New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Make no mistake, the Saints' historically-heinous performance on defense this season has been indefensible. So it's impossible to dismiss even the more extreme suggestions from growing pockets of a frustrated fan base to either fire coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, dump many veteran players, change the scheme or do all of the above.

The much more difficult task, however, is trying to offer a promising solution - either in the short term or the long term.

There isn't much light at the end of this tunnel. The Saints are staring at some huge salary-cap constraints heading into 2013, which will make an extreme makeover extremely difficult.

ESPN's John Clayton, one of the best in the business at crunching salary-cap numbers, projects the Saints at $16.1 million over the cap next year. And after the Saints back-loaded so many of their new and restructured contracts this past offseason, I did a breakdown that showed the combined salary-cap figures of 10 of their highest-priced players will leap from $37.1 million this year to $85.4 million next year.

So even if the Saints release expensive veterans like Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma and David Hawthorne and choose not to re-sign free agents like Sedrick Ellis, Scott Shanle and Turk McBride, they still won't be able to afford many high-priced replacements.

New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done - New Orleans Saints Football NFL News - NOLA.com

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

LOL when I saw the headline on the Forum index page it says

"New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown"

I don't think so :)

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

That is the one thing that has to be in the forefront in the defensive meetings.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

That was a petty good read, although the headline is basically the opposite of the article.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Our guys just confused in the scheme, you can see it happening

Players going to cover a man that isn't theres, then a WR finds the zone where that player should have been
I thought spags would teach fundamentals like tackling technique, great defenses like 49ers and steelers don't have those problems, we are consistently bad at it

That and our DB's just aint that talented

I expect serious attempts to make our defense better in the offseason

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Still learning

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Well Benson has money. We have to woo FA vets in key D positions, or trade something for them.

The Pats said wtf. They've drafted and started a bunch of rookies on D to complement yet more youngsters. This cheap strategy can pay off long term as long as the O scores, which the Saints O is also doing. We have nothing to lose by starting high pick rookies on D

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Heck, let the young guys play. They can't do any worse, and Hicks has been a rare bright spot so far.

We don't need high priced replacements on defense. We need players that are average and play 100% until the whistle blows.

We've not realized the full value on any of those high prices defensive players. Vilma is the closest.

Clayton is one of the best at math? Whoop! :/

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

How has our UDFA and late round picks philosophy worked so well on Offense but so poorly on defense?

I agree we don't need "many" high priced free agents - just the right ones.

I'll take another Darren Sharper over someone who will break the bank.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Sucky coaches on D and bad evaluations from scouts

Curtis Johnson literally made - colston, Moore, Henderson and meachem the players they are today, because he was a fantastic coach for us

Coach Payton is known for being an offensive genius because he exploits matchups so well, such as jimmy graham against an LB or a corner, no contest

Our scouts aren't smart (pat Robinson in the first round shows this) and vitt is a very poor LB coach seen as they have been our weakest area in the last 6 years

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

So why not put Vitt in the QC job that cerullo had and get us a new LB coach? Vitt obviously has a role to serve but there's no arguing that our LB's haven't been great the past few years. We need to go coach-poaching after this season

It's hard for me to say which is the problem- the talent evaluators or the coaches. The talent eval guys have a body of work and game footage from college to check out, and if a guy is a 1st round pick with good measurables and has a good body of work in college, it's hard to fault the eval guys for a bad pick because it looked like a good pick based on the evidence at hand. At this point it becomes a coaching issue IMO. the defensive coaches must be able to "coach up" some of these players, not all, not expecting any miracles, but if our offensive coaches continually find these "gems" it stands to reason that our defensive coaches would eventually as well. This years crop is looking better than years past but at some point fingers have to be pointed IMO

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Thank god we paid 100 million for a quarterback who will likely spend the rest of his career playing golf during the playoffs.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Every time we heard of a player 're-structuring' their contract to make room for Brees, they were really just passing the buck to a later season. I don't believe they ever thought that one of our units would need a complete over-haul. It's true we probably just don't have the money.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

it starts up front. DT needs to be addressed. end of story for 2013. anything else is icing on the cake for next year.

The strong side of the saints defense is the side that needs to be blown up but that will take more than one year to do. That whole right side needs to be addressed. Smith is all but done and on the down side of career. Hawthron has not been on the field. were is Wilson? oh yeah he is a part time DE still. can Robison become a an all around CB that can play press coverage and support the run? it goes on and on over on that side of the defense. Till then teams will continue to attack that side of the saints defense and kill us

The weak side is in need of a LB. Shanle has surprised me year in and year out holding of all challengers. An upgrade is needed because shanle is a proven player that fill in either LB potions.

I am not touching the secondary this year. clean up the DL first and see what we have then.

so blowing it up is not the answer. to many upgrades are needed

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

I agree with this completely. Its like you're reading my mind, except I'd include the entire front 7 before we put the axe on any DB.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Just a thought, but isn't the team, "BLOWED UP SIR" this year? Seems to me that the defense is just a bunch of corpses lying on the field and the offense plays like it has been hit with a percussive bomb, wandering around dazed and confused.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

2 consistent pass rushers in the front 7 that play on either side would do wonders. Wilson and Galette aren't terrible, but they aren't great. I think Smith could do a lot more if he wasn't the only threat the opposing team's O had to worry about.

Re: New Orleans Saints defense deserves to be blown up, but that's easier said than done
 

Right on brother............right on!:bng: