TheOak

I don't think I am alone when I say we always want the best player on the field come Sunday. All players have good weeks and bad weeks but what do the Saints do to try and ensure we have the best possible player on the field for that week?

I was listening to Pat Kerwin yesterday on NFLSirius interviewing Pete Carrol. Now, I am not one that jumps up every week and wants to do what other teams do just because it looks good for them, but Pete spoke about his "Competition Wednesday" practices, and went on to recognize that players sometimes have ups and downs on some weeks and his Wednesday practices are how he tries to make sure he has as many players on an up week on the field come game time as possible.

There are some starters that are better at 80% than their back up but in some cases that fresh backup preforms better when they get in the game. In Pete's Competition Wednesday practices any player on the team can challenge a starter for their position that week, and if they win that battle they start. This provides a hell of a lot of value that week beyond just having the best man that week on the field, it also kind of screws with the opponents game plan when they plan for one match up and get another.

It seems like more than just theory, it is paying off high dividends in practice for Seattle. The Seahawks if I understand it have had one of the youngest defenses in the league the last few years and few can argue that they have done very well. Pat Kerwin made a comment to Pete in the interview where he said "Pete when you took the field against the 49ers last week there were a few starters that I had never heard of". We all know how well Seattle's defense fared against the 49ers.

We are deep at some positions and I believe we could benefit by getting some of the non starters more playing time on weeks that either they are having a very up week or the starter is having an off week.


Thoughts?

halloween 65

I love the ideal, it would keep everyone at their best!!

Budsdrinker

I like it. Keeps the vets hungry if a young buck steps up during the week and takes his spot on Sunday. Who wants to be put on the bench? Keep the fear of losing your starting job and I bet it will make you play harder or at the very least more conscience of your responsibilities.

hagan714

always need a healthy mix on the feild. But never be affraid to give the young bucs the reins. you gotta take the good with the bad as they develop. school of hard knocks

|Mitch|

We have so many different personnel packages, who "starts" is pretty much irrelevant...

TheOak

Not in all respects, how different would Sunday have been against TB if Cadet or Khiry had beaten out Ingram and allowed to run?

If Graham or Colston come down with the dropsies one week I would rather have another receiver that is having an "on" week and catching everything on Wed be in the game on Sunday.

Special teams.... same thing.

Players are human just like us, we are professionals at work but we all have bad/off weeks.

Jack Vegas

Yeah, I have a feeling this only goes so far, which makes Carroll kind of a hypocrite. Something tells me we won't be seeing Tavaris Jackson starting at QB instead of Russell Wilson no matter how well he plays in practice.

In general, I think we play so many guys on both sides of the ball that anybody who earns playing time in practice will get it.

|Mitch|

Not that different, Sproles and Thomas didn't have much luck running either. At some point, you have to give credit to the Bucs defense...

Jack Vegas

PT averaged almost 6 yards per carry, just sayin'..

|Mitch|

As a team we only ran for 75 yards... Doesn't matter if you have AP, if they don't get the opportunity to carry...