Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

In a discussion of guys where I work, different teams fans... Houston, Philly, New Orleans and Dallas..... A comment came up from someone I would call my friend.... He got to talking about the Saints defense and he said something that stuck with me. I didn't know whether to slap him or hug him for placing that thought in my head. Straight quote.... "The Saints defense is talented, and disciplined... but not talented enough to take big risks yet<<<<< I understood him to mean like jumping routes, playing rouge, forcing more turnovers etc.......

Is that a fair assessment of the Defense... Yes or No?

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

Perhaps. In previous seasons they were very undisciplined and gave up big plays.

It does seem like they were more disciplined this year. I don't think its as much of a talent issue as it is trying to break old habits.

Perhaps its just the discipline pendulum swinging back the other way.

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

It is, there are spots on our D that need upgrading. FS to start, ILB for 2. We have not 1 cover lb. in the group but I think in FA that will get adressed along with CB. That would be a great starting point and allow Jenkins to take a walk and draft a ball-hawking FS. Our secondary has some bad hands in the entire group.

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

Probably so, thus our lack of turnovers. Sometimes its better to contain than to go for a strip or jump a route when you dont quite have the personnel to do it. I am just happy they did so well and would take our new defense any day over most in the league. I would like to have more turnovers but those guys went above and beyond. I wouldnt expect them to do quite as well again next year. I wouldnt be surprised if we dropped a couple of spots simply because its extremely difficult to bring a squad from dead last to top 5 over night, he did it for one year so you never know. I dont think we will drop enough for them to be a liability but I wont get too upset if they drop a spot or two. If not WOW.

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

I don't get the whole knock on our ILBs coverage abilities. We had the 2nd best passing defense in the NFL, and you don't get there with poor coverage from your ILBs. Also, dont get your hopes up to address anything other than re-signing a few players in FA; we don't have the money to do much this year.

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

I get what your friend is saying and he is basically right. The Saints don't have the sheer speed of the 49ers or the past Steelers teams to go hog-wild with our 3-4 schemes. Which is okay, because very few teams have that elite talent. But as a result there are some plays that are too risky to implement because we don't have the speed to recover to other areas of the field.

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

I think history would argue that its not fair, and to lump the entire defense into that statement isn't fair either.

2009 25th ranked defense <--- wound suggest not very talented.
Sharper - 9 INTs (very talented)
Porter - Jumped Payton Manning's route (not an extremely talented corner back)

2013 4th ranked defense - We have a lot more speakable talent in this defense than we had in 2009. Lewis, Gallette, Jordan, Vaccaro.

I would have said "The Saints defense is talented and disciplined, just not confident enough at key positions to be opportunistic. "

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

there is a difference between 'opportunistic' and actually taking advantages of the opportunity
19 TO's is terrible--too many dropped picks and too few recoveries

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

We need more talent at FS and CB then we can do whatever we want. Remember we've got players coming back from IR that had a lot of talent.

Re: Saints Defense... Is this a fair assessment?
 

IMO Taking big risk = taking the risk big enough that could potentially draw flags.

The way the refs put the Saints defense under the microscope as they have the past 2-3 years, hard to take those risk.

Thats my opinion, if they could get by with all the BS that teams like San Fran or Seattle get by with, they be the #1 defense in a heart beat.