Boccal

While this is only my first post i have been reading the forum for a few months..

As for the saints draft, we all know that no matter what we think they are going to do they are not going to do it. Tom Benson is not going to shell out the money to make the franchise into the team it needs to be to win a championship. I have watched and been a saints fan as far back as I can remember, and attend several games a year.. I will be offended as a fan if they don't take a Lb or CB or even trade up to get Hall or Robinson in the first round. Now to the point...(takes me awhile) what about taking Boulware and moving him to safety, there are several picks at CB who could be solid players what about Matt Ware, Will Poole, Ahmad Carroll, and there are a few others and maybe Bob Sanders at saftey. The draft this year is so packed with players that can be solid maybe not superstars but really Carolina didn't really have a lot of big names just people that did there jobs. When FA was about to start we were all hopeful at the possibilities and nothing happend but to let a good full back get away.

[Edited on 4/8/2004 by pakowitz]

Halo

Welcome Boccal!!!

JKool

Welcome Boccal.

Here is your initiation with a couple of questions:

1. You said \"Tom Benson is not going to shell out the money to make the franchise into the team it needs to be to win a championship.\" Do you really think that this franchise cannot win the Championship until it gets a new owner? Presumably, you think that there is some other way to build Championship team other than with money. Is this, then, an explanation as to why the Saints don\'t spend more money in FA (banking on the cheaper, but unproven, players in the draft? If you are arguing this last point, then I think that is an explanation, but if you are saying the former, I don\'t think I really know what you\'re getting at.

2. Are you suggesting that we need a safety because we don\'t have guys who do their job at that postion? Or are you merely suggesting that we had better draft a Corner, even if there isn\'t a \"flashy\" one available?

Cheers.

"... I was beating them with my eyes the whole game..." - Aaron Brooks

Danno

Welcome Boccal, it appears we heave several new guys on the board.
This is a pretty clean board, not much cursing, or insults toward other members.
Its a bit more mature than some of the other forums you\'ll find.
Plenty of knowledgeable guys with strong opinions.

BTTT:
1. Benson isn\'t cheap. I\'ve addressed this before and I\'ve been paying attention to it for several years.
We are consistently middle of the NFL pack is player salaries, and last year we were #1. I\'ve only been paying attention for about 3 or 4 years though. Maybe the years before he developed a reputation and hasn\'t been able to shake it.
2. I am absloutely positive of this. We will draft a LB and a CB (or 2) this year or it will be obvious to all that this FO is clueless.
There are some true safeties in this draft that can be had with a late rounder. I expect a 2nd day pick on a SS/FS. We may even acquire a 4th somehow.
Mel Mitchell is a wildcard right now, and there is NO ONE behind Jones that doesn\'t scare me.
Harper appears to be an interesting prospect. He looked good at times last year, but also looked lost at times. I doubt he\'s ready yet.
3. I totally disagree that the only thing we did in FA was let a good FB get away.

1. We signed the consumate role player at DT. A perfect fit for theis developing D-line. They drafted Sully to be a 2-gapper and now he is. Bryant is a pefect DT for the 3 technique.
2. We signed a FB with every bit the skills T-rex had. He\'s just older.
3. We signed a former stud WR who appears to be fully recovered. If so he\'ll be an excellent 4th WR and could easily fill in a few starts if one of our WR\'s goes down.
4. We signed a solid OG, which will allow Bentley to move to center and Holland and Jacox/Nesbit to play guards. Our interior line just shot up the power scale. 3rd and one will be much easier now.
5. We signed a fantastic back-up to Deuce. He can take 7-10 snaps a game which will prevent Deuce from wearing out. I don\'t want Deuce to become our Earl Campbell. Stecker is also a ST demon. It just wasn\'t a sexy signing.
The only thing we didn\'t do was sign a CB/LB. Just because we didn\'t doesn\'t mean we didn\'t do anything. We just didn\'t address them, YET. I\'m disappointed we didn\'t sign a CB or LB, but I\'m glad we didn\'t pay a B corner A-plus money.
We did address both positions last year, just not with the players we all hoped for.

Boccal

Alright here we go...this is for you Jkool

By saying Tom Benson was cheap, I mean he and the front office always seem to try and do the same thing that the raiders are doing, going with older players that ARE past there prime and them pay less thinking that they may have one or two good years left.. (ex. Dale Carter never would have lived up to his hype and his career his over)Signing Sam Gash is an move that i feel we will regret, I will be surprised If he makes it through the season. Tom is a car sales man and runs the saints with the same mentality. Instead of taking the time and effort trying make the Voodoo into a contender. So to answer it simply after 20 years of ownership and only 1 playoff victory, I think we could use a new owner, some fresh blood to chase after.

And no I\'m not saying that it doesn\'t take money to win, it does and lots of it, but at the same time do you think that we could just get some people that actually could and wanted to play. Like just say Right now or LB aren\'t that great what about Ian Gold he is better than what we have and can be a solid play all the time not for just one or two plays.

And about the saftey question: Think of how good we would be at the safty position if we still had Sammy Knight and Tbuc that position would be set. And no I\'m not saying that we should draft a corner no matter who it is. What I am saying is that if we can trde up to get either Hall or Robinson for a reasonable price then we should. If not we should take the best available LB and then Look to CB.

Boccal

Thanks for the welcome Danno I\'m glad that this is a mature group that can handle differences of opinions. (Is that correct grammer). There are a few points that you replied to that I agree with you on and the of course those that I disagree on.

1. No matter whats said Tom Benson is cheap
2.Would you have traded T-Rex for Sam Gash?
3. WR at the number 4 spot are a dime a dozen
4. OG I\'m glad that we added some depth
5.If Stecker turns out to be a good back thats great...I hope he will boost the ST
6. DT I am happy with that move..Good player to add that DOES THE JOB HE IS PAID TO DO.

with the whole CB and LB in FA there were some good soild young corners that we could have made an offer on and tried to land for reasonable price. Still Ian Gold sits out there (which is good)that we could make an offer to. So I have been watching the saints since the day Tom Benson bought them Its time for a change.

frankeefrank

Boc-

Would you ahve traded T-Rex for Bryan Johnson...
The Saints wanted to, just sometimes plans don\'t work out.

Boccal

frankeefrank

If its not broke don\'t fix it...The run game for the saints was fine

Cadillac

Boccal, I gotta disagree with you on that one, I think the running game did need some fixing for this year.

Yeah, Deuce put up huge numbers and had a great season, but it seemed that an awful lot of the time our O was unable to convert 3rd and 1s.... or 4th and inches.

Not converting these plays reflects on our interior line and fullback, not on Deuce.

Having a fullback like Bryan Johnson, who can run, block and catch would of helped to freeze up the D, and convert these plays. Defence, without hesitation, were able to key in on T-Rex last year, because they knew he was solely a lead blocker.

Unfortunately, we weren\'t able to get Bryan Johnson. Luckily though, we had already signed Sam Gash as insurance, and the fullback position wasn\'t significantly downgraded.

So while our run game certainly didn\'t need a serious overhaul, you can\'t be upset because the FO tried to fine tune it a bit.

[Edited on 7/4/2004 by Cadillac]

\'They want to give me $6 million. What do I do? - Fred Thomas

Danno

We were terrible in short yardage. O-line or FB. I\'ve heard arguments for both.
We had no goal line back(FB) to save wear & tear on the franchise.
We had no FB to catch and run with the dump-off.
Our FB didn\'t play ST
Our FB has a bad back that could go any minute.
2003 was the 1st year Smith wasn\'t mentioned as a position to upgrade. If he was so great, how come we tried to replace him in 2000 with Norris?
If losing a \"B-plus\" one-dimensional fullback actually hurts this team in 2004, we have much bigger problems than I care to mention.
I\'ll take 1 Fred Beasley for every 5 T-Rex\'s