How a Good team became a Great team
 

Over the past 10 seasons starting with Haslett and now Payton, I think the Saints started that beginning from being a horrendously bad team to being a good team to being a great team right now as we speak. I think management has a big factor in this, we had a guy like Randy Mueller take the reigns and overnight transform us into a winner in 2000, and yes we may have overachieved under Haslett in 2000 but we may have started a small beginning that led to us the state we are in now. Haslett wasnt a great HC but he does deserve some repsonsibiltiy for our current success, he drafted a good deal of the players on this team right now and made good FA pickups, he just was on the short end of a terrible tragedy like Katrina and the team falling apart on him as a result.

Compare the guys who played for the numerous HC in the first 30 years of the franchise, they didnt win, they didnt draft well, and we had a joke of a owner in Mecom, but I think the past 10 years have been the best I can remember as a Saints fan. We learned how to win, and we learned how to be a good NFL team at long last.

Haslett started it and gave it to Payton to finish it, I dont hate Haslett at all despite some Saints fans who do, the reason being he never stopped trying up until the last season, and even then he still believed somewhat.

Sometimes NFL teams grow up in the FO too, we had Mueller who made the initial success but was careless with what he had done and got fired becuase of it. but then Mickey Loomis, the heir apparent, the man who picked up the ball and ran with it, he has drafted well, got good Fa's, and most importantly won games. A lot of football games. We had two great GM's who made this team good after being bad for so long. Jim Finks being the relative exception of course, we have benefited greatly from becming more mature a team and as that perception has grown, IMHO.

the New Orleans Saints were a bad team for many many years and we didnt try to get better, but what we have done in the past 10 years is grow as a team, as fans, and in doing that we grew from being just a good team to a great team, one whose legacy and legend continues to be discovered

I think you may have forgotten the Jim Mora years. Great drafts. Outstanding top 5 defense. back to back winning seasons. Playoff appearances.

I'm not sure why it all fell apart in the mid 90's. But there was a time that the Saints were riding high.

SFIAH

It is my understanding that when Benson bought the Saints he was told by the NFL to hire Jim Finks or else not get the team. (or something along those lines). I refer to this as the teen years of the Saints. They were under the guidance of a more mature hand. The NFL itself.

When Jim Finks got cancer and Benson was on his own to find a GM, he didn't know what he was doing. It took a while before Benson figured out what kind of GM and coach he wanted. The mid 90's was like the 18-22 period in a young persons life. Things just seem to flail around, but he learned some valuable lessons.

Now I see the Saints in the 25-35 years. The high production years. They have been through the guidance of the NFL, they have flailed around and made some mistakes, but like any smart person, Benson learned his lessons fast and has become a better owner because of it.

That's my take on what has happened since Benson bought the Saints.

I could swear I just heard Bobby and Kenny say something a couple days ago, about only one player remaining from the Haslett era? I am sure I miss heard them because I can think of a few players that were brought onboard during his time.

I agree with SFIAH about Shoulda', Coulda', Woulda' "Mora" and let's not forget Hazletts inability to punish the smiler...

That's my single biggest gripe of Haslett. Aaron Brooks.

they have one person left from the Ditka era...Willie Whitehead. There are several people left from the Haslett era.

That was Haz' biggest mistake. If he would have done something about "Smiley" during 02 and 03 things may have been different.

But hey, would we have the team we have now, if he did?

I think not, so "Good Job Jim!"

...at what point is Aaron Brooks a mistake? He was the back up QB, who stepped in and got us our first playoff win in history of the francise. After that he's a mistake?

I think the point where Brooks was a mistake was when his mamma met his daddy!

um that was hilarious joesam. but truthfully he isn't even in the league anymore. euph, really. "euph your out of your element" -from the big lebowski