Re: Roman Harper, Zach Strief among New Orleans Saints players who might be elsewhere next season
 

No doubt. But he wasn't very good in pure one-on-one situations either. He got manhandled in the Dolphins game in particular, and generally looked bad until about week 10 or so when the offensive line as a whole seemed to pick it up.

But the deal is, you're paying Grubbs $9 million a year because he is supposed to be an elite guard and a guy who helps make the players around him better. For the most part he did not do that.

DLP's biggest issue to me is the communication stuff, not his blocking. You don't count on a center to do a lot of crucial blocking assignments anyway, his job is more about getting everybody set up right, pointing out blitzes, that kind of stuff. And he was certainly lacking in that, especially on the road for some reason. But not everybody can be a star; I think you need cheap mid-level guys in certain positions so you can have a viable roster under the cap, and center seems to be one of those positions league-wide where that is often the case. Price-to-performance ratio, I like the way DLP played for $2 million this year a whole lot more than the way Grubbs played for $9 million.

that is not an indictment of anybody on our line though, I really think going forward the starting 5 should stay intact. IMO, the line's real problem was scheme/coaching changes more than a talent issue, which explains why they really picked up their play in the second half of the year (Brown's struggles aside). I think a year together and another offseason will do the line as a unit a whole lot of good.