pakowitz

actually, howards signing is a good thing, if he had not signed, then he would not be able to participate in all team meeting and mini camps until june 15th... and this also allows for the saints and howard to talk about adding an extension to that one year deal

Chuck

This whole \"the saints are just letting another quality player go\" crap is getting old, I mean the saints franchised the guy, got him to sign a one year contract worth 6.5 million dollars. I mean how much do you pay him, and this is coming off a year where he was injured. Plus with free agency these days contracts mean nothing ! if a player wants to go , he gets to go.

Don\'t forget. The nfl is not filled with loyal Tillman\'s , those guys are a rarity.

[Edited on 5/5/2004 by Chuck]

coastalkid

PAK brought up a very good point. One I had not considered and he may be right. This signing to a one year deal may be just the start and enable him to participate in drills and so forth all the while they are still negotiating for a longer term deal.....Doesn\'t sound much like the Saints organization that I love so dearly but it sounded good enough to hope for. If they sign him to a long term contract and not allow him to walk after this year I will be pleased.........That\'s not what I would bet is gonna hapen though!

FrenzyFan

That\'s optimism I can latch on to. Here\'s to hoping that this signing is not the signal of the end of Howard\'s tenure in N.O., rather just a method to get him started at the camps. I would truly hate to lose this guy. Watching him make a sack the first game back with a cast on his arm was amazing. Do you know how much DE\'s rely on their hands? To make that play showed me was he was all about.

The nightmare is him signing with Tampa, Carolina, or Atlanta and watching him tear Brooks apart. Placing a guy with his speed against our LT (Gandy) = sacks and fumbles. I need some Advil....

\"The AB brand of TP will hurt your O-ring.\" - BlackandBlue

http://www.darrylbercegeay.com/wsmith1.jpg

WhoDat

Honestly, the best possible thing that could happen now is for Howard to go out and have a Pro Bowl season. He\'s already getting paid like a top 5 player. A Pro Bowl season may increase his price some, but I doubt it will increase all that much. Further, it will put the Saints in a tight spot.

Right now, they have the luxury of being able to say - \"He\'s a great player but he just hasn\'t been producing. He\'s oft injured and with Will, we have aguy we think can be great.\"

However, if Howard has a Pro Bowl season, the Saints can\'t say that. In essence, they are then put in the position of having to replace a Pro Bowler with a could-be. Considering that Haslett still calls the Glover move the ONE he wishes he could have back, I don\'t think they would be able to let another Pro Bowl D-linemen leave. Considering that since Haslett got here there have been three Pro Bowlers (at any time in their career) on the D line - Glover, Johnson, and Howard, and that the Saints have tried/played about 15 defensive linemen without Glover and Johnson and the D-line is STILL an area of concern, letting Howard walk would just not be an option for them - especially if this team hovers around 9-7 (Haslett could get canned for a move like that after another middle-of-the-road season).

So, bottom line - go Darren go.

\"Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s all anyone ever makes for the New Orleans Saints’ organization.\" - Eric Narcisse


\"Being a Saints fan is almost like being addicted to crack,\" he said.[i]\"You know you should stop, but you just can\'t.\"

coastalkid

Whodat is right on. I too hope Daren has the best year of any dlinmam in the history of the organization. We just can\'t let this guy go. Even if Smith turns out to be \"all that\" it doesn\'t hurt to have them both. Rotation and relief during the season and games is a plus. I am more concerned about the middle linebacker position more so than our DB\'s. We need a REAL man in the middle.......Sam Mills type of guy.

pakowitz

MIKE DETILLIER\'S FOOTBALL WORLD

Inking Howard important step for Saints


The real skill people in football are the big men in the trenches who can move and dominate at the point of attack.

When the New Orleans Saints signed defensive end Darren Howard to a one-year, $6.503 million-dollar contract last week, it marked a significant move in getting the Saints’ defense to make strides toward improving.

Years ago in an interview I did with former San Francisco 49ers coach and General Manager Bill Walsh, he told me that there are three major keys to winning in the NFL.

Walsh pointed out that a team needs a quarterback who can turn field-goal attempts into touchdowns, a strong defensive front seven that can stop the run and, most importantly, a steady pass rush in the fourth quarter.

Coming from an offensive genius, it was a bit surprising to see that he emphasized more on the defensive side of the ball than the offensive.

Last summer, Saints defensive coordinator Rick Venturi told me that the key to success for the team’s defense was for defensive ends Charles Grant and Darren Howard to have not only a good season, but a really strong season.

Those hopes were dashed in Week 1 when Howard went down with a dislocated right wrist. The Saints’ best defensive player missed the next eight games.

The Saints were a 4-5 club entering the morning of Nov. 16, and the defense had given up 205 points and opposing clubs were averaging 23 points per game against it.

Howard came back to finish the season and quickly made an impact in the final seven games. During that stretch, Howard racked up 25 tackles and five sacks, but it was his presence on the field that turned around the defense most.

In the final seven games, the team gave up only 121 points, an average of 17 points per game and it ended up winning four of those games.

Cutting six points off of an average per game is critical in the NFL and Howard was a huge part of that success.

Six million dollars a season is very rich, even in NFL circles, but getting Howard back is critical if the Saints are to become a respectable defense this season.

Now with Howard in the fold for another season and Grant, Kenny Smith, Willie Whitehead, Melvin Williams, Brian Young, Johnathan Sullivan (if he can get his weight down), Kendrick Allen and rookies Will Smith and Rodney Leisle on the roster, they give the Saints an opportunity to apply a steady pass rush throughout a game and especially in the fourth quarter, when games are won or lost.

Hopefully, the team’s ability to stop the run will improve once its young players get experience, get coached up by defensive line coach John Pease and become more forceful at the point of attack.

If the Saints make a marked improvement on defense, it will be where most good teams cut their teeth: up front by the \"real\" skilled people on defense.


want more? click here:



http://www.houmatoday.com/apps/pbcs..../1103/SPORTS02

[Edited on 5/10/2004 by pakowitz]

I Live In Beastmode!

WhoDat

Oops - missed a couple. Actually, I think we missed on all three!

Bise

I always like to read what Detillier says. He is sound in his observations and is correct more than he is wrong. Also, he has the positive spin most of the time for the Saints (glass is half full).

Is he a regular writer for the Houma paper?

pakowitz

yes