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I rememeber during free agency fans were defending and then as things progressed, it switched to wait until the draft,you will see. The draft has come and gone and then I remember alot of frustaration on draft day. I won\'t call out names because you are well aware of whom you are, but Sullivan(lots of head scratches),then Stinkycomb(head scratches turned to yanking of hair). So as some of us left feeling numb,others were desperately trying to convinvce yourself that we would be fine. But the majority of the posts said just wait and see after June 1st. You know it does appear we keep waiting and seeing. Do we have a strong MLB? A good backup RB? Are we strong enough at the CB and Safety slots? Will Grant padlock the refridgerator door? What strength at center do we have signed or experience to play? We have one rookie on the front D line,whom MAY work out. It is fine to be a fan and be optimistic, be realism is another issue.

June 1st Cuts
 

Realism is great if you back it up with facts. I don\'t think you have. Pessimism is one thing, but reality is what it is. Takeo would have cost us a freakin\' fortune.

MLB: Ruff was a solid but unspectacular LB who was demoted when they signed a PRO-BOWLER. Ruff would start on most teams in this league. He\'s a B+ at his position. At the very least he is an upgrade to Mr Invisible (Clemmons). Darren Smith is one of the best LB\'s in coverage in the NFL. Middle LB may not be a strength, but it isn\'t a glaring weakness. The 2 top MLB\'s in the draft were WEAK and injury prone.

CB: We\'ve debated this 10 zillion times, we needed frontline help a lot more than a CB. Next years draft and FA is supposed to be LOADED at CB. As our 2nd pick came around the only CB\'s left were all rated to be development types. No 1st year starters.
But you can refernce the 5000 earlier posts on this debate.

Safety\'s: Polamalu was the only safety rated as a 1st year starter. Safety\'s rarely go in the 1st round because they are a dime a dozen. Usually CB\'s who don\'t pan out. I liked this kid, but not at a 1st rounder.

Center: Jacox and Bentley and most likely Fontenot. Centers??? We got freakin centers out the yang!!!

RB: backup is all we need. Keaton, Fenderson, Banks... One of these 3 will probably step up, if not there are always capable vets cut before the season starts. We don\'t need a 16 game performer, we need a stand-in type who could go 3 to4 games if Deuce goes down.
But of all your concerns, this is probably the most valid. There were none in the draft that would move in front of the 3 I mentioned.

DL: Decent, not great but with a lot of upside. An improvement over last year to say the least. I still see this as a work in progress, but there wasn\'t a ton of DT\'s to nabb in FA that were significantly better than what we already have. You don\'t replace a B player with another B player at a higher salary.

Bottom Line: Every team in the league has positions with opportunities for improvement. I personally think the Saints did a good job addressing the most glaring considering what was available.

June 1st Cuts
 

Well we did make good offseason upgrades. But was enough to become a champion? St. Louis did upgrade their defense a lot between their Superbowl Seasons. Lubby Smith is a better explaination for that than new players. We may be a better defense, but can we stop the top offenses in the league. In refernces to our weakness:

LB- Ruff is an upgrade over Clemons because he stop the run, nothing else though. He was not pushed by a pro bowler in San Diego. He was pushed out by a third round draft pick, Ben Leber. Edwards was an OLB, but SD thought Leber, Edwards at MLB and Seau would be the best combinantion, not the previous starters plus Edwards.

S- Cannot complain here, I think this is definetly an upgrade here

CB- If Ambrose is so great, why did we not try to resign him a few years ago. I think he has lost about two steps. I will hold tight that CB, along with RB and DT, is a position where where athleticism and instincts rule not knowledge and experience.

DT- Sullivan and Smith with Jackson and Chase have the potential to be great. They also have the potential to be horrible

C and RB- no complaints unless Keaton is not the guy I thought he could be.

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There were not a lot of quality free agents out there and it\'s not like the Saints were the only teams pursuing those guys. With that being said, I don\'t see any of our free agents making a huge impact. I do however see improvements at middle linebacker, free safety, and cornerback. The biggest thing the Saints were able to do this year was to move up in the top 10 in the draft. The reason they were able to do this is because of what they did in the draft last year, with the drafting of Duece. We shipped Rickey Williams off to the Dolphins and got a first round draft pick and have a better player at running back in Duece. Not too bad in my book. With the drafting of Sullivan our D-Line is instantly better. The question is did we upgrade the defense enough to get into the playoffs and make a run to the superbowl? I wish I could anwser that question, but the truth is that\'s why they play the games. We will find out if the off season moves can get us there.

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Which Grant is padlocking the fridge? I wasn\'t aware that either had a weight problem? Now Jackson, on the other hand needs a gun to go off if the door is opened. ;)

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Really, he\'s so fat he puts mayonnaise on asprin

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I may be totally wrong here, but isn\'t his name Lovie Smith?

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Well, it appears I\'ve really stirred up the Sh!t with this post... I am kind of sad that Pak and Gator haven\'t waded into this one though.

With all due respect to the new guys, a lot of you weren\'t around (on this board) in January when we started talking about Free Agency and the Draft, etc. Way back then, most everyone on this board was expecting to see a \"revamped\" defense. Some people here were saying you would see five or even seven new starters on defense. The so-called experts (media men and analysts) were saying the same... expect the Saints to focus only on D this off-season.

Tweeky wants to deal in reality, so let\'s do just that... We\'ll start at safety. We replaced a Pro Bowl caliber safety (and YES, Sammy Knight is exactly that) with a should-be but never has been safety who has the physical tools, but is yet to prove himself on the field week in and week out. He will be flanked by a second-year first time starter. And get this, the safety position might be our MOST improved!! That\'s nuts!

At CB we have the same group of guys, we just added one other 30-something year old who will be average at best.

At LB - by FAR our weakest position on D, we replaced a very good outside linebacker (who our dumb coached forced to play inside) with a second string never has been whose best year EVER in the NFL is significantly WORSE than Clemons\' year was last year. Instead of just moving Clemons back to outside LB where he led the team in Sacks and Tackles, and led the LBs in fumble recoveries, passes defensed and interceptions. we got rid of him and replaced him with Orlando Ruff - a two down guy at best. He will be flanked by a second-year starter who played well below expectations last season (Hodge in case you haven\'t figured it out yet) and a first-year starter. Now if that doesn\'t make you bubble with confidence, I don\'t know what will.

Finally, comes DT (b/c our DEs have always been good)... We replace two fat-a$$es with a rookie and a perinial backup. Whew - if that doesn\'t say upgrade then nothing does.

While there is definitely potential for the defense to get better, it will take a whole lot of players coming through and playing beyond (reasonable) expectations in order for it to improve more than a couple of spots in the rankings. You want to face facts? Let\'s face them.

The Saints came into the off-season with more money available under the cap then 27 other teams. They had a ton of draft picks and plenty of wiggle room to restructure and trade good players. If you believe that Tebucky Jones, Orlando Ruff, and Ashley Ambrose is a major upgrade on defense through free agency I have to wonder about your ability to judge talent. Sullivan and Grant are decent pickups through the draft, but neither look to be game changers this year.

Step one should have been firing Venturi. I like our pick up of Jones and Rodgers, but let\'s face it, those are the only two Free Agents worth a damn that we picked up this year. With our incredible cap situation and huge needs on D, I\'d say that\'s pretty disappointing.

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WhoDat 1 Tweeky 0

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Whodat, I can not agree with you more. The draft was pathetic, I like the deal with Arizonia but the picks :question: , I was pulling and scratching my head all day(Jon Stinchcomb over Rashean Mathis) passing up on Bradie James. Yes, The saints have a pretty good draft but the guys they could\'ve pick .... well, its just hurt to see them pass on.

My biggest question will be since we lost our true leader(Sammy Knight) on defense which young guy will step up and fill those shoes?