jjasso007

Was just looking at number from three of the better offenses in the NFL: Colts, Cowboys and Broncos. This is the average age of their starting offensive lines

Colts: 25 (Gosder Cherilus is 30 raising their average)

Cowboys: 24.8 (Doug Free is 30 raising their average)

Broncos: 28.2

And our team...

Saints: 30 (Armstead is 23 years old. Without Armstead our average starters age is 31.5).

Something of note, the Colts are starting two rookies on their Oline and three of their starters are 23 years old each. I think it's time to start investing some earlier draft picks into our Oline again

WillSaints81

Almost our entire offense is getting older and nostalgic. Its time for a change. But its hard for that to happen when Brees wants Colston to be his Wayne. We need younger receivers, we have Cooks and Stills, but Colston is holding us back with his drops. No need to get a top everydown back if he won't be that with us. Mike Davis will not work if we cannot commit to him(assuming he declares he's one of the top backs), he could take a few years to get going like Ingram has. And from what I have seen Robinson isn't Ingram. OL yes its time to get younger there but we also need to get a new receiving core.

Marlboro Man

Jahri Evans I think is done and so is Strief. Still we need better LB's more.

The Dude

I agree but I have to say our line has played much better this year than last. Especially in run blocking. They let Drew get hurried a lot but at least he's not getting creamed. I think we need a QB first round this year and some lineman and address WR and CB in FA if we can.

jjasso007

I agree with our WRs as well. Meachem has been basically a no show this season and Colston is having a bad season per his standards. He is 31 and, though he'll still put up 100 yard games here and there, he has had issues with drops (but so have other players) and it's time to hand the mantle over to someone else. We have two solid WR picks in the last two season with Stills and Cooks, and we'll see if Brandon Coleman's hands improved next season and if he can make an impact (which having a 6'6 WR would be amazing!). Morgan is still up in the air for me, but I agree we need some more young talent. But I'm a firm believer everything starts up front. Brees can make even mediocre WRs look good when he has time (Lance Moore, Devery Henderson, Meachem, etc.) and we need some new blood on the Oline, especially in the middle where Brees has had the most pressure in the last two seasons.

On the defensive side, we need two faster, better coverage middle linebackers if we plan on staying in a 3-4. Lofton and Hawthorne just aren't good in coverage, and that's been Lofton's knock against him since the Atlanta days. Then we need better talent at cornerback as well. Outside of Lewis, it's pretty bad. SJB is rookie who hasn't played, and many CBs have a hard initial time, so I'll give him a couple years before i cast judgement. But the bottom line, this team is getting old and there's a lack of talent at some positions, so it may take a couple years to get everything back to where we want it to be

Exxcalibur

Double championship windows are about this > || big.

Change will hit hard in the not too distant future. Brace yourselves.

At this point, I d like to give a big shout out to Alex Smith and say 'damn you, buddy! Damn you!'

Cruize

The o-line is playing well. The problem is the defense knows what's coming 50 times a game. It gives them, who are already superior athletes, a definite advantage. The only thing that gets guys like Grubbs and Evans off teams is the salary cap.

SaintsBro

WHAT IF (and this is really a "what if") Drew himself now has a say behind the scenes, in the "nostalgic" offense decisions regarding Goodwin, Evans, Grubbs, Colston, Meachem, etc? Does he not talk to Payton, Carmichael, Loomis about this stuff?

WHAT IF Drew Brees was "hit hard" by the Sproles decision in March, and started to make some noise and put his foot down about keeping some of the other "nostalgic" veteran guys on the roster, "keeping the band together" etc?

WHAT IF (and again, this is really asking a "what if") the front office is making decisions based more on fan nostalgia for that Super Bowl season and keeping SEASON TICKET SALES TO EXISTING FANS SOLD OUT (a big factor) rather than, say, winning and staying elite and re-loading?

Again, these are WHAT IF's. I'm not saying that's what I think is really happening. But they are WHAT IF questions about the front office and the locker room. But you gotta admit, on the nostalgia front, they have really plastered the Dome and Champions Square with the Super Bowl XLIV stuff... If you take a walk around the place and look at the pictures, the enormous (ridiculous) statue of Benson holding the Lombardi, and if you check out the players' faces they feature on the tickets each week, etc., a lot of times you'd think it's maybe still 2010 or 2011.

hagan714

no doubt about it getting close to that time were young pups need to be groomed

halloween 65

We got Rooks-6th round project, might turn out might not. There was a few studs in this seasons draft, we got none. We have been lucky developing O-linemen, my question is have we run out of luck. It all starts up front.