Offseason Pessimism
 

To all the eternal hopefuls out there I am sorry, but this offseason is not looking to good for us right now. We have a QB with a bad throwing shoulder, a running back with a bad knee, no center, no backup center, a LT older than father time, a linebacking core that is thinner than a piece of paper and not talented at all, a DL that strains credibility at best, one decent cover corner, a kicker older than dirt, and a return man with a bad knee.

What are the positives again?

I just looked at our schedule for next year and it doesn't look too good for us. We are in for another 3-13 in my opinion no matter who we take in the draft this year.

RE: Offseason Pessimism
 

Way to think like a winner :shock: Heres the positives: We got rid of Haslett, signed a Pro Bowl QB, who they said is almost already cleared, WE GOT RID OF HASLETT, got the # 2 pick and have leverage to get mmore. Made some decent signings, and new coach and players make me feel better. With the draft the LB and OLINEcore will be very better, thank you.

RE: Offseason Pessimism
 

While I appreciate all forms of pessimism....I would have to say even with the negatives...

The offseason isn't over yet, and if the recent decisions are any indication...I think it looks good.

And it looks a hell of alot better than last offseason did. :wink:

RE: Offseason Pessimism
 

It has nothing to do with thinking like a winner. It has to do with the facts. What if Julius Peppers blows by old man river on the first play from scrimmage and dismantles Brees throwing shoulder on the first play from scrimmage? Do we have a backup plan or is it hope and pray Brees stays healthy behind a Oline with no center and a very old LT? Please tell me this isn't the plan. What is our answer for interior DL? Sullivan? Please. Young is OK but way too under athletic and Whitehead is a DE playing DL. Is it any wonder we get run on all day and our leading tacklers are always our safeties?
If we sign a quality center, trade down in the draft and pick up D'Brick, then sign a DL and LB in the second round, somehow get a third round pick and draft a CB, I will feel a little better, but only a little.

RE: Offseason Pessimism
 

I'm willing to see how the rest of this offseason plays out before I raise the red flag.

RE: Offseason Pessimism
 

What if Peyton Manning gets injured? What will the Colts do, now with no RB either? No NFL team has Pro Bowlers as backup, thats because **** happens. Brick willl hopefully be a Saint, so "old man river" will be cut(can he still be cut?) Every team has problems, You just gotta have faith that your team will come out on top. I'd rather get Mangold and Jackson in the 2nd besides a DL and LB.

RE: Offseason Pessimism
 

While I'll agree on the O-line we do have another corner in Smith. He played corner at TB and wants to play corner and was a pretty good one at that. We have the depth at safty to solve that problem.

Our line backer core although not solidified has been strengthened. A healthy Watson and Fincher will be something we were lacking last season. Fincher will be a solid player I saw alot of him when he played at U Conn and he will be a gammer.
I believe we will draft a solid Backer in the first or second round.

Your assesment on the O-Line is solid and we are weak in that respect.
I am not sold on Brees until he throws a ball so I have to believe the FO will draft a Quarterback in the first round. If a starting Backup is not signed within the next month.

DT and RB will need to be addressed. But I do like some of the signings

Re: RE: Offseason Pessimism
 

Peyton Manning's Oline and our Oline is like comparing apples to oranges. He also sees the whole field makes decisions quickly, and doesn't have a partially torn rotator cuff. I'm not saying Brees will be a bust, I'm just saying that we must give him protection or the DE's in our division will eat him alive all season and he will get hurt. I am also saying that signing a couple of FA does not cure a 3-13 team and that I wish we were out there like Washington, Seattle, Minnesotta, Buffalo, Miami and spending our cap space on impact players.

Ya don't go 3-13 without there being some holes. A turnaround may not be complete in one season fo sho. I do take hope though in that with the degree of parity there is it can. Last year this time 2005 division winners Chicago and Tampa Bay were looking at top 5 draft picks. An even larger source of hope is that there is indeed change. I would have gone nuts facing yet another season of no aggressive movement at all by the FO and losing the same way again. After the past 5 years of futility they started from the coach and put in a unproven guy but one that certainly has a good pedigree and background. They erased the face of the erratic performance and failure by letting Leon go.

There is more to be done. Don't write them off yet. It is 6 weeks until the draft and we haven't seen an fresh infusion of hope like this since Mueller was making the calls.

As far as the teams you mentioned, I am glad we have not overspent like Washington on Archuletta and Randle El types. Seattle has only signed only a DT Russell Davis that wasn't on their team last year. Oh, Julian Petersen too- $10mil this season, 18.5 guaranteed, 54 for 7 years. I hope you don't think that was a great deal. The Vikings are offering Hutchinson $50mil guaranteed, an all time record. As good as he is, guards have a hard time justifying Jones-Pace-Ogden kinda money. Leber and Longwell are solid signings we could have used. I like Bennett here more than Chester Taylor signed there. Half of the Buffalo signees are re-ups. The only notable impact for them is Larry Triplett. As for Miami, I definitely preferred getting Brees over Culpepper here even though he technically wasn't a FA. L.J. Shelton fills a hole. I wasn't a fan of Will Allen who NO courted. What does signing Sedrick Hodge say about their personnel evaluation acumen?

I'm not envisioning a Lombardi trophy adding only Brees, Bennett, Fujita, Ledford, and Stoutmire. All of them are solid signings tho for the terms and what they can possibly bring to the table.

The rotator cuff was only very slightly torn, and has been completely fixed. There was a whole thread about this.

Like Kelley said, we could have just gone out and thrown big money at whoever we wanted, but I think we've done a good job this offseason so far. W signed a Pro Bowl QB, a Pro Bowl RB as a backup, two LBs that are upgrades (Simmons is one of the best in the game when healthy), fired Haslett, fired Venturi, fired all of the rest of the idiots that coached last year, and have moved ourselves into the driver's seat for the draft. If that's not something to be optimistic about, then I don't know what is? Could we have gotten big-name players like Bentley, Ted Washington, and Julian Petersen? Yeah, if we wanted to OVERSPEND. I don't blame our FO for not getting any of those guys. They were asking for entirely too much money. I'm excited about where this team is headed. You can question their decisions, but the signing of Brees has shown me that this franchise is getting serious about winning.

I guess moving in any direction is a good direction from 3-13, but no one has given any response to what exactly our plan is for filling the C, backup C, LT, MLB, OLB, CB, DT, K, KR & 2QB, 2TE holes that are glaring us in the face.

6 months until training camp.

2 weeks until all quality FA have been signed and picked over by the other 31 teams.

well, since you can predict the future, why ask the question to begin with?

I just want someone to take off the rose colored glasses of the Bree's signing and see we aren't noticably better as a football team from last year. I have seen the future of the Saints.

"All that is past is prologue" this has never been more true than for the Saints.

Couldn't agree with Stockman more. We need the beef up front, veterans on the OL to protect Brees and create running lanes.

hope is a *****

there might be some truth to your last statement, but you sound like a guy I would not want to sit and watch a game with. why be a Saints' fan?

You know.......we all seem to be forgetting about the x-factor. Coaching. Payton got a new OL coach right? Maybe this guy can come in and teach our linemen a few things and instantly make them better anyway? I know we don't have the best line but....even with better players from the last few years we had too many false starts and holds. Maybe....just maybe.....coaching can turn our guys into better blockers.

Yea the Great Malcom in the Middle... 1st time coach - this might not pan out either....

http://www.bowlingshop.de/bilder/bae...rm/xfactor.jpg

LOL....how you found that bowling ball in reference to my comment is brilliant FFan. Seriously though....I think coaching is very important. He may be first time but that does not rule out the possibility of his effectiveness.

No genious... just Google Images. Hey I'm all for the Xfactor.

http://www.student-direct.co.uk/wp-c...X%20Factor.jpg

The x-factor influences all.

Center- still some good FA centers available. I'm sure we'll pick one of them up, and I believe that we are going to address the position in the draft.
LT- I think we're going to draft Brick. That should solve that problem for the next decade or so...
MLB- If we trade down and can still take Brick, I think we'll take Mangold and D'Qwell Jackson in the early second. However, even if we can't get Jackson or Abdul Hodge, I think that McKinnon played very well for us, and although he's not a long-term answer, I think he has enough talent to start. Not ideally obviously, but at least a stop-gap while we fill other holes in the roster.
OLB- Again, we've already picked up Fujita and Anthony Simmons. What do you not get about this? Fujita will come in right away and should be our SAM LB. Simmons, if he is healthy, has been one of the best LBs in the league; being able to rack up over 100 tackles per year. I think we might address the OLB situation in the second round if we don't get Mangold or we don't take a MLB.
CB- This is one position that I'm not really sure what's going to happen, but all we need is one guy. I wouldn't be surprised to see us get a CB via FA sometime between now and the draft.
DT- either via draft or via FA, we need to address this position. I'm not sure who we'll target, but this is one position that I AM worried about.
K- if Carney isn't gong, then he's our kicker. I know he sucks, but there might not be any better options available.
KR- Devery or Stallworth can handle this, along with Stecker (who had a return for a TD in 2004)
2QB- We're probably not dealing with this yet because we don't want to show our hand. There are A LOT of guys who are backup material available right now, and trust me, they''ll be there after the draft. This is not something to worry about at all.
2TE- we still have Lamont Hall don't we? If not, it's not really that big of an issue and I'm sure we can figure something out.

Overall, just like it's been said before, they're is still a lot of time to go. We're still a month away from the draft. I think that we will be able to fill the OC, OT, and LB holes through the draft. I am kinda worried about the DT and CB position, but I'm sure something will be figured out. Everything that this new regime has done so far has been positive. Just give them a little slack, they're doing a good job

Now you sound like my wife. I couldn't agree with you more. I am a horrible person to watch a Saints game with. The explitives fly, I cuss out the refs, the coaching staff, the players for dumb mistakes, I throw things at the wall and contemplate jumping out of my second story window (especially when we play Vick). This lasts until all playoff hopes are dashed then I morph into a species of indifference. I guess to answer your question, Why be a Saints fan? The only answer I can come up with is that a sheep can't be anything but a sheep, a dog can't be anything but a dog, a Cubs fan can't be anything but a Cubs fan, and a Saints fan can't just become a Patriots or Colts fan when times are tough. That doesn't mean I can't complain about the amount of holes this team has to fill.

true, you have a right to complain, but why are you adament about someone presenting you with a quick-fix solution for all positions? ride the tide, wait and see.

These all sound to me like normal Saint Fan symptoms :lol:

I personally have done each and every one of those things :wink:

i've never known you to be indifferent ;)

Sure you have....But you made me promise I would never tell anyone about what I saw :P

I agree, we do have many needs facing us to seriously consider a wild card spot, much less winning the division or making a deep run in the playoffs.

But, at present, I want to give Payton the benefit of the doubt and see what he can do. I'm pleased that we aren't forced to take Leinart at #2 now, but have some choices.

I just try to keep all things Saints in perspective. The offseason could be worse. This year we're made of iron anyone?

i seem to remember you drooling.....

OHHHHHHH, you're talking about the time I introduced you to WhoDat.....I don't blame you ;)

No, no, no B....You know what I am talking about.....

You...That girl with the Adams Apple....the duct tape and the midget

You know I don't care what you do when you rent a hotel room darlin, to each their own :mrgreen:

well, since you booked the room, i guess not. didn't hear you complain about the duct tape, either.

You see, you try to help a brotha out by renting him a room so no one knows his secrets and look what happens.... :P :P :P

I didn't complain about the duct tape, but do you have to cry so much when I tear it off???

did you have to get so excited when i put it on you? :D

and yes, i answered your question with a question.

I'm so glad I joined this post. :bananajoy:

Its OK B......I have lots of patience for those of you on the short bus :wink:

you requested the short bus.....sick little fantasies......

Being a Saints fan means being a glutten for punishment. You addiction will be your undoing.

Nice.....Real Nice


This from the man who asks his women to dress up like Mrs Butterworth and beat him with a spatula :roll:

and?