get Boss. I\'m pretty sure that the Rams will get him.
I am confident that this team will be better than last year. But ALL of the teams in the NFC South have made good decisions in free agency to become better.
The Saints may be better on offense now with their new tight end. The special teams may be even better this year if they implement TJ. I just hope that Venturi becomes an artist with this defense and makes something special out of it. If not, Haslett should do what Fassel did last year to try and correct it by making the decisions on plays himself. That would tell us a few things:1.That he\'s willing to drive the car when Venturi is falling asleep at the wheel. Assuming total responsibility of the defense would show people that he\'s willing to either fail or correct the straying vehicle. His character would be on the line. So would his job. 2. To show the players that it\'s time to step up by leadership. Would players become upset? Maybe. Would they stop trying as a result of this? Probably not. They\'ve got alot of people watching them. Other teams, other players, families.. They know that future money is a consideration that\'s based on their behavior (if they wouldn\'t do it simply for their pride.)
All of this is just maybe\'s. Maybe they\'ll have the best defense of all time on the field this season. I hope so.

"...it's good to have friends, no matter where they are."--JOESAM2002

lumm0x

I will say this....we should have some decent defensive speed out there this year. Last year we lacked that in the secondary until Dale Carter returned. Bellamy and Knight were not quick back there and neither was Ken Irvin. We will field Mitchell and Jones who both upgrade the secondary speed as will a healthy Dale Carter. If we get another young corner it will help as well. If Allen starts, he is quicker than Darrin Smith on the outside. Here\'s hoping we can draft either Henderson or Bailey to add some promise if not only depth to an unproven linebacker group.

lilbutch2

D_it_up

Did you draw a blank, lilbutch? :P