Fred Thomas Article
 

Time to get physical
Fred Thomas makes effort to get stronger in the offseason.
Eric Narcisse
enarcisse@theadvertiser.com

August 1, 2003






METAIRIE — A lot of players in the NFL these days take it as a slap in the face, when their team goes out and sign, trade or draft a player that plays the same position as them


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Fred Thomas Article
 

Trufant???
We don\'t need no stinkin Trufant!

Fred Thomas Article
 

I\'ll tell you what, I didn\'t realize what good stats Thomas put up last year and remember he did this with the terrible D-line we had last year. 79 tackles is a hell of a lot for a cornerback.

Those are Sammy Knight numbers, right?

[Edited on 1/8/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

Fred Thomas Article
 

And you have to take into account he did alot of this with the ball cast on his hand for most of the season. He was hurt all year and played his butt off.

Fred Thomas Article
 

It\'s TOO much for a CB that was injured for most of the year. Read between the lines. If your CB is making all the tackles for the team, it means that the opponent\'s QB/WR combo were completing too many passes.

[Edited on 1/8/2003 by BlackandBlue]

Fred Thomas Article
 

Champ Bailey 16 68 62 6 .0 3 2 .7 0 0 0

Ronde Barber 76 63 13 3 0 0 2 20


You sure about that?

Fred Thomas Article
 

Heh, yeah, I\'m sure. Don\'t get me wrong, I love Fred Thomas. I\'m not pointing the finger at him. I think he was called on too many times last year to be the one to make the plays, mostly on runs. If your CB\'s are the one\'s stopping the RB, you\'ve got bigger problems.

[Edited on 1/8/2003 by BlackandBlue]

Fred Thomas Article
 

Ok , but I think a lot of those tackles were on running plays.

Fred Thomas Article
 

Bailey was also called upon to make too many tackles to compensate for the Linebackers who weren\'t doing their jobs. For all of you calling for more playmakers or \"Big Name\" free agents to come to the Saints, Consider this: The Foreskins had a trio of Pro Bowl Linebackers last year (Arrington, Trotter, Armstead) They were horrible as a group. I believe the quote I have been hearing about this is \"Too many Playmakers. Not enough Players\". Citing the lack of Role Players on that \"D\" is the pundits reasoning for their lack of production. I for one agree with this.

The best example of this last year was The Bucs \"D\". They were not short of Role Players on that \"D\" despite the number of \"Big\" names. They seemed to have the right balance. I hope that falls through this year or that the Saints \"O\" continues to use them like they did last year!

Fred Thomas Article
 

screw tampa, i\'ll take NE\'s defense of 2 years ago any day

that was a team that knew how to work together and play as a team, they had no \"playmakers\" and they won the superbowl over the \"greatest show on turf\", they looked a little shabby last year in part due to the pressure applied by lack of offensive help(running game was horrible compared to super bowl year) but NE will have another outstanding D this year and they still don\'t have any \"playmakers\"

tampa on the other hand is looking at their D\'s last year together because they can\'t afford to keep all those \"playmakers\"