Mitch King waived by Saints...
 

Adam Caplan‏@caplannfl

The #Saints waived DT Mitch King late this week. He passed through waivers, so he's free to sign with another team.

Bummer :(

That sucks, he has a lot of heart and played hard in pre-season last year. Deezam!!!

We need the cream of the crop. Good luck to him and thank you.

It was always a long shot for him to make this team with Ayodele coming back and him not really having the size to be a formidable DT. He might be better suited to being an OLB in a 3-4 system, and he did play LB in HS.

Miller is still on the roster, and it will be a battle for him as well, but he might make it if he has improved on his mobility from last year - regardless, he does have the size unlike King.

i like mitch king...but i never understood the mitch king craze when he had a few good plays against the 4th stringers. all year people were begging for mitch king to get in. he obviously didnt have something...

Miller as well. Not impressed.

I was pretty high on Tom Johnson though.

I liked Mitch King but I put my full trust in Spags and Vitt. Who knows, maybe he had an injury we didn't know about.

He's a great example of great talent, high motor and off the charts enthusiasm, but just not NFL measurables.

If Jonathan Sullivan had half this kid's motor he'd still be makling NFL pro-bowls today.

I'm 100% sure that Mitch will be a success in just about any career path he decides to take after football.

I was - correction - am also high on TJ, as you very well know. And I think (hope) that he might really deliver this season in Spags' schemes, along with Spags' guidance and tutelage.

GW's schemes weren't all that good for the front 4, at least that's what certain D-lineman have said now that he has departed (f.e. Gallette), so it might be that we'll see a lot more out of the DTs in general along with the DEs this season. Gallette said that GW's front 4 schemes were (overtly) complicated, and that might very well have caused problems for Johnson because of his situation coming into the season.

Johnson had a problematic season in 2011, because he was still fresh out of the CFL having had signed with the Saints in March of 2011 if I remember correctly. Then with the shortened offseason, he really didn't have the opportunity to have enough reps to be fully acclimated into the NFL way of things, IMO.

Still, he did look really good in that SF preseason game with nice bursts of speed, penetration and pursuit. And this was against the first string 49ers guys during the first quarter. Unfortunately, he suffered a hamstring injury 3 minutes into the 2nd quarter, which caused him to miss the rest of the preseason and the first quarter of the regular season.

I do remember reading statements during the latter part of the season where the coaches said that they were pleased with the effort and progress they were seeing out of Johnson, so now with a full offseason and a NFL season under his belt he might be a big contributor in the D-line this coming season.



As for Miller, if he has improved on his mobility and shed a couple of pounds, he might be someone they could use in certain situations. We have to remember that since both Rogers and Franklin are gone, the Saints don't really have a 3-4 NT type of a guy to anchor the interior of the line against penetration.

Now, I don't know if the Saints have a need for that type of a player, but only Hicks would be bigger in stature than Miller, and big guys in the middle are nice to have on goal line stances and 4th and 1 situations.

Of course it is doubtful that the Saints will have room for more than 5 DTs on their active roster, but if an injury opens up a roster spot - Miller might get his chance if he is able to have a good offseason and impress the coaches of his ability to contribute.