The 2013 Saints season
 

No matter how you feel about our draft, our free agency, who we have kept and who is gone. Keep one thing in mind.

Our head coach Sean Payton spent an entire season designing this season. He sat through 16 tortuous games just like most of us, except I believe those 16 experiences were worse for him. He was not on the field but he had ownership in what was put on the field at many levels.

He has seen all of the dropped passes, the interceptions, the misses tackles.... Every yard gained against our defense, missed field goals, missed opportunities .. At LEAST a 1/2 dozen times.
In the tape room and in his sleep.

If your concerned or cautious about Rob Ryan, know Sean Payton is too. He does not want what happened last year to happen twice on his watch.

I don't expect 2013 to look like any previous Saints season when it is all said and done. I suspect that only Sean and a stack of notebooks, know what it is supposed to look like.


A person gains an entirely new perspective on a situation that they have been involved in on a day to day basis when they take time to watch it from the outside.

Rebuilt? No..... Transformation or transition to a new level? Yes!

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

Lets hope so. Too many people become complacent after big contracts

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

I feel too many people are relying on history to support their view.

Defense
With a brand new DC, a new to New Orleans scheme, plenty of new talent, there is no correlation between 2013 and 2012, same is repeated for 2011 back.

Offense
The biggest item here is that if this collective group of arm chair QBs can see how predictable our offense was in 2012... Sean Payton has to know also, I suspect he is going to focus on how unpredictable we can become. Besides winning and losing, he owes it to Ingram to let him run with out the defense expecting it for a season to de what he has.

A lot of people that were not 100% healthy will be healthy this season.

Graham
Vilma
Its a long list....

If the draft didn't make sense, maybe we don't completely understand the plan.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

It made sense to me. We got a playmaker in the secondary, a future stud LT, that giant NT in the middle, a speedy WR who slipped a round, and a late round small school project player with 1st round measurables, then we scored two more middle-rounder in UDFA.

I certainly like this draft much better than last year's class.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

I think that some of us do not appreciate how we were hamstrung by the salary cap and lack of a second rd pick. My hat is off to Loomis and the front office for the job they have done moving on from the bounty scandal and the disaster of last season. Kudos

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

With the new coordinator, new scheme, free agent additions and the draft, I can't think of a single unit on defense that didn't significantly improve, some improved drastically.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

change in philosophy alone will make the defense better. this defense was built for attacking and not sitting back on their heels. big mistake last year by spags. 34 switch will take time but using players to their strong suites is a step in the right direction. return to a mid or upper 20's rank defense should be a piece of cake with just this change alone. we had the personnel already. Coaching will have nothing to do with it.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

That's the spirit!

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

Great summation by all. Can't discount the lessons learned by everyone on this team - including Ryan in Dallas...

I don't care what is said publicly. There won't be a bigger chip on any coach's, player's or fans shoulders in the NFL.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

This is the exact reason that I am excited to see how this defense performs this year. The personnel for the switch to 3-4 was already there for the most part with just a few more pieces that needed to be added. We got those pieces in free agency (Butler, Lewis), the draft (Vaccaro, Jenkins, Johnson), and in UDFA (Thomas, Martin, Reddick, Sweeting, Shipman). Past loyalty be damned. Let all these guys duke it out in training camp and may the best man win to put the best possible product on the field. I cannot wait to see opposing QB's lying flat on their backs.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

...and slot backs and running backs and wide receivers and....

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

Dude I was about to post the exact same thing. Also time off is not always a good thing. I agree things will be different though, for no other reason than our defense cannot be any worse than it was last year. We have a TOUGH division and a tough conference this year. I think you are pretty much going to have to be 13-3 to get into the playoffs this year. We HAVE to win the division. We will see, I am reserving excitement until camp for now.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

remember that at the end of the year and do not give the DC to much for a performance we are all expecting that would come from any coaching change that uses people correctly. say a monkey ;-)

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

With draft and FA over for the most part I feel like it is time for a state of the team thread. I will start with defense. Everything starts with the DL NT has three quality players which make for a good rotation. We also have flexibility in that the top three can and have played DE in a 34.
At DE we have Cam Jordan, Will Smith, K.Coleman A. Hicks and five others who all could contribute. IMHO deep group that is much better than the worse in history. We need for a player to emerge from the second tier and breakout.
LB group is led by C. Lofton David Hawthorne should be healthy this year and should be solid at ILB after a disappointing start in black and gold. Chris Chamberlain should be healthy after a year on IR. Not sure how he fits a 34. Martez Wilson and J. Gallette are faced with very high expectations and need to deliver. Romeus and Broughton are the wild cards as converted DEs. Victor Butler was brought in to rush the passer he needs to deliver.
CB A healthy Jabari Greer should bounce back from an off year. Keenan Lewis has pro bowl potential and should be a big improvement.PRob and Corey White should be good depth and capable in nickel roles.
S K.Vaccaro is expected to start and play

various roles. M. Jenkins had a bad year but I still think he can be. a very good player in the right scheme. J.Leonard, Isa Abdul-Quddus, R.Bush round out this position and show well last year.
Offense
QB Drew Brees reunited with Payton should continue his elite play At backup a good camp battle for the backup job.R.Griffin just might be a steal as a developmental QB.Should be very familiar with our system.
RB Mark Ingram should be given the chance to be the lead back we gave two picks for. Sproles is the weapon and P. Thomas the Swiss Army knife. Cadet is good depth and ST role player.We need to run the ball better and take some of the load off Brees and the Defense
WR Colston and Moore remain the focus Morgan needs to continue to grow in his role as the deep threat.Toronto and Stills round out this group. Opportunity is there for PS player to step up.
TE A healthy wrist should make for the continued success of the elite player. Ben Watson is a guy that I think will be a pleasant surprise. Look for more two TE sets
G Evans and Grubber give us the best tandem. Depth is a concern.
OT The biggest concern is can Charles Brown stay healthy. Strief should rebound and hopefully some among the other player emerge a valid options or upgrades.
C DLP has cemented himself as a solid starter. Quality of depth is an unknown to me.
ST P Morestead continues to be a stud
Hartley should have to face some comp.in camp. Kick coverage needs to improve.
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Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

One can sum it up in one word ..

C H A M P I O N S H I P

http://joelhebert.com/wp-content/upl...y-1280x768.jpg

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

The NFC South seems to get tougher every year. Remember not too long ago we were the worst division in the NFL or close to it? The good thing for us is that there aren't any elite QB's in the NFC South other than Brees.

Re: The 2013 Saints season
 

There has been a major swing in division strength the last few years.NFC South and West are improved massively last couple of years