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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

neugey

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

FinSaint

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

Danno

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

dizzle88

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

QBREES9

Still learning

Nemesis

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

mutineer10

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

TheOak

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! :/

saintsfan1976

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.