SaintNik

Gruden has gotten an overwhelming amount of credit for the team he inherited from the Dungy regime. The defense was basically intact and most of the core of the offense was as well. Of course he should be given credit regardless, but, to what extent. Sure, he brought Chucky ball to the bay and installed his offense. Some might even say that he was only able to run the offense in 1st gear with the personnel he had. Has that group improved this offseason that much? The loss of the #1s will eventually catch up to them, maybe not this year, but, in the following few years with the core group of that defense moving on, it will. Teams around the league will at some point find the weaknesses and others will exploit them. The Saints swept them last year. That favor could be returned this year even though I expect at least a split. Let's hold up on annoiting the guru as a savior until he has a few years of his system in place with his players. That is why this year Haslett should be judged more so than in the past three. He now has the core group of his coaches and players in his system now in the 4th year. It is time to win now. No excuses about being in the toughest division in the league where the defending super bowl champ resides. Saints teams of the past had that problem for years with the 9ers and rams. I do think Gruden and Haslett are both good coaches, no doubt. Let's just see how many consecutive killer seasons he has where he is at. How many championships did he win with the raiders? Did they get further with or without him?