I wanna add to that
The fact we didn't have the players is not Spags in fault.
Where I blame him is he didn't work with what he had. He didn't gauge his people in the preseason games, practice or attempt to make any adjustments in weeks 1-4. It wasn't untill Joe vitt and Vilma came back we started adjusting. We started making plays....
Maybe the locker room commets were right... maybe noone liked him.

I wanna add to that
The fact we didn't have the players is not Spags in fault.
Where I blame him is he didn't work with what he had. He didn't gauge his people in the preseason games, practice or attempt to make any adjustments in weeks 1-4. It wasn't untill Joe vitt and Vilma came back we started adjusting. We started making plays....
Maybe the locker room commets were right... maybe noone liked him.

I think that is a little naive of an outlook. It's very hard to stomach what I believe is the reality of things, and that would be that what was "allegedly" taking place by Gregg Williams, players, other coaches and under the knowledge of the HC and GM, was a near certainty in every organization on every level of the sport. Numerous sources have stated that Gregg Williams employed this practice everywhere he went. Many past players have said this was common everywhere they played for a variety of coaches. I think it was one of those unspoken things and the condemnation of alot of other coaches and players is based more on the "you idiot for making us all look bad" policy and deny all knowledge and toss a few people under the bus to take the punishment for the good of the majority. I think this kind of thing has been going on since the sport began, that it was all too common in almost every locker room, whether it come from a coach, coordinator or positional coach or just between a few players. I played football in high school and college level and it went on in both. We did the same in hockey. The Saints organization and Gregg Williams were not an isolated incident. This is my opinion and of course I have no facts to support this.

I don't hold one shred of disrespect towards Sean Payton for what happened with Gregg Williams or the whole bouty scandel. And I feel the same about Bill Belichek and the spy gate scandel. I think this too was more common than reported and all they were guilty of was getting caught. I would be stunned if nearly every team wasn't trying any means possible to steal signals, get sneak peeks at practice formations, etc.

To make a long story short, I personally feel Gregg Williams was not some rogue nut job. He was a typical NFL coach/coordinator that got all his warts exposed to the public and now everyone has to be as unlike him as possible. My only criticism of him and pretty much everyone involved is that they can't jeoprodize their futures and their money to be straight up and admit this was an everyday thing everywhere. But there is no way the NFL would ever want that known. Williams painted himself into a bad corner though when he broke the code.

That's my take and why Rob Ryan concerns me not. He has more public disregard for being politically correct, but otherwise he's no different than any other DC to me.

Would you take a job knowing you did not have the tools to get it done? get it done right?.. Spagnuolo did.

Spagnuolo pretty much failed from start to finish. Had he not, I do believe Sean Payton would have kept him one more season.

How could he have known that?

He couldn't personally evaluate the players before he was hired, so he couldn't really know what he had on the Saints roster and how those players fit into his system - outside of players he had already coached/met before.

Not true. There are hours and hours of tape on every team including our defense. So only a handful of new players would have been unknown to him.

As the HC of the St. Louis Rams you are going to tell me he didn't know the personnel on our defense, their strengths and weaknesses? He coached against them at least 3 times, say them in Playoff games and a SB.

That's like saying Sean Payton can not possibly evaluate draft picks until after they play for him.

How could he have known that?

He couldn't personally evaluate the players before he was hired, so he couldn't really know what he had on the Saints roster and how those players fit into his system - outside of players he had already coached/met before.

Mental preparedness went out the window with Bountygate, secret listening lines...

If you want to evaluate personalities and intelligence then yes 1 on 1.

If you want to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a defense and its players then all you need is tape to know we would have major problems getting to the QB.

Heck brother, you watched 16 saints games this season and you can identify our defenses strengths and weaknesses. Now if you had scouting reports you would know a crap load about what you would be walking into as a DC.