Danno

Where do you think we upgraded? Where do you think we downgraded?

Upgraded
DT- Gone are Franklin and Rogers. New arrivals look fast, aggressive and hungry! Hicks appears to be everything we expected, but the emergence of Walker was a pleasant surprise. Adding a young stud in Bunkley makes this the biggest unit upgrade of the year. IMO the best off-season move of this season.

DE- Galette has another year under his belt and looks more like a complete DE than ever before. Wilson started off on fire and tailed off, but I expect he’ll be in our 3rd packages a lot. A healthy McBride will give this unit some stability and depth. Cam Jordan looks like he’ll make that typical huge jump most 2nd year players make.

LB- Losing Vilma hurt, but replacing him with Lofton makes it a wash. Having Ruud as a back-up is an upgrade to Dunbar, who I liked.
Hawthorne ups the talent level of the outside pretty significantly.
Not a huge upgrade due to the loss of Vilma, but a slight upgrade nonetheless.

RB – With the addition of Cadet, we now have two bonafied scat-backs. If they stay healthy, I can’t think of a single team more stacked than we are now.

Downgraded
WR- Its almost a wash since I have high hopes for Morgan, but he still has a long way to go. Having Tanner on the PS and Cammarillo on speed-dial, we’ll be just fine. We were already pretty good to begin with. Even with a slight downgrade this is a top notch unit.

CB- I debated listing this as a downgrade, but we did lose an NFL starter in Porter. Robinson and Patrick will likely be much better than they were last year, and Corey White already looks better than Johnny Patrick did at this point last year. A very slight downgrade, and that’s quite debatable.


OL-Another debatable unit. DLP should be much better than last year, and replacing Nicks with another pro-bowler was truly genius. But when you lose the best OG in the NFL, its gotta be a downgrade, even if only a little.

SmashMouth

Good analysis....! I am ready for the start of the season.

FinSaint

I honestly think, and have thought, that Evans is a better guard than Nicks, and if I had to choose between the two - I'd choose Evans, but I guess that's a matter of opinion and what your personal preferences are for a guard.

As a whole, I do think that the Saints' defensive backfield is better now than it was last year even with Porter's departure - because of the personnel they brought in and even more so because of the scheme change. But that depends a lot on if Greer is actually able to play week 1 and at a high level and if Robinson will have a better showing in the regular season than he had in many of those preseason games. Losing Johnson to the IR was disappointing because he looked really good all preseason, but hopefully Patrick will be able create solid depth behind the #1 pair along with White and Mack. Safeties will probably benefit the most out of the scheme change - i.e. Jenkins - and maybe we'll even see Harper make some plays in coverage?!

Good analysis nonetheless!


BTW, I watched a couple of Chargers' preseason games, and Franklin looked good back in a 3-4. It's nice to see him land in a place where he can showcase his talent and skill-set, since he seemed like a very nice guy.

"I'm not bashing people, I'm bashing their opinions because in my opinion their opinion is wrong" - Danno

papz

Upgraded - Spags which will result from improved defensive production from every position on defense.

Downgraded - Loss of Payton. Granted he left behind a well oiled machine, but when you lose your head boss, you will lose some effectiveness. We saw some highlights from Drew and Payton discussing audibles, how to attack certain teams, etc. last year... that's going to be missed. It's going to be all the little things that doesn't seem significant on a daily basis.

That said, you are going to spank some behinds this year.

D_it_up

Political strategy for campaign from O Brother, Where Art Thou? | Anyclip

Stealthman

Good post, Danno (nice topic).

I feel we upgraded at receiver, only because Roby has proven himself far more this year.

I a weird way, we're better at QB because Drew believes he's going to be better than ever... and Chase has really taken a step forward in his overall game.

The "new" Graham was an upgrade at TE because he's a mauler in the blocking game.

FinSaint

Along with potentially having a healthy David Thomas, I agree with you on that the TE corps will be improved from last year, and they were able to sneak Higgins into the PS to top that.

The Dude

I agree, but I honestly think Lofton is an upgrade over Vilma in this point in their careers especially with Vilmas injury. Maybe we are a wash at the WR position as I never was sold on Meach and I thought he was more of a decoy than anything. Morgan is fast and will probably improve enough to draw coverage down the stretch. It may take a few games before teams learn they need to key in on him.

Rugby Saint II

I agree with your analysis Danno. I do think that we have upgraded at corner because I don't see losing Porter as a hindrance and the guys seem to be gelling nicely. The young guys got a lot of reps in the preseason as well.

FinSaint

White seems like another great find from a small school, so hats off to the scouting department once again.

I remember that Mike Mayock said that it was a good pick during the draft, even though most scout reports had projected him as a 7th round pick if not an UDFA.