Boutte

This team isn't great. We have too many holes. But guess what? Neither is anybody else. Surprisingly most of our holes are on the offensive side of the ball.

The line is the main problem. Ben Grubbs, at times, looks like the Pro-Bowler we paid for. Other times he looks like a scrub. He better watch out or Lelito could take his job. Charles Brown is a good man to have, for a back-up. He has some really good games but he also sucks on a fairly regular basis. DLP has a lot of good points but he's weak at the point of attack and gets blown up by the stronger DTs. Evans has had one injury after the other this year. I don't think he missed a game in the previous 7 years. Lets hope he returns to All-Pro form next year. Strief has been our most consistent lineman this year. Like most he has his faults but mostly is a solid RT.

We have some young guys with potential but we'll have to see how that works out.

After Colston and Stills our WRs are strictly mediocre. Don't know what happened to Moore. Toon has mostly been a disappointment.

TE, we're set here.

Thomas and Sproles are perfect for what we do though both are getting long in the tooth. Ingram has looked good since he came back from the injury and Robinson looks promising. We're good here too.

We need to do some serious retooling.

Defense

Line
Maybe the best and deepest unit on the team. Jordan, Jenkins and Hicks all have Pro-Bowl potential and Foster and Walker aren't much of a drop off. Tom Johnson can also perform at a very high level. Broderick Bunkley is solid.

LB
Two great free agent pick ups in Hawthorne and Lofton make ILB a strong point for us. I can't really offer a critique of Herring but Humber seems to have developed into a good, athletic back up.

On the outside Junior has proved the people that have been screaming to see him start knew what they were talking about. He and Jordan are a great 1 - 2 punch and have finally given us the pass rush we've been missing for a decade or more. Parys Haralson quietly mans the other side like the solid veteran he is. What we lack is depth. Victor Butler should help in that department.

Safety

Malcolm Jenkins is an enigma. He was having a great season for a while but then he turns in a performance like his game against the Panthers. I dunno.

Kenny Vaccarro is a rising star.

Raphael Bush is a beast! We've missed him more than we realize since he's been out with the ankle injury. He's going to make somebody expendable.

Speaking of expendable. Roman Harper had a good run but it's time for us to move on. Quddus is much better in coverage and is another guy who can lay people out.
Who is Eric Frampton and what is he doing for us? Special teams I guess. But then I would have said the same thing about Bush last year. (We sure have a lot of safeties.)

What's going to happen at CB? Pat Robinson was looking a lot better when he went down but he sure looked awful in 2012. But then again who didn't? Greer got burned a couple of times but over all was having a good year. I hope he can come back strong next year.
Lewis was a great signing and should hold down his side of the field for years to come.
Corey White!? Flashes great talent and hits like a strong safety. He can also hurt you with his brain farts. Hopefully he matures into a special player. He has the physical tools.
I have no clue what to think about Rod Sweeting, haven't really noticed him much and I didn't even know we had a guy named Trevin Wade.
I have a feeling we'll be seeing a revolving door of no name FAs and maybe some draft picks here.

LEGATRON!! Let's keep him.

PK ????? To be continued.

Not a bad roster overall. WE could stand to cut some dead wood especially on D ( Smith/Harper/Vilma) and we badly need to upgrade at LT and center. Depth at LB and WR are critical.

I don't know about you but I feel pretty good about this team moving forward.

Payton and Ryan will insure that we're contenders for as long as we have them.

I think we also need to look at some of our coaching staff though. We're missing Curtis Johnson and Kroemer big time and special teams has been a weakspot for years.

I purposely left QB out because there are more than enough threads to discuss Brees. Let's not turn this into another Brees bash/love fest.


I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who can offer a different take.