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Quote:

Originally Posted by blackangold (Post 377675)

In the thread "your spags fix our D" I gave my projected 2012 roster for starting D. I'd like to hear what you would disagree with.

There are a few things I kept in mind. First, re-signing the big three will eat most if not all of the cap space we have which will limit the ability to sign the big name FA. Second, I trust Loomis, look at the UDFA on offense he was able to get (Colston, Nicks, Evans, PT) and make into very productive players because of his ability to find the diamond in the rough. We have the diamonds on the defensive side of the ball, however they are still stuck in the rough because of a DC who played to complex and failed to teach fundamentals of the game. Spags will come in and realize he has a plethora of talent to work with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackangold (Post 377496)

Starting D for 2012 season (current roster)
DE Gallete
DT Johnson/Jorden
NT Franklin
DE Romeus (if healthy) McBride (if not)

WLB Casillas
MLB Vilma
SLB Wilson

CB Greer
SS Harper
FS Jenkins
CB Robinson

NB Patrick

Cut Shanle, Ellis and Smith--don't re-sign Porter or Rodgers. Use FA or draft to get depth at DT

Ok. I guess this was what you were referring to...

First of all, all the money lost down the drain with cutting Shanle, Ellis, and Smith is really not an ideal move, and I'm pretty confident that the Saints' FO won't do that.

I say keep all three - Shanle as a backup for one more year at $2M, Ellis plays out his contract at $6M and has hopefully a career year on a contract year, Smith's contract gets restructured and he returns hopefully with a deal worth about $4-5M/year. If somebody from that 3 is to be cut, it would be Shanle as it will be the smallest of the hits.

I doubt that Romeus will be a starter on day 1 - if I had to choose from the guys they have at the moment it would be Smith & Jordan on the ends and Gallette & Romeus in the rotation. You have to remember that Jordan might improve vastly during this off-season with full OTAs and camps, which he didn't have this past off-season - he is after all the 1st round pick, and I have to believe that the scouts and the FO saw something in him what impressed them.

Franklin and Johnson at DT could work, but I would seriously think about an upgrade there - no matter how much I like Johnson, I think he is better suited to being a rotational guy and not a day 1 starter. Of course that could change with the full off-season and Spags at the reigns, but that is all very uncertain at this point in time. Franklin wasn't very impressive, but like I have already stated on numerous other threads I wouldn't be against seeing him return, especially with a cheap contract.

I would say that the Saints need to acquire a big time DT to start in front of Franklin, then Franklin could sub in for this "Mr. QB pressure" on running downs etc. I don't think that the pair of Franklin and Johnson will be able to create the pressure and push we are all hoping for and, therefore, I can't agree with that line-up. Jordan is a DE and while I think that Spags might use him more lining up at center, that is only because he has done it before with DEs - lining even four of them on the front four.

While I love both Casillas and Wilson, I really hope that they are able to bring in a big time OLB. Casillas has a tendency to get hurt, so I don't know if they can really expect him to start the whole season long. M. Williams would certainly make that LB line-up look a lot more menacing.

But, on the secondary I completely agree with your line-up! :-D

It's really hard to make estimates at this point in time on how the roster will develop through the FA period and the draft, but I do hope that they are going to bring in at least a good to great DT, OLB, and a DE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinSaint (Post 377598)

And that statement, my friend, is just completely untrue. Of course a player's size means something and often quite a bit depending on the particular position we are considering. To say that it doesn't mean anything is just ridiculous. How many 5-11 DTs are there in the NFL?

Of course being under-sized has it's limits at certain positions. You surely wouldn't start a 5'10" 240 lbs. DT. That's a given. There are many, though, that are considered under-sized at their positions that excell. There are also many "prototypes" that are busts. As Saints fans, we have seen that right here at home time & time again. As mentioned previously, it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. Gallette has proven every time he's seen the field that he can play every bit as well (better IMO) than our $68 million starter at DE. Under-sized or not, the guy deserves a shot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gandhi1007 (Post 377711)

I was only answering back to your claim that "a player's size doesn't mean squat," but maybe I'm just poor at reading sub-text.

And once again, I never intended to start a debate on whether or not Gallette was a good DE or if he could develop into a good to great DE that was based simply on his size. I was only mentioning it being an obstacle he had to overcome and something that might be causing some of the problems he had defending against the run, which the original article mentioned.

I was only trying to play the devil's advocate in this thread, because there's so much fan love directed at Gallette that it seems that we don't always evaluate him with objectivity. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm done with this topic.

just read this post, and yes I'm for one one can not wait to see what spags can do with him this year. Also with greg romeus!