stockman311

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.

zachsaints52

Way to think like a winner 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.

NFLDiva

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.

stockman311

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.

BlackandBlue

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

zachsaints52

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.

FanNJ

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

stockman311

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.

LKelley67

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.

TheDeuce

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.