The Big 2014 Changes thread (Non Draft)

[saintfan]

Originally Posted by TheOak

Changes need to come to how we presently look and function. I will start with a few of mine. They are hard and ugly but as mentioned by exile great teams know when to trim the fat and let go of the declining players.

There was a youth movement on Defense and you see how that panned out.

Play Book
Our offensive playbook need to be burnt, ashes folded into a nice custard, consumed, and then burn the waste. It is no longer needed, our entire team knows it by heart because it is what we have used for years, defenses know it by heart also. It doesn't work any more and everyone from the newest fan, to expert talking heads, to Sean Payton him self said we need to be less predictable... If you want to be less predictable, do something different.


Special teams
Greg McMahon - Needs to go.. He is not covering the fundamentals.
- Unprepared for at least 1 onsides kick (unacceptable)
- Laces in for a playoff FG kick (unacceptable)
- 2nd last in KO return yards and 4th last in PR yards, this directly translated to starting field position for our offense.
2013 NFL Team Returning Stats - National Football League - ESPN

Running Backs
Sproles - Time to Find or allow a replacement. Championship teams know when to hold-em and when to fold-em. I love Sproles but he is no longer as elusive, he allowed two punts to roll back to within the 5 yard line that I saw, and he gets tripped by index fingers and tall grass.

PT - I am on the fence about PT. Another that I love but love doesn't bring Championships. 2013 saw him tied for the most rushing attempts in his career (he had 147 in 2009 also), but his YPC has dropped nearly a yard and until this year has never been less than 4 YPC. His receptions were at an all time high but his YPC was at an all time low and he is not a receiver.

Jed Collins - We need more of a hybrid or more of a bruiser.

Travaris Cadet - Does nothing. Wasted spot and we do not need a 5th RB.


Dead Weight
Will Smith - Eat the dead money.
Victor Butler - No idea about him, keep and hope or find someone we know?

Free Agents we let walk
Jenkins - Bye
Vilma - So long
Strief - Bye
DLP - Bye
Charles Brown - Bye
Meachem - Slow
Jed Collins - Sort of borderline on him
Haralson - Second season ending injury in 3 years


Unlike others I have looked at the financials also, dead money figured into savings.

Smith - saves us 11M

I am sure we can find 1 RB to replace these two for less than 6.4M.
Sproles - Saves us 3.5M
P Thomas - 2.9M

Lance Moore - 2.8m (I love Lance as well but for that we can find younger = talent)
Nick Toon 400k


All I can think of right now. I focused mainly on offense because it seems that is where we find our selves wearing our favorite shoes and not getting into the dance.

Overall we have netted 21M to replace these players with.

Agree with others. Excellent post. Brutal on some points, but I think you're essentially correct.

I do however disagree with burning the entire playbook. I think a committed effort to RUN THE DANG BALL would do WONDERS for our playbook. Frankly I think that's what Sean means about being less predictable. We need to have the ability to run when Jimmy is in the game. We need to have the ability to run when either PT, Khiry, or Mark is lined up. We are too predictable based on our offensive packages. At least that's my armchair opinion, which is all I have to offer.

I think if we make a concerned effort to get some people who truly excel on the offensive line so many of our problems go away. The ceiling is "cathedral" for our defense.

I'm very excited about next season already.