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After twice being chopped down to size by Seattle's defense, more specifically the Seahawks' secondary, the New Orleans Saints threw caution to the wind and unloaded the money truck in front of prized free-agent safety and turnover machine Jairus Byrd. In turn the Saints have become more like their tormentor -- at any cost.

The Seahawks present the latest model of success with players such as Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor at safety and the ever-popular Richard Sherman at cornerback in their vaunted "Legion of Boom." The Saints felt like they had their Chancellor with Kenny Vaccaro and their Sherman with Keenan Lewis. All that was missing was their Thomas.

Enter Byrd -- a three-time Pro Bowler of the Buffalo Bills with twice as many interceptions (12) in the past three seasons as former Saints starting safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Roman Harper combined (six).

Even Thomas recognized the trend as he said via Twitter, "Copy cat league ..#NFL" less than an hour after Byrd agreed to terms with the Saints.

Oh, Thomas has been keeping tabs on Byrd and the Saints. One week ago, Thomas took exception to a Pro Football Focus article comparing Byrd to him, saying via Twitter, "Lol..smh Jairus Byrd doesn't have Earl Thomas speed, but he does have Earl Thomas range. Kinda..."

Thomas quickly followed up with, "To clear up my last tweet, my beef was with some of the comments the author of the article made & not aimed at J Byrd who is a great player."


(Thomas also said via Twitter last Friday, "I think @drewbrees is elite Qb in the league because you can't trust him.. Lol." I have no idea what that means or the context.)

So it's obvious at least one Seahawks player is maintaining close tabs on what the Saints are constructing. And what the Saints have concocted in about a year's time in drafting Vaccaro and signing Lewis and then Byrd possesses all the makings of another Seahawks-type secondary.

The Saints' defense performed a near-miracle turnaround from being the worst defense yardage-wise in NFL history in 2012 to a unit that ranked second in pass defense and fourth in total defense and scoring defense last season.

"Anytime you can have a defense with what they had here last year and have an offense that's already potent and explosive, it's kind of like a yin and the yang," Byrd said Wednesday afternoon. "They work off each other. Anytime you have that explosive offense, you're going to need a defense that can hold teams down.

"You need both. In this league, especially the way it's going with everyone getting better, you can't just blow everybody out by a bunch of points. It's just something that's necessary. You have to have a good defense when you have a great offense."

A lack of takeaways was a primary factor in the Saints being a wild-card participant last season rather than the NFC South winner and No. 2 seed. The Saints finished 29th in the league in takeaways with a barren second half of last season. New Orleans created 15 turnovers in the first eight weeks, but only four in the final 10 weeks, including the postseason.

Byrd said his penchant for takeaways -- 22 interceptions (the second highest total in the league since 2009), 11 forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries -- can migrate down south to New Orleans.

Jenkins wasn't going to deliver that type of production. He never has, despite flashes of greatness. It's why the Saints let Jenkins walk without an offer and never blinked twice about it.

Either Corey White, Patrick Robinson or maybe even a high draft pick in May will battle for the other cornerback role opposite Lewis, with Rafael Bush set to receive another hefty amount of playing time as the Saints' third safety. If those players are the Saints' fourth or fifth best players in their secondary, New Orleans is in pretty solid shape on the back end.

Now, did the $9 million per season offer from the Saints probably help drive Byrd to visit New Orleans and leave town Wednesday night with a contract for the next six seasons? There's no question. There's no narrative of taking less money to play for a winner going on with Byrd.

The price could become a bargain if the Saints' secondary takes the next step into greatness with the likes of Byrd, Vaccaro and Lewis pestering Cam Newton, Matt Ryan and whoever winds up taking snaps in Tampa Bay into poor decisions for the next several years. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan could be picking up celebratory tabs at Ms. Mae's on Magazine Street for the rest of the decade.

The Saints are making the commitment on and off the field in the secondary, and they're on the front end of the big three contracts. It's the one advantage over the "Legion of Boom" as Sherman and Thomas are waiting for their paydays.

Byrd, Lewis, Vaccaro. Sure beats the days of Jason David and Josh Bullocks.
New Orleans Saints fielding their own 'Legion of Boom' | Commentary | NOLA.com

dizzle88

Great article, kinda threw up in my mouth reading the last few words though

don't forget kevin kaesviharn

Our D is already great, Byrd will bring the turnovers to make us elite

lee909

Lovie Smith has said thst McCown is his QB and with Scam having no great weapons at WR I could see a few turnovers getting created.

TheOak

Sounds like the best of both worlds.

Belichick Offense + Seattle Defense

It is a copycat league.. Where do you think Seattle got the idea for a short QB?

hagan714

Really? does anyone really think we are trying to build another Boom here? i do not see it. Byrds a solid tackler and excellent turnover artist. then again playing in the AFC east which is the QB revolving door division of the NFL helps the turn over count greatly. he gets in the right spots at the right time and diagnoses play extremely quickly. i love the signing.

Does Byrd lower the boom? no he does not. so i am lost still.

I see the saints wanting coverage and turns not the boom. still need that fast quick CB to neutralize the fast jitter bug WR though. ILB are still a weak spot in pass coverage and that is were a quick fast CB would help. cut down those quick slant and skinny post would result in killing 95% of the offense game plans used against us last year

then we can be talking about a nick name

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

lee909

Bush lowers the BOOOOOOM!!!

Its not a copy by any means but a talented secondary to deal with a tough division and exceptional good NFC

st thomas

i'm pumped on the signing of byrd, but in hindsight i'm remembering when the eagles had put together the greatest defensive backfield in history that became the worst tandem ever. we do have proven gelled players in vacaro and lewis and some bush though. just saying don't want to get all swelled headed.

alleycat_126

We are still not there, I think earl is giving us to much credit to early, but you can tell the fear is starting to creep in because he sees how good we can be. We still need an OLB... I'm saying Telvin Smith ish.... Dee ford ish....

NoZone504

I'm tired of hearing that we signed a safety to copy Seattle...We upgraded because we had to!F**k Seattle

papz

I agree. They are pretty full of themselves up there.

Sure everyone wants a Seattle type defense but at the same time, we would like to create our own identity.