has anyone noticed?
 

anyone noticed what a great offseason we've had? our linebacking corps (an obvious glaring area of need) has been overhauled with some very quality lb's... fujita, simmons, polley, and foreman are saavy veterans who still have plenty in the tank and even more to prove.... bockwoldt and fincher are young guns who are very eager to get on the field and prove their worth... getting bush is the biggest thing to ever happen to the saints since the inception of the team, and it barely overshadow the acquisition of drew brees.... our offensive line was solidified with a couple of quality lineman that can be plugged in anywhere in the interior and with a couple of studs (although they may take a season or two to mature to nfl caliber players).... with the exception of lecharles leaving (we didn't have a pot to piss in as far as that's concerned) and the lack of addressing the cb position (although may 1 or 2 of the ufa's we have may pan out, keep your eyes on anwar phillips from psu and ray williams from purdue) this has been a great offseason.... i love the fact that payton's mentality of "no bullcrap" is now in-grained into this club.... even with losing dwight "toast" smith, our club is all the better, especially considering we have 3 very good veterans at safety (b.scott, bellamy, and stoutmire) and 2 future all-pro's in harper and bullocks... that tandem is going be great for years to come....

RE: has anyone noticed?
 

I agree with alot of what you are saying, but I think you took a sip of the koolaide with us losing D. Smith makes the team better. Anytime you lose, no, when you give away a good young starter you don't get better. And Harper and Bullock may pan out but who Knows.

RE: has anyone noticed?
 

I think we have had a solid offseason, but there are still too many questions before I could say we had a GREAT offseason. The LBs corps was certainly upgraded in my opinion and Bush was certainly the highlight. Brees will be successful and was the good addition, but really the only big splash we made in free agency. I dont consider the offensive line to be solidified by any means. They have a lot to prove before they can be considered a formidable unit. I think the "giving away" of Dwight Smith is a big loss. At the very least, he could have been moved to CB to provide some help there. He's too versatile and good a player to just let go like he was. I agree that we have made several improvements, and if all pans out as we hope it does, then Ill look back and say we had a GREAT offseason.

RE: has anyone noticed?
 

I have noticed. All of the positives far outweigh the negatives,as far as all the changes go. I don't mind losing Dwight Smith so much, although he seemed like a very good player to me. There are a lot of questions on the offensive line, but with a real quarterback who can get rid of the ball quickly(and accurately), and the quickness of Reggie Bush in the backfield I'm not sure how good the line has to be. Average, might just be all they need to be. As long as they don't have a lot of penalties, I will be happy. Anyhow in the past few years it didn't seem as if they were blowing anybody off the line. Deuce had a lot of yards off of his own skills more than a great offensive line.

RE: has anyone noticed?
 

chRxis....here let me pour you a nice tall glass....AAAHHH aint that refreshing....I agree patdog wish we had not lost Smith or atleast gotten something more than cap room for him...Bullocks will be a stud I just dont think this year...of course they said the same thing about Polamalu....Its going to be a better and exciting season, this I am sure of....

RE: has anyone noticed?
 

we did essentially give away dwight smith, but we do have plenty of quality veteran safeties and really good young ones as well.... this just allows the saints to get their younger safeties, whom they like and feel will be a really good tandem, on the field sooner... don't get me wrong he was good while with the bucs, but when he needed to be the heart of a lagging defense, he didn't step up to the plate, and now he's going to be paired with sharper in minnesota on a team with a great defensive line and adequate lb's, so he'll look good again and everyone will say, see what we lost.... don't let that be the case... see him for what he was, which was not a lot of ints. and plenty of td's given up on his side of the field.... although he was far better than tebucky jones...

RE: has anyone noticed?
 

I'll wait and decide at the end of the season Win vs. Losses to say how our offseason went.

RE: has anyone noticed?
 

When a body's heart stops beating, you give it a shock and a few dozen thumps. Sometimes you get a pulse but there's a lot of brain damage. We've seen a lot of thumping and shocking, now we wait to see if there's intelligent life.

I am not going to base this season's level of success on wins and losses. It is hard to fix all the holes of a 3-13 team in one season. I would just like to see the Saints be more competetive week in and week out and just be fun to watch. Even two years ago when they went 8-8, they werent any fun to watch till the very end of the season. The offense should be fun to watch.

What flavor is that Kool-Aid? Cherry? Or Grape?