SaintNik

The Saints released TE Zach Hilton this afternoon to make room on the roster to sign KJ Carter. They are hoping he will clear waivers and can then can be placed on the practice squad for now. They will be lucky if he clears waivers as both the Ravens and Vikings could use help at the TE position. I DISAGREE with this move!

Lamont Hall is an aging veteran at the end of his career who was released in the offseason by the Falcons who in turn cut their backups to Crumpler after final cut down and then brought in two rookies off of the street to their roster. The Saints like his blocking ability but admit he is a liability in the passing game. He is a solid special teams player and is also the backup fullback.

Not anything personal against Hall but consider........how often will he see any playing time at TE ? He hasn't seen any snaps there yet. The staff has indicated that they only used the FB less than 40% of the snaps last year and intended to reduce that to about 30% this year which Carney has seen far less than that. What are the odds of Hall seeing any snaps at the FB position? If Karney were to get hurt he may see some for that game only but they would sign a true FB the next week.

Hilton made the 53 man roster last year because the staff was scared that another team would pluck him from the practice squad. He was inactive early then was activated for 6 games before tweaking his knee. He was inactive for the first two games this year. It had been said by the staff that he added 20 pounds of muscle in the offseason to get his weight up to 260 on his 6'8" frame. Nobody questions his ability to catch as he has velcro hands.

There is a big trend in the league of getting more balls to the TEs and there has been a resurgence of athletic youth at that spot. I think the Saints failed to utilize that height advantage he has. They could have used him in short yardage or goal line situations and ran short turnaround routes putting the ball up where only he could catch it. There isn't a DB or LB in the league that he couldn't out jump for the ball without commiting pass interference in the process. Can he not play special teams? That is how he hurt his knee last year. Could have lined him up across from the snapper behind a NT on FG and PATs to block one. Blocking kicks was a huge factor in the NFL last year. Oh well, I wish him well and hope we can get him back.

Check out the link below:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/7704312

Danno

I\'d think they could have found someone else to cut also. Hilton is a pretty good TE prospect.

I think Hall is a great blocker, and an exceptional special teams player on both O&D ST\'s. He\'d be my choice also because I think he\'d stay a FA and could be resigned easier.

But its only a bad move if he doesn\'t clear waivers.

DARKFATHER504

And you don’t think the Saints upper brass know what they are doing? HUH this is a surprise Hall should have been let go