Clean house on "D"
 

With this idiotic crap going on, and our contract issues, we should totally clean house on "D" have a totally new and young group in there.

Then sign everybody you need to on ofrfense, give Brees what he wants keep nicks, Colston, the others.

Seriously with a very young ton of rookies on Defense, how much worse can it be compared to last two years?

Defensively they may end up being improved at the end of the year

Not a bad idea after all....

If we give brees what he wants we can't afford to bring in anyone new, could be saying see ya to colston or nicks, all those defensive additions we've been dreaming about will just be in our imagination
Team friendly deal, nice joke brees

Plus it will be hard to maintain a competitive team if big bad goodell has anything to say about suspensions etc

Was looking forward to this offseason because we had a chance to do something special and make this team incredible

The problem with just going with the young guys is that the Saints have some big deficiencies in certain defensive positions at the moment - mainly in the defensive front.

At the moment, the Saints have only 4 DEs under contract: Will Smith, Cameron Jordan, Junior Galette, and Greg Romeus. Apparently the Saints and Smith are engaged in contract re-structuring talks, so his price tag might come down quite a bit, but those negotiations might also go badly and who knows maybe Smith and the Saints choose to depart ways.

Jordan (22), Galette (23), and Romeus (23) would certainly constitute "going young," but I seriously doubt Spags would be satisfied with that grouping as the main DE core - especially since we still don't know what Romeus' status is health-wise.

The problem with the DE corps is that all the big time DE FAs were tagged by their respective teams: Campbell, Avril, and Mathis, so there aren't going to be any real upgrades to be had from that source - since I don't consider Abraham to be a valid option.

That means the Saints needs to look toward the draft to bolster that DE corps, but this year's DE class is very thin when it comes to potential year-1 starters, and the Saints might end up even losing some of their picks because of the Bountygate.

So, they are in a pickle, because they need to create more pass rush from the front 4, and Spags usually likes to have a multitude of defensive linemen in rotation for the variation of packages he likes to deploy during games.

Why completely re-vamp the defense if the main issues could have been problems with the scheme, injuries, and/or lack of off season? Let Spags do his evaluation and go from there. We're not in a rebuilding process and with a piece here and there, we could be just fine.

The Green Bay Packers defense were one of the worst in the league last year... should do completely re-vamp also? I don't think so.

I have kept silent about all this Bounty stuff. I remeber when football was a game of hard hit's and punishing defenses. Teams like the Ravens and Steelers play hard defenses, hit lots harder than any Saints have done and nothing is said or done. I know this bounty stuff has gone on for years,and it won't stop even in today's game.

In a time where players are worried about concussions, career ending injuries, and whatever else that may stop them from making millions of dollars. Maybe the NFL should become a flag football league. That seems to be the way they are heading. Seems like NFL wants teams to score 50+ points a game, because the fans like to see that. But some of us fans love to see hard hitting, knock your helmet off style of games as well.

This is Louisiana though, the land of crooked politians, corrupt cops, and now Bounty Hunting Saints, I guess we fit right in here now.

As I have studied alot of these so called hard hits, on oposing players I don't think I seen one penely flag thrown for a late, and or illegal hit , in any game. So even though there have been allegations of said bounties, and there probably was. I'm sure other teams have done the same thing. I
can see if a player gets hurt on a play from an illegal hit, that a player should be fined and suspended, but not for a play that never was flagged and, or a play that was never looked at by the commishoner,and fined.

All this is gonna do is make a defensive player think about how he can hit a RB,QB,WR. When that starts happening a defensive player will start getting hurt for not doing what he is taught instinctivly to do. I already see this happening with the WR's, on several plays last year. Hitting an WR while he can't defend himself.

THIS IS FOOTBALL DAMMIT, NOT SOCCER!!!!

As far as the defense goes, why did we over pay Will Smith? He has not been as good as he could have been and there are guys out there cheaper, and that can do a better job. Going young I don't know if that is the answer. Now with this bounty thing every hit we make will be under a microscope. Seems like the year we want the Saint's to play their best and be the first team to make a superbowl in there home city, all kinds of obstacles have been put in the way..

GEAUX SAINTS!!!!

I think we'll be fine with the current DE's.
The interior gutts need the upgrade.
We all expected more from Ellis...still do.
Franklin, Rogers, Taylor (I think) all had 1 year deals.
Smith did OK, and I think will do better if helped by some inside pressure.
Jordan was/is young and will get better with time.
I think if our front four can get an injection from some SB hungry vets,
we might be better this season. A better front four will only make the
second and 3rd level play much improved. Spagnuolo needs some dollars.
That ain't lookin too good.

I'm ok with "cleaning house," but there's a chance that we could have some of our draft picks taken away. We might not have any youngsters to bring in.

Youngsters are a dime a dozen.
Mitch "Momma's Boy" King, never really got a chance to show his stuff last season.
There's a host of wanna be's that may shake out as actually having what it takes.
Too much dust in the air right now though ... can't see a thing.

I'm all for cleaning house, but not because of this over-blown bounty crap.

I want better players.

With a new Defense Coaching Staff...

If you look around we have some young talent actually.

I think you have to let the smoke settle, see what suspensions are and who got them. I think that will be the tell. If there are average players at best and long suspensions... we pick up a replacement in FA and cut them. Otherwise we should avoid knee jerk reactions for now.

Great Point !

Could not have said it any better.

King will hardly be the answer to the interior pass rush.

Which FA DE would you like to see the Saints sign or do you think they should just re-sign McBride and Charleston, and hope that Spags gets more out of the same guys the Saints had last season?

Like Danno said, the Saints need better players while keeping those who have good value.



It had to be in-line with the earlier contract that was given to Charles Grant, which was a much worse overpayment than Smith's contract.

With 27 players named we don't have a choice but to expand our options.

I get what you are saying, and I totally agree. According to James Varney at the TImes Picayune, seven defenders now on the Saints' roster were consistent starters during the three seasons the NFL says the bounties were in place. So it's not looking good. This could be an extremely crazy season on defense. Right now we have absolutely no idea who is actually going to come running out the inflatable Saints tunnel in September when they announce the D.

BUT on the upside, there is every bit of evidence that a new coordinator with the relative same people/talent can produce an improvement. It happened with Gibbs in his first year here (NFC Championship game appearance). It happened with Williams in his first year here (Super Bowl win). Guys WILL play better for a new coach, knowing they are on the hot seat for their jobs (IF of course, they are allowed to play by the league and are not suspended). It happens that way everywhere around the league when a new coordinator comes in (San Francisco's D last year being a great example).

Maybe the defense's first play of the year should be a 15 yard unnecessary roughness just to make the statement that we are not going to play with kid gloves, it's still football. LOL

I've come to the conclusion that if we are going to take hits to our draft picks then we are going to have to part with some our over paid vets. Vilma will undoubtedly be singled out and may be gone for a variety of reasons.
Injuries
Bounty gate
Age
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