Finally got a great LB..Danny Clark
 

We got our best Lb as Danny Clark, former of Oakland (and Jacksonville) started all sixteen game last year...Is 6'2", 245 lbs and had 113 tackles, one sack and seven passes defensed! Hopefully he gets acclaimated to the system fast!

RE: Finally got a great LB..Danny Clark
 

Looks like we got our LB's now.

I know that he made too much to be a backup and got cut for salary cap reasons, but who was going to play ahead of him this season?

The fans on the Raiders message boards are pretty pissed about losing him, which is very encouraging for us.

RE: Finally got a great LB..Danny Clark
 

All I can say is......YAY!!! :bananajoy:

He is not a "great" LB. He got beat out by Kirk Morrison, a second year guy. Morrison hada good season last year, and Clark has been ok, but he is far from great. The LB's in Oakland all get to pile up tackles because teams never have to pass on them, they can run all day long. He is an upgrade over Fincher, but he is not a savior.

bobaganoosh,

It was a financial decision by Oakland! What is great? He had 242 Tackles in the last 2 seasons, along with 3 sacks! He was the Raiders leading tackler the last 2 years. Urlacher is considered great! He has had 193 solo tackles over the last 2 seasons?!?!?! Do your homework Babaganoosh (and put that bong down) before you say anything else that is retarted!

Are you calling him great because of his number of tackles? Do you know how many of those tackles he made 7 yards down the field? Are you honestly comparing him to Urlacher? If he was great, dont you think he would have won a starting job, or maybe moved to the weakside? If he was great, dont you think a team as bad as the Raiders could have found a way to keep him?

I admire the fact that you think the Saints are going to be great. I wish i could feel that way. I want nothing more than for them to win every game, but realistically, i dont see this team winning 5 games. And regardless of if i am right or wrong, Danny Clark is not going to be the reason for the success or the failure of this team.

One LB will not give us the Defense
we need...but it will help.

8)

Drew Brees is great, and San Diego didn't find a way to keep him! How many Raiders games did you watch last year? If you are a Saints fan or live in the South,my guess is..NOT MANY..And I'm sure you paid a lot of attention to their middle LB! 7 yards down the field is okay...Lately in the pre-season players haven't been tackled at all! I am a Saints fan...And sometimes I get discusted on this site because there is Pesimism even when the team is heading in the right direction...We sign a guy who had over 100 tackles last year, a sack and seven passes defensed and we have pesimists?!! Go figure! Who on our roster is a better middle LB?...And you had better bring some stats to back it up because numbers don't lie...I Frigin love N.O....Get out of here Mr. Negativity, or bring some stats back to me!...Quit being so damn Pesimistic!

Danny will not give us the wins we need? Babaganoosh, this is not Boxing, or Chess...Its a team game! That means that he's not going to have to bring us any wins, but just contribute and do his part! He will shore up the middle! Did you get those stats...Just how many tackles were 7 yards down field? Did you look that up? How about 2 yards down the field? 5 wins! Get out of here you half-hearted pesiimistic buzz kill! Go root for the Browns or some other team with loser fans!

All of you are freakin out of your minds... Brees is not great! Clark is not great! If they were there teams would have gone out of there way to keep them.

Brees isn't great..2004 Pro Bowl ? What defines great?

Marshall Faulk was a great player in Indianapolis...The let him go! You can't keep everyplayer just because they are great! LeCharles Bentley was a Pro-Bowler more than once...we let him go to C-Land! What about Roaf? Sammy Knight? Pat Swilling? Sam Mills? They weren't great under your logic...Oh, by the way...Archie Manning? Jake Delhomme? K.C. let Joe Horn leave? Vikings let Moss go to Oakland? Corey Dillion? Let me know where you are coming from...Have another shot and respond...!

He made a solid point there, I must say.

That being said I'm not ready to call Danny Clark "great" just yet.

Great... being they will come in and immediately turn this ball club around and neither of those players will do that!

Yuck..You don't have to agree, but stats don't lie and he can shore up the middle of our defense...He is battle-tested and has game experience, which we kinda lack in the middle! I think anyone who puts on the black and Gold is Great...Oh, except Wurrfel and Hasslett!..

Jake only became great after leaving NO. Dillion was in some peoples opinion on the downturn of his career. Archie was on the downturn as well... please. Sure sometimes its a money issue but if its a money issue then they weren't all that great now were they? Manning... Urlacher... Ray Lewis... Anderson...

I am not being pessimistic, i am being realistic. I have posted several times recently about how i am glad coach payton is still looking for players to make this team better. I think Danny Clark is an upgrade over Fincher. The part where i disagree with you is where you call him a great LB...and the part where you say he will shore up the middle of our defense. I think that is crazy. The guy comes in 5 days before the start of the season, and you expect him to be the savior in the middle? His role here is to come in, compete, and help on special teams. Down the road, he will be our MLB on first and second down, and simoneau takes it on 3rd down. thats better than what we have, but it certainly is not great. No one called Danny Clark a great LB with the Raiders..no one. He is just a middle of the pack, no name, average LB. Do you think the fans in Tennessee are excited because they got a young LB from New Orleans who had 90 tackles by the name of Bockwoldt? No. I can realistically say that i will pull for the Saints each and every Sunday, and i will realistically say that 2/3 of the time, i am going to bed Sunday night pissed off because the Saints blew another one...but i will do the same thing the next week. So keep on truckin. Go buy yourself a danny clark jersey. Book your tickets to Miami to see the saints in the super bowl. and then hop on your unicorn and fly through the chocolate covered cherry rain until you find your way out of fantasy land.

Not one Pro Bowl. Do you look back at NFL history and remember Mark Rypien as "great?" Was Timmy Smith a "great" RB? There is a difference between negativity and reality. Brees is not great (30-28 as a starter I think), but better than what we had. Clark is far from "great" but better than what we had. So, I think those two are examples of improvements, but neither are great players.

Clark is better than Cie Grant, who never played a down but got three years of paychecks. A remarkable upgrade. I'm almost feeling pessimistic, which is a whole lot better than nihilistic.

Clark is much better than what we have and thats all I am excited about. Over 100 for two years in a row seems good. We will see if he is great or not.

I love it. I am sitting here wondering what this debate would be like if it was Edwards not Clark we signed. Granted Donnie Edwards is probly historically a better LB, but Clark is 4 years younger and he still has 4 yrs of history to go before you can compair the two. Plus it did not cost us a first day draft pick or a player. I call it draw so far, based on this. I say thumbs up.

Okay now the defense in Okland was run on a lot, but look at the division. Denver, KC, San Diego and the Raiders. This division runs over every one. But believe me, he is happy not to be tackling LT, LJ, or facing the Denver ground machine twice a year. Heck the knock on both LB was all the tackles are down field. But in that division that is common. It has been common here in New Orleans too. But it was the Safties doing the tackling.

I think it is a big plus that we went with a LB with 100+ tackles from that division. Our division does not have the running attacks he faced there. We are pass happy by their definition. Clark will have to get use to more of a short passing attack to defend. Give him chance to gets the sytem down he is playing in and those of the division rivals.

So back to the "Great" debate. Ask me after this year. Right now I am happy with good. Do not listen to ESPN (ET) hype and such. Listen to the fans. They all say we got a solid LB and a good person. He is going to be missed in Oakland.
:itsgood:
Is all I can say till I see the contract.

Maybe this doesn't mean much but i'll chiime in with a different perspective on this.....Danny Clark and Kirk Morrison were tied rating wise on Madden 07 at 87 overall. Take that to the bank! :)

Nobody needs to listen to euph, he's senile or something. No one single player could come in and make this team any good. Peyton Manning couldn't come in here and turn this team into a playoff team. Ray Lewis in his prime couldn't come in here and turn this team into a playoff team. There are too many holes on this squad, holes that will require multiple new/better players to fill them. Brees is a very good quarterback. Great? Maybe not. But he's definitely top 10 in my mind. Peyton Manning is great. I think he is a huge improvement over the crap that we've had for the last 6 years. Is Danny Clark great? Absolutely not. But is he a good linebacker? Yeah, I think so. I think any guy who can rack up over 100 tackles for two consecutive seasons on a really bad defense should be considered good. Perhaps more importantly, do I think that he is an upgrade over our past linebackers? Absolutely. With the loss of Anthony Simmons (who I thought would have solidified our LB corps as being not crappy), signing a guy like Clark is HUGE. We can now line him up with Fujita and Polley/Foreman/somebody else and have a legit LB corps. Payton and the rest of the staff have done a good job of taking an objective look at this roster and deciding what's best for this team, and then acting on that decision. He's added some good players (Brees, Bush, Clark, Fujita, Faine) that should make this team better. With the exception of Bush, in whom the jury is still out until he finishes a full NFL season, none of the players we've gotten are great, but they're all good, and they all make this team better. If Payton continues acquiring solid players like this, I believe we have a core of players (Deuce, Brees, Bush, Joe Horn, Will Smith, Bullocks, Charles Grant) that we can build a playoff team around. Just right now, this team is so bad at spots like the corners, the defensive tackles, one linebacking spot, depth on the OLine, and kicking that it's going to take a little time; but I like the direction this team is moving in, and adding Clark is just another reason to be optimistic.

Again...you can debate who is good and who is great, but bring the stats...He has a lot of tackles! He has started a lot more games than most of our guys. Someone said that great means "he will come in and turn our team around"....Are you nuts?... Swilling, Mills, Jackson, Johnson all went to the Pro-Bowl the same year...THEY WERE GREAT! They didn't turn their team around? Barry Sanders didn't turn his team around! Was he great (If you said NO, get the hell out of here right now!) A lot of you think this is an individual sport and it is made up of 11 starters in three phases of the game! Teams are great like the Patriots were great a few years ago...Few stars, a ton of role players. This cat has better stats than big name LB's! He has experience. He will do his part ...He is great. Even if you disagree...He is better than anyone posting on this site at MLB....He is a better pick up than Edwards because Edwards is close to being on the tail end of his career!

When was the last time anybody saw a highlight from a Saints LB? I was just wondering

I think Mark Fields was the last solid LB we had, but he wasn't like Swilling level or anything! It's been a while!

you can rack up a ton of tackeles chasing someone down 7 yards down the field... that still doesn't make you great.

Best post so far....proof that there is a balance between the "Danny Clark is great" fans and the "we won't win a game this season" fans. While it hasn't been officially announced, we are in a rebuilding process. It's a work in progress, and this team won't be competitive this year most likely. I don't think we'll be 2-14 like people are saying, but I'm seeing 6-10. Anything better than that would be overachieving. I think our offseason can be even better than this past one, due to stars like Brees and Reggie being here. Free agents would want to play with these guys a lot more than people like Brooks and Stallworth. Like TheDuece said, if we can have one more good offseason, then we may be in position to do some things next year.

The reason why Clark was let go by Oakland was because he's weak against the pass. They had to insert Morrison in on 3rd downs. Morrison is the more "complete" player with the better upside. I'm not knocking Clark... I like the fact he's solid against the run and is a pretty good linebacker. But, he's far from great.

Nobody picks up "great" players at this time of year. So what? He is a proven starter on two NFL teams. Far better than naythng else we have at this point. He will make the Saints better. That's a good thing.

also....I saw that Atlanta cut Chad Lavalais. Would sure love to see the Saints pick him up if he's still availalbe. Anyone know?

They said he's lazy and out of shape... then gave him the axe. That doesn't sound to tempting.

"They" did huh? Who is they? If you are refering to "the Raiders" then keep in mind who evaluates their talent...They are giving Aaron Brooks the 'nod at #1 Q.B....So I like Danny, the Raiders just don't know talent! If they did, They wouldn't have picked up A.B. Now, make a case for "they"!

That is something only a new head coach
would do only because he have to.

8)

Umm... we were talking about Lavalais... as in the former DT of the Falcons. Read the last post on the second page then go to page three.

That's too bad. Lavalais has talent. He was a beast for LSU and played with promise in Atlanta.

I believe that would be K. Mitchell making that long TD run in 2000. It has been a while.

Also, you guys were all amped about getting Donnie Edwards who's OLD and now we got a SOLID MLB who tackles at least as well as Edwards, is younger, and can saty on the team for more than 2 years. Our team is new, we probably won't be winning the Superbowl this season, but no one thought much of our team in 2000 and they did just peachy. Trying to predict our record is silly.

Clark lost his starting job this year when the Raiders switched from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3, and his $1.75 million salary was deemed too high for a backup. He signed a one-year deal with the Saints for an undisclosed amount
TP
Well another one year deal at LB. man next uear is going to fun. boat load of picks, 1, 2, 3, 3/4, 4, 4, 5, 6 and one to be determined.
Then there is boat load of contracts ending.
I hate to say this but in this situation I am hoping we are competive in every game but stay in the top 5 for the draft.

i thought, with ridding ourselves of the smiling wonder; it improved us to the point we would be automatic for a playoff spot. i always listen from posters in here say our defense was always fine so i expect Brees to lead us to the playoffs because the smiling wonder was the problem not the defense.

smiley, was the problem not the LB'S.

Sad that that was the first thing I thought of, too, when I read that question. Sad cause if that's the real last big highlight of true LB play that we have it's been a long time.

By "true" LB play I'm not counting Allen's play against the Bucs three years ago when the Bucs punter tried to get rid of the ball in the EZ and tossed it right to him.