NFC South FA
 

I just read on ESPN.com that the Bucs signed another starting caliber player in DE Marques Douglas. They are swinging for the fences and that brings me to my question for you guys, how would you rank the offseason's so far for our division? I would say that Tampa Bay has had the best offseason followed by NO, ATL, and then Carolina. But if we can make a couple more solid moves and have a great draft we will be ranked #1 as far as the best offseason in the NFC South going into next year.

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i dont see how anyone could possibly think the nucs have had a better offseason tha the saints, honestly.

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I can't wait to find out on the field. That's gonna be two gnarly games.

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Now the Douglas' signing for Tampa I like. He's a good run stuffer on the outside and plays hard. If I'm worried about anything, it's playing their defense as we have trouble against the cover 2.

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rjakapeanut, so the Saints have had a better offseason than the Bucs? Would you mind explaining that because I don't see where you're coming from? Maybe you can show me the light on this one.

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Remember the 49ers signing spree?

contenders, maybe. Sure bet, absolutely not.

we have a better nucleus.

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well if you go by the numbers then the saints have signed 4 Free Agents and Traded for Vilma

the scouting Grade of those players are as follows:

Mark Brunell QB Scouting Grade - 54

Randall Gay CB Scouting Grade - 67

Bobby McCray DE Scouting Grade - 64

Dan Morgan LB Scouting Grade - 70

Jonathan Vilma LB Scouting Grade - 78



Now the Bucs have signed 10 Free Agents and here are their Scouting Grades:

Marques Douglas DE Scouting Grade - 63
Warrick Dunn RB Scouting Grade - 58
Jeff Faine C Scouting Grade - 69
John Gilmore TE Scouting Grade - 59
Leon Joe LB Scouting Grade - 52
Teddy Lehman LB Scouting Grade - 59
Matt McCoy LB Scouting Grade - 50
Ben Troupe TE Scouting Grade - 59
Jimmy Wilkerson DE Scouting Grade - 50
Eugene Wilson DB Scouting Grade - 64


now what all these Grades mean:

for length purposes, i cut most of the scale out.. if u want to see the rest of the scale u can click here:

ESPN - Scouts Inc. grading scale - Scouts

Grading Scale


70-79: Good Starter
Solid starter who is close to being an outstanding player. ... Has few weaknesses and usually will win his individual matchup but does not dominate in every game, especially when matched up against the top players in the league.

60-69: Average Starter
A valuable roster player but not a dominant player against the better players he faces on a weekly basis. ... Gives great effort and teams are glad to have him, but he may or may not go to the next level.

50-59: Good Backup
This is a player who is really on the bubble and only starts because of a deficiency at the position. ... He lacks complete overall skills, and although he will battle, he will hinder his team's ability to play at a championship level if he is forced to be in the starting lineup consistently over a 16-game season. Teams don't mind having him on the roster but are always looking to upgrade.




so by this scale the Bucs picked up 7 Good Backup players and 3 Average Starters, while the saints picked up 1 Good Backup, 2 Average Starters and 2 Good Starters. Our best pickup, Vilma, easily outgrades their best pickup, Faine. Not only that but we let Faine go, not cuz he wasnt adequate, but b/c it wasnt worth the money that Tampa paid him... what would you want? Quality or Quantity.... i think ill take Quality anyday...


picking up alot of players doesnt always translate to wins.. just means more of your players have to learn your system and that takes time to adjust...

Re: NFC South FA
 

Marques Douglas DE - who?
Warrick Dunn RB - washed up.
Jeff Faine C Scouting Grade - average center.
John Gilmore TE - who?
Leon Joe LB - who? lol.
Teddy Lehman LB - ...?
Matt McCoy LB - lol.
Ben Troupe TE - solid addition.
Jimmy Wilkerson DE - eh =\.
Eugene Wilson DB - good pickup

they picked up some decent players I guess. JUST the addition of Gay to our team made us a 12 win team, not even counting Vilma/Morgan etc.

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Now that's funny......relying on a guy who played mostly nickel in NE to help us 12 wins....ROFLMAO!!!!! Gay is a solid addition for depth, but in my opinion he wont be a superstar, better than David tho, hell yeah.

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help us to 12 wins? we don't need his help. we just need him to be an average, even slightly below average cornerback. you realize that if you take away Jason David and replace him with any random average cornerback who can play man even a little bit last season we were like 11-5 right? lol.

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I don't want to be the pessimist, but what makes everyone so sure that David will be a backup next year? The coaching staff has proven time and time again that they do not always play the best players. Some Examples (Starter - followed by obviously better alternative):

Jason David - Jason Craft, Usama Young, Anyone FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ANYONE!
Josh Bullocks - Kevin Kaesviharn
Mark Simmoneau - Brian Simmons
Scott Shanle - Brian Simmons
Jeff Faine - Jonathan Goodwin

Ok so my last two weren't obviously better alternatives, but they have been argued on this forum before. The point is that sometimes the coaching staff doesn't always play the right players no matter how obvious it might be to us. How else could anyone explain Bullocks starting the last two years (or ever). He was embarrasing to watch. After he got hurt and Kaesviharn started for him I thought there was no way that Bullocks would get his starting spot back, but he unexplainably did.

So when Jason David is starting across from Randall Gay on opening day, alot of you (including me) will be cursing at the TV (or maybe live), but don't be surprised. David is being paid too much money to be a backup, and he unfortunately will be the starter on opening day next year. For those of you who think Usama Young will be our starter are wishful thinkers. I don't know what anyone saw in Usama last year to think he could be a starter, because I missed it. He was below average at best, and will need more time. He may be better than Jason David, but is that really something to be proud of?

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So let me get this straight, by picking up all those players the Bucs haven't done much to help their team but by us signing JUST R. Gay we will have 12 wins next year? Are you serious? That is just a delusional statement. IMHO none of the players we have signed could single handedly turn us into a 12 win team. I think that all of their efforts combined will help us get to the 12 win range. I say that because we would've made the playoffs last year had we stayed healthy. We aren't that far away from being a true force in the NFC but the signing of one marginal starter at CB will not turn us into a 12 win team.

It seems like it's hard for alot of us Saints fans to give the Bucs credit for winning the NFC South last year. Some seem to think it was just a fluke that they swept us and won the division. I wish I could say that it was a fluke but it wasn't. They weren't a great team but they were a good team with alot of young talent. So far this offseason I feel like they have done a better job than we have at addressing their team specific needs. Sure, they haven't brought in the risky big names that we have but that's because they didn't need to. We have been desperate for a playmaking LB basically since The Dome Patrol so rolling the dice on a couple of "damaged" players was a risk we needed to take. The FO thought that the risk was worth the potential reward and it is because if healthy Vilma and Morgan will be beasts. I don't think we've done enough to address our specific needs at DT, TE, CB, and S so far this offseason. But like I said before, if we make a few more moves and have a good draft we could easliy have the best offseason in the NFC South.

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it's hard to say who has had the better offseason so far but you also have to consider coaching changes along with FA and draft

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That is a very good point phatoosdey. New coaches can sometimes get alot more out of players than the old coach could. We might see that first hand this year with the Falcons. Hopefully they will still suck though. A new coach isn't going to fix the mess they have at QB.