GumboBC

Join Eric Asher and Justin Gutierrez tonight on AM 690 WTIX's Sportswrap as Mike Detillier and USA Today Football Weekly's John Czarnecki appear as guest on our program in the 8:00 P.M. hour. We will discuss various topics regarding the Saints and other happenings around the league as training camp is less than a month away. For you Hornet and NBA fans, New Orleans Hornets GM Allan Bristow and play by play announcer Bob Licht will be our guest in the 7:00 P.M. hour.

Program Lineup:
7:15 P.M.--Allan Bristow
7:30 P.M.--Bob Licht
8:04 P.M.--John Czarnecki
8:30 P.M.--Mike Detillier
9:04 P.M.--Cox sports' Ro Brown

The program can be heard on AM 690 WTIX New Olreans and over the Internet at : http://www.wtix690.com/

GumboBC

Here\'s the recap for you folks that missed the show.

Mike D:

-Player of McKenzie\'s caliber doesn\'t come along very often. Thinks Packers would love to deal him if they can get a 1st and 5th, but no one\'s offered more than a 2nd. They don\'t want to be forced to trade a disgruntled player every time he whines. Thinks if McKenzie\'s traded, it will be later in camp.

-Saints have money for McKenzie, but the asking price is much to high compensation-wise. He\'s a good football player, but not an upper-echelon corner in this league.

-If Mckenzie were to come to the Saints in September, he could make an immediate impact. Whoever acquired McKenzie, if he\'s dealt, will see him make an impact. He\'s big, loves bump-and-run. Not very speedy, but he\'s also not benefitted from having a good pass rush in front of him.

-If the Saints thought he\'d be a problem attitude-wise, they wouldn\'t have made an offer for him. Also, if he were such a problem, the Pack would have definitely traded him for a second.

-Mike thinks the Saints biggest problem would be if Thomas or Craft goes down, and you have to start a Brown or Ambrose.

-He\'s never concerned about too much depth (i.e. Saints D-Line). Players always get hurt, and teams are always looking to get D-Linemen or WR or secondary players because they\'re so valuable.

-Thinks the Pack would be looking for a D-Line guy if anything.

-Doesn\'t think Eric Kelly would have done much for the Saints CB problems. Vikings aren\'t exactly great at CB, so for them to get rid of Kelly, he either must be a real problem or not very good. Mike would have passed on him, and Houston\'s just trying to build some depth.

-Dyson\'s had some injury problems, but he\'s been a good player. Mike would be leery of dealing with clubs like Philly or Tennessee, because they are so good with personnel and if they\'re looking to trade someone, he\'d think something must be fishy.

-MLB: Thinks Ruff will be the guy early on, then later you\'ll see the combo of grant and watson.

-Big fear at MLB and even CB is getting players over \"shock and awe\" syndrome. Can they get over the shock and awe of the NFL. Parcells and Belichick are good at that. Thinks Grant and Watson need to get over that, but if and when they do they could do big things. He thinks Watson could win the MLB job by the end of the year.

-Thinks big battle at WR will be between Crowell and Gardner for number-6. Will keep Devery, Michael Lewis, Pathon, Stallworth, and Horn. Derrick Lewis could emerge. Thinks injuries will ultimately tell the tale at WR. Thinks Crowell will be tough to let go if he\'s healthy.

-Doesnt think the offense will be all that much different this year, just a little TE, FB movement.

-Thinks Mike Karney will be the guy at FB, and you will see FB in offense 30-35 % of the time.

-Thinks the new offense, with Karney in backfield and more of 2 TE\'s at other times, will help McAllister in the long run. It\'ll take some getting used to, but he thinks it will help.

-Thinks having 2 TE\'s with the ability to catch the ball could cause a BUNCH of mismatches (i.e. Indy with Dallas Clark and Marcus Pollard). Thinks it will help Deuce because teams can\'t just key in on him.

-Unlike Terrelle Smith, Karney is a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield. Mike thinks very highly of Karney.

-Thinks Devery will struggle at first. He needs a lot of work on fundamentals, but he\'ll catch on eventually.

-Thinks Will Smith will do well. It\'s easier to do well as a DE than a DT, because you can be a one-trick pony (pass rush). He\'ll be HUGE late in the game, giving you the ability to give guys a breather. When you\'re going after backs like Stephen Davis, Ladanian Tomlinson, etc. in today\'s NFL, you need a good rotation of D-Linemen.

-If this team is to get better, it needs to be in the middle on D. If Young and Sullivan make an impact, the team can do well. The achilles\' heel of this team has NOT been the CB\'s, it\'s been the inability to stop the run. That\'s what the team needs to do in order to win.

-Thinks the Pats will keep Rohan Davey for this year. They\'ve been fortunate that Brady\'s been healthy, but one play can drastically alter a season. Thinks Rohan\'s situation will be very similar to Philly\'s with AJ Feeley. If the Eagles got a 2nd-rounder for Philly, then the Pats should be able to get something similar for Davey later on. Davey not only has talent, but he\'s a great leader. The 49ers have always been a team that builds around a QB. He thinks San Fran should make every opportunity to bring Davey in. He\'d fit very well with that offense, they have a lot of young receivers, and that team needs a leader. He thinks if they have trouble at QB, they should make a run at Rohan in 2005.

GumboBC

John Czarnecki:
-Thinks the Packers will stick to their asking price of a number-1 for Mckenzie. Thinks he\'s probably not worth it. Says he\'s a good players, but not worth a number-1.

-Says a number-1 from the Saints could be a mid-1st round pick, so definitely not worth it.

-Thinks the Saints CB\'s may be okay if they can get pressure on the QB. Says Vick\'s really the only QB in the division to fear.

-Thinks NFC East is a tougher division than the South, but would rate the South second. No holes in the division top to bottom.

-Carolina\'s rock solid.

-Whole league\'s curious to how Vick adapts to West Coast offense. He thinks Vick will struggle with WCO, and thinks it makes them a .500 team.

-Not convinced Tampa has total faith in Gruden.

-Thinks Saints are a .500 team. Could win 9-10 if they get really hot.

-Having the right coach in the NFL is huge since FA and salary cap were put into place. That\'s why there\'s been so much coach changeover, it\'s easier to fire coaches then overhaul entire teams.

-John Fox is a good coach, but just as important is how excellent their overall staff is. Says Kitty Kats have best overall coaching staff in conference.

-Says 25 teams in NFL have legit chance to go to Super Bowl.

-Thinks Haslett is in middle of the pack as far as NFL coaches go. Thinks Delhomme is a good example of a guy Haslett didn\'t think could play well, but he went to Carolina with great coaches, and he excelled.

-Saw Delhomme in camp, but was told by Saints coaches he couldn\'t play. Thinks that goes in Haslett\'s \"minus column\" as a coach.

-Thinks Orlando Pace will be only high-priced camp no show to arrive at camp. Thinks these guys are making so much money, they should just show up for work. But all these guys want huge signing bonuses.

-Ravens will never get rid of Chris McAllister. He\'s probably the best CB in the league. Ravens are going to win with defense, if they ever get an offense they\'ll go far in the playoffs.

-Dale Carter\'s nailed down nickel back spot in Baltimore. Haslett always though Carter had some ability. Was as good as any CB in league five years ago. With all this said, minicamp and training camp mean nothing. We\'ll see in September.

-Thinks Julius Jones could make an impact in Dallas just because of Parcells\' commitment to running the ball.

-Thinks Rivers could make an impact in San Diego. Says Giants are really rolling the dice on Manning.

-Thinks Steven Jackson could do really well in St. Louis. Dallas was supposedly very concerned about his knee, and that\'s a reason why they passed on him.

-Detroit has great WR corps, but they\'re young. Fear in Detroit is that Joey Harrington had better step up. They\'re somewhat worried about him. Downside in Detroit is defense, but if it improves, they could make an impact.

-Terrell Suggs fell into a great situation in Baltimore, because he gets a lot of 1-on-1 blocking. Thinks he\'ll have to develop more moves, but he should still get 10 sacks, 15 would be a great year.

-Will Smith will make an impact for the Saints if Howard and Grant step up. The more attention those guys grab, the more impact Smith can make.

-Thinks Wilfork will be a really good player.

-Saints just need their own guys to step forward and play well. Saints just decided they\'d rather have quickness than Wilfork in the middle.

WhoDat

Uh-Oh.

GumboBC

As tempting as it is, WhoDat, I ain\'t taking the bait......