pakowitz

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Peter Finney

At this point in time, looking back on a disappointing 7-9 season, looking ahead to who knows what, it would be fitting for the Saints to change their logo from a fleur-de-lis to "D-Fence."

So let me say this.

If Glenn Dorsey wasn't just being modest, if he knows what he's talking about, Sean Payton took a giant step toward mending his team's Achilles' heel in drafting Sedrick Ellis, a 6-foot-1, 307-pound tackle from Southern Cal.

When the 2007 college season was history, after defensive tackle Dorsey had been a primary force behind LSU's drive to a national championship, he called Ellis the most dominant defensive tackle in the country.

Dorsey was talking about a player drafted two slots after him, a player, it turned out, recruited out of high school by Ed Orgeron, the Saints' incoming defensive line coach, who was a Southern Cal assistant when Ellis was a schoolboy at Chino High in California.

And there was Orgeron on Saturday, shortly after the Saints had traded up to land the Trojans' All-American, talking about the young man's "explosive burst," his ability to function as a "disrupting influence," his "sack ratio," his knack in stuffing the run.

Here's the irony.

Before Ellis became a Saint, Dorsey became a Chief.

And before Dorsey became a Chief, reports are the Chiefs were willing to hand Dorsey to the Saints, a trade that would have involved the Saints and Chiefs exchanging first-round picks, the Saints also giving the Chiefs their second-round pick this year and their first-round pick in 2009.

All this made Dorsey too rich for the Saints.


But moments later it paved the way for a deal with New England in which No. 1s were swapped, and the Saints surrendered their third-round pick and received a fifth.

It also paved the way for Ellis to take his place at defensive tackle, alongside Hollis Thomas, inside Will Smith and Charles Grant, inside a front four also expected to get some new pep from free-agent defensive end Bobby McCray, who did a good job rushing the passer in Jacksonville.

For the '07 Saints, the defining moment arrived when the 0-8 St. Louis Rams came to the Superdome and terminated a four-game winning streak for the 4-4 Saints with a 37-29 upset that was far more lopsided than the final score.

It was a game in which Marc Bulger completed 27 passes, two for touchdowns, on a day when he had completions covering 40, 31, 22 and 21 yards.

This was against a defense that not only could intercept just 10 passes in 16 games, but one that gave up 54 completions of 20-plus yards. There were six between 55 and 80 yards, nine between 40 and 46 yards, nine between 31 and 39 yards, 30 between 20 and 29 yards.

The secondary deserved a slice of the blame for this kind of big-play damage, but pass defense begins with the rush.

Which poses such questions: How much impact will Sedrick Ellis and Bobby McCray make? Will Charles Grant live up to his multimillion-dollar salary? Will incoming linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Dan Morgan help buttress a suspect area?

Will new faces Randall Gay and Aaron Glenn do the same in the secondary?

So we wait. We wait for a number of things.

We wait to see if folks like Vilma and Morgan and Gay can overcome injuries that made them expendable.

We wait to see if their second-round pick, cornerback Tracy Porter, plays to his drafting status.

We wait to see if the 2008 draft, when graded, will be somewhat closer to 2006 (which gave starters Reggie Bush, Roman Harper, Jahri Evans and Marques Colston) than to 2007 (that gave us the only No. 1 pick that spent his rookie season as a spectator).

So sit back and enjoy the wait.


It's wait-and-see for Saints defense- NOLA.com

I Live In Beastmode!

saintsrule

Atleast they tried to improve the defense, like everyone wanted. Hopefully they did good, and the defense will help the offense this season.

freakmech

On paper im already seeing alot of improvement on D. But ill be honest and say, considering our great draft IMHO, think its still going to be up to coaching. Slotting all these new arrivals into the D will be key. Vilma im really excited about. Porter im really, really excited about, this guy could potentally shut off a receiver each down. Ellis looks the works but we still need line cohesiveness for big improvement, he needs to gel to be effective. The rest have there ups and downs. Coaching needs to make this work, and if it does, well our 30 points a game might start putting up W's instead of L's. Im really excited about this draft though, theres no hype this year. Just solid, good effort in the draft. Why must we endure baseball for another 3 months? Loving my Saints alot right now after a very heartbreaking year. Hope others feel me....

Dont buy it, Build it!

Euphoria

KEY WORDS - "The secondary deserved a slice of the blame for this kind of big-play damage, but pass defense begins with the rush."

This is what I have been saying all year and go so much crap for here about it... glad to see everyone onboard with this now.