whowatches

Ouch.

You guys act lack people who question the moves/lack of moves are Falcons fans or something.

We have no depth at running back. We have a pro bowl starter, but we all saw the effects of his injury to the team last year. Therefore, finding a backup running back should have been a priority during the entire off season rather than something we\'re scrambling to address six days before the opening of the season.

Billy, you said that a new running back would have plenty of time to learn the system. Wasn\'t that the problem with Keaton last year? The system was too complicated, and he couldn\'t learn it fast enough to be productive. Was that a lie? Does that simply show that the staff couldn\'t adequately measure his talent quickly enough? I don\'t know.

At linebacker, we have no impact player or even a player that would be guaranteed to start on another team. Why is it so bad to be upset with team management for not adding quality players to this position?

FWtex

If I could turn off 3/4 of my brain I may be able to argue with your logic.


I would wait until after week 3 to see who is going to look foolish. With SEA injury situation the saints had better roll on them. If they don\'t roll on Houston then you may call it a let down.

Week 3 should be the first true test and by that time and there after should be no freakin excuses for anything. I don\'t want to hear about injuries and a bunch of IFs. Tenn, Ind, and Car. will tell us if the second half of last year was a fluke or if this team has problems with its direction. I see 3-6 or 4-5 record at the bye.

Where ya\'ll at at the bye? put it down.

[Edited on 1/9/2003 by FWtex]

BillyCarpenter1

Let me see if I got this straight. The Seahawks have a cornerback and an OT hurt and you think the \" Saints had better roll on them.\" Yet, last year we have Duece, Aaron, Stallworth, and Paython injuried and you think the Saints coahes are at fault. Shouldn\'t Mike Holgren have addressed the weak areaa of his team in the offseason so fans like yourself couldn\'t make excuses for the Seahawks if they lost to the Saints. I mean they knew what the weak areas of the Seahawks were before the first game on the season. Did they not?

Another thing. How can the Saints even have a chance of beating the Seahawks? We have a head coach who is no good. The worst D coordinator in the NFL. We have a secondary that wouldn\'t be in the NFL if not for the Saints. We have no back-up running back.

FWtex -- How you gonna make excuses for the Seahawks injuries and overlook the fact that the Saints had injuries at the key positons on offense. You might not be a hater but .................. No - I can\'t let you off -- YOU ARE A HATER.

[Edited on 1/9/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

subguy

Tex, don\'t bother. I have been down this tired road with Billy before. As has WhoDat and a few other\'s. I want the best for the team also, however I am a realist not attending a tea party with a Mad Hatter and watching a hooka smoking catepillar.

[Edited on 2/9/2003 by subguy]

BillyCarpenter1

I\'m offened by that. JoeSam I request that that last post by Subguy be edited. I am a born again poster and I do not wish to be insulted. Can anyone feel my pain?

By the way if you\'re going to insult me make sure I can understand the insults.

What is a hatter? And what is a smoking caterpillar???



[Edited on 2/9/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

rusta

hell tex you have it all figured out, why are you even going to watch the games?

i can\'t believe you guys, the \'evil empire\' (as you see the saints organization) thought they had depth at RB in keaton, they thought or maybe he convinced them that his problem was lack of experience in the system, well guess what? maybe keaton just sucked, so they picked a dud and no other team in the nfl has done that right?

DL well i would consider 2 new starters (that would be 50% or half if you can\'t figure the math) a drastic change, grant was a rookie and only started like the last 6 games, couple him with A FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK and yeah it\'s a new line with a good upside

safety wasn\'t an issue until we lost our starter, \'but they should have planned for injury\' yeah and we should plan for injuries at all 22 starting spots, since math isn\'t your strong suit i\'ll explain it for you, they have this little thing called a SALARY CAP, ask tenn about it, oh wait they have no depth at QB they must a part of the \'evil empire\' too

tex you don\'t see any improvement from last year? well we started 7-1 and missed the playoffs by a game due to injuries last year so why are you so worried?

i don\'t understand how this happened everyone here seemed sane going into the preseason, then even though no one believes the preseason means anything you all took a double shot of haterade and we\'re going to go 2-14 because has is secretly darth vader and AB is the red faced horny dude(not much of a star wars fan sorry)

i can\'t believe it but i\'m standing with billy on this one, saintfan and tweeky too seem to have maintained sanity

rusta

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


THERE I FEEL BETTER

WhoDat

I didn\'t read much of this, but let me say that I agree mostly with what FW is saying.

Of course we won\'t know really for about 8 weeks, but right now I most agree.

QB - Brooks can be great if he comes together. He COULD also be a flop. We don\'t know yet. The fact that a number of analysts are still writing stories saying that his arm could be a problem worries me. The questions now about him are the same they were last season at this time. Will he start using his feet for us again - can he improve his efficiency - is he smart enough to be great or just really athletic.... plus, now you have to wonder about his arm and leadership ability - thing I wasn\'t worried about this time last year.

RB - Deuce is the best player on our team hands down. If the man goes down, our season is absolutely sunk. That\'s VERY scary. We went into off-season needing a back-up. We came out needing a back-up - worse actually b/c now we\'re going with Fenderson, who was a third stringer last season.

WR - Should be awesome... SHOULD be. Horn is rock-solid - but some even on this board (GATOR) wonder when he is going to start showing signs of age. Not this year if you ask me, but it is a concern you have to consider. Dante SHOULD be a stud if he doesn\'t hurt his hammies... oops, too late. Pathon, great third guy.

TE - Who knows. The fact that the guy we\'re talking about most is a guy we were wondering about making the team is scary. I think Conwell will step it up and be very good for us. That\'s an improvement.

OL - worse. Period. Bentley is a stud, but Gandy is NOT the LT Turley is. The only hope is that Turley truly was a HUGE distractions and really did hamper the offense last season. Otherwise, expect to see even more Brooks backpeddling and possibly our fourth LT in four years next season. I like Gandy from what I know of him as a guy, but he\'s not as talented as Turley.

DL - We\'ll see. Big question marks. If Sullivan steps up, and Jackson keeps his weight down and plays like he is capable of, then we should be OK - again assuming Grant and Howard can stay healthy - something that is catastrophic if they can\'t. There SHOULD be improvement here, but we haven\'t seen it yet.

LBs - Echo? Big question marks. Rodgers is the most talented guy on the team and has the potential to be a bona fide force on the outside. Smith is a great leader, but an average LB at best. Allen/Hodge - who knows. Hopefully one will step up - again, it\'s a question mark. We\'ll see - Rodgers is an improvement, but I think we got worse at MLB and the other OLB spot is very questionable. It\'s a scratch to me right now.

CBs - Too many ifs for a bunch of 30+ year olds. If Carter can return to form, AND/OR Ambrose can be the player he was, not the one he seems to be, AND/OR Thomas can continue to play like a starter in the nickel spot, AND/OR none of them get hurt, AND/OR they gel... if if if if if if if if.... No improvement here.

S - Tebucky SHOULD be an upgrade. Bellamy is no worse b/c he was the starter last season. This is also a scratch b/c while the safety position seems more athletic they also seem to have big communication problems. The fact that they have to gel is concerning. What looked like it was the biggest area of improvement now seems like a scratch.

Over all I won\'t argue with anyone that looks at this optimistically and says that we got better as a team. HOWEVER, I don\'t think we got better enough to make a noticable difference. I just don\'t see anything on the defensive side of the ball that says to me - oh yeah, right there, that\'s a major upgrade. We needed that in a few positions and I don\'t think we got it.

I won\'t go so far as to say this off-season was a failure. However, with our great cap position going into the off-season, if this team (mainly the D) isn\'t drastically improved I will be upset.

\"Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s all anyone ever makes for the New Orleans Saints’ organization.\" - Eric Narcisse


\"Being a Saints fan is almost like being addicted to crack,\" he said.[i]\"You know you should stop, but you just can\'t.\"

FWtex

hmmmm?? from what I am reading billy it sounds like you are kinda blowing your own argument. LOL

For the record, I have NEVER said injuries do not play a role in a teams success or failure. I have said over and over and over that injuries were used as an excuse for the saints last year and that even with the injury problems they had they should not have had the collapse at the end of the year.

You on the other hand have used the injuries as the be all excuse for the collapse.

I am going to give you a bone here billy. I am seriously leaning on going away from my comment that the saints should roll on SEA becasue of there injuries. After reading more from both sides I think it will be best to wait until thursdays injury report to come out. The saints appear to be holding back on the health of a few players that may make me pick SEA.

Before you start in on your ridiculous injury logic ... stop. Injuries are part of the freakin game. you adjust to what you have and move on. The rams, NE and denver all had major injuries and they went on to win superbowls. How did they do that?

Rusta, sounds like you are trying to tell me you have it figured out. gotta feel kinda foolish calling the kettle black huh?

How many times have I read on this one thread that the saints missed the playoffs by one game. Guess what wether it is by one game or 15 games they still missed the freakin playoffs. I guess in your mind last year was a success becasue they missed by one game?