Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks
 

Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks


By SHELDON MICKELS
smickles@theadvocate.com
Advocate sportswriter

Nearly three weeks after ending the season with a 13-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys, the dust has all but settled on the New Orleans Saints' 2003 campaign.
But as second-year General Manager Mickey Loomis pointed out Wednesday, the autopsy is still being conducted on a team that finished a disappointing 8-8 and missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

Preliminary findings showed the Saints were the victims of many things in 2003: they led the NFL with 20 fumbles lost and were terribly inconsistent on offense, the defense gave up too many rushing yards, and they had numerous breakdowns on special teams. Pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball were also an all-too-common occurrence for Jim Haslett's club.

Each of those problems and many others will be analyzed over the next two weeks as the Saints front office and coaching staff, as they typically do at this time of the year, put the football operations under the microscope.

Loomis said the Saints will come up with a list of between 15 and 25 things that will need to be done as it relates to the team's personnel. He said that list contained 20 objectives last season and all were crossed off their list.

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Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks
 

Apparently securing a PROVEN player on defense under the age of 1,000 wasn\'t their concern. See, they didn\'t even want a big-name CB or MLB last year - what makes you guys think they want it this year? It\'s quotes like these that completely reinforce my belief that this coaching and administrative staff doesn\'t know what it needs to improve. They did everything they thought they needed to do to get better last season and they got worse! Yeah, I\'m real optimistic now.

Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks
 

As if you were ever optimistic before? Get real. You\'re a very unhappy fella and you always have been...or have you? Have you really always been this miserable?

Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks
 

I remember last year it was stated that 2004 was supposed to be deep in CB and LB in both free-agent and draft markets. The staff thought they could get by with what they had and land the stud LB and CB next year when there was plenty to chose from. Hence the Sullivan pick.
I know I personally posted that about 3 zillion times.
Now if they still don\'t land a stud LB and CB this year then I\'ll look pretty foolish.
But i think it was their plan all along. They just got bit by Carter/Mitchell issues in the secondary and...our linebackers, well our linebackers couldn\'t, I mean...
hell I don\'t know what the hell happened to our LB\'s.
Hodge didn\'t improve at all,
Allen regressed,
Grant stayed hurt (I think he gained too much weight too fast),
Smith aged faster than a dying vampire in the sunlight,
Rodgers played exactly as everyone thought, decent but nothing earth-shattering.
Ruff was the only LB that actually played above expectations (which were middle of the road at best).
Wow, its deja-vu again. Haven\'t I posted this before?

Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks
 

\"Smith aged faster than a dying vampire in the sunlight\"

So true. I about cried, I laughed so hard! :D

Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks
 

I don\'t know about the others, but I thought Hodge was showing good signs of improving during the preseason. Unfortunately, he got hurt. Maybe that slowed his progress down.

I completely agree that LB is one of most pressing areas of need. Of course, how could you not?

Mickles: Saints ready to get to work on offseason tasks
 

Where\'s the football talk here? See Joe, this is what I\'m talking about. The guy only posts responses to three members of this board - Billy, 08, and myself. Most of those post a riddled with personal attacks. Again, how is this board a better place now that he is back?