Boutte

On WWL this morning the poll question for the day was "How do you feel about the Saints season, Proud Disappointed, or angry? After thinking about I decided I was disappointed. But I'm proud that 11-5 is disappointing.

Before the season I predicted that we'd finish between 11-5 and maybe as high as 13-3. I definitely believed we'd take the division. A lot of people were making predictions based on what we did in 2012. Lots of 8-8s and 9-7s. I felt like that was wrong headed and said then that we should forget '12 and go by what we did in 2011. Maybe I was over optimistic but I think I was closer to mark than most. I never believed our D personnel was as bad as the record indicated. I never invisioned the type of turn around we saw though.

So why am I disappointed? For starters we had the best defense we've had in decades and we still have a great offense. But that great offense let us down when it mattered most. Yeah the defense gave up a TD with 1 second left in N.E. and did it again in Carolina. But those are two of the best teams in the League this year. They went from laughingly horrible to the fourth ranked D in the League. How much more can you ask? Next year they'll be even better.

We should have won the division. That we didn't is probably the the biggest failure of Payton's career as a head coach. Beat the Rams and the Jets and we're 13-3, second seed and probably playing in the NFCCG. Payton would be coach of the year and we'd still be dancing.

But I don't want to end the season on a negative note so I have to say that I'm very optimistic about the future for a lot of reasons

1) We have Drew Brees. No he isn't over the hill. He hasn't lost his edge because he got paid. His arm is fine and since it looks like the O Line got it together at the end of the season I see another great year by Drew in 2014.

2) The O Line. It was a rough year for them. Evans was injured all year and he is the heart of that unit. He started looking like his old self in Dec and Ben Grubbs and Zach Streif are solid to outstanding players. Terron Armstead is a stud and will only get better. Center needs help. No reason to believe Payton won't make it happen.

I look for this unit to get back to being first class. If they get back to protecting Brees and continue to look dominant in the run game we'll be back to setting records again.

3) Who has four better RBs than the Saints? Nobody! So many people are counting PT and Sproles out but I think they're way off. PT was running behind the same bad line that Ingram was but only Ingram gets to use that excuse? He had a good year. So did Sproles. Go back and look at the plays these two "old men" men made this year. Robinson is a hoss and Ingram finally broke out. We're in great shape. Talk about depth!

4) I love our defensive line! If Foster and Walker keep developing and stop getting injured we could have six starting caliber linemen and 3 Pro-Bowl caliber young studs. Jordan, Jenkins and Hicks can be as good as any starting 3 in the game. Add Gallett (who plays DE as much as LB) and these guys could be a force for years to come.

5) I thought our defensive backfield was excellent before everybody got injured. Jenkins looked good as long as he Harper weren't playing together. Harper (who's probably gone) looked a lot better too. Sadly Greer may not be back. If he does come back at the same level and P Rob can pick up where
he left off we'll be in great shape. KV is another Pro-Bowl type player Bush is like a guided missile out there. Unlike most i think White is going to be a solid #2 CB. I like his toughness too.

6) ROB RYAN!

LB, WR need some attention and OL could all use some quality depth but there's no reason to believe Payton and Loomis wont make it happen.

Next year is the year guys. Book it.

(Sorry to ramble but I needed to get that out.)