Curtis Lofton appreciation thread

[Barry from MS]

Originally Posted by Danno

A weak D-line can make a secondary look awful stat wise.

Conversely a great D-line can make a mediocre secondary look top notch.

For years people blamed our safeties much more than they should because our pass rush was woefully pathetic (the Will Smith years) and our CB's weren't all that great either. But they needed a scapegoat and Jenkins / Harper satisfied their anger.

Agreed 100%. DC scheme can also make a secondary, LBer's, and D-Line look truly pathetic. The Spags 2012 year is a perfect example.

With safeties & linebackers, you can't just use stats to truly sum up their performance. Especially so with safeties...how long did the QB have to scan the entire field? Which linebacker or corner blew a coverage? Which or how many D-linemen or LBers lost gap discipline or lost contain creating bad tackling angles for safeties already pre-positioned? Did the offense exploit mismatches created against a stoopid scheme (see Spags 2012)?

"Safety" is the most perfectly named position on the field...just in case a D-lineman, a linebacker, or a corner craps themselves on a play, a safety is there to clean it up. Sometimes, you just can't continually clean up all the crap that is being dumped on them by the Front 7 and the corners. Or a DC that has them mismatched in coverage or out of position constantly (see Spags 2012).

[halloween 65]

Originally Posted by Danno

THIS^^^ Its simply another tool to evaluate performance, definitely not the final say.

A weak D-line can make a secondary look awful stat wise.

Conversely a great D-line can make a mediocre secondary look top notch.

For years people blamed our safeties much more than they should because our pass rush was woefully pathetic (the Will Smith years) and our CB's weren't all that great either. But they needed a scapegoat and Jenkins / Harper satisfied their anger.

I liked Harper but Jenkins was just plain bad at FS. I agree with the D-line being bad.

[saintsfan1976]

How could our best tackler be our worst defender?

[Danno]

Originally Posted by saintsfan1976

How could our best tackler be our worst defender?

Most tackles does not mean best tackler

[jeanpierre]

Originally Posted by Roll Tide

Most tackles does not mean best tackler

Example: Roman Harper...

[ScottF]

Lofton has been on the field for more defensive snaps than any player we have over the past 3 seasons...by a wide margin.
He has led in tackles all 3 years, and this year it isn't even close (R.Bush is 2nd BTW)
He's slow, can't cover, blah, blah, blah.
Good thread- I wish everyone would get off this guy's back

[hagan714]

Originally Posted by ScottF

Lofton has been on the field for more defensive snaps than any player we have over the past 3 seasons...by a wide margin.

There is way to much truth in that first sentence to handle. It makes a case for the entire defense

I can point out player after player that is over used due to the lack of depth on defense. there are only a hand full of backups that deserve a roster spot IMO. If that

the saints have done a terrible job when it comes to team depth especially on defense.

throw the stats out the widow in my book.

the saints can not field situational defensive package to save their lives. even when 100% healthy

even with keeping 6 safeties the saints have a below average rotation back there. i will not get started on the rest. this is personnel decisions that frankly have stunk over the past few years. i cringe ever time someone comes off the bench.

I came away from the panthers game thanking god cam was off all night.

i was not that impressed with the defense to be honest. but a win is a win and i will take it. I will accept any little baby step the defense makes to looking better. Even against a bunch of back up offensive lineman, boy if they are that good, all i can say is this: It makes a case for how bad our depth is on the other side of the ball also

Rob has a long way to go still. NFL had his number in Dallas and they have his number again in New Orleans. Blaming the players does not work year in and year out. All the players he has added has done little to improve this team. one or two players can not cover up this fact.

In Rob's case, if the issue is intelligence, he might want to coach in the Ivy league. Because as we all know most NFL players have been nursed all the way to the pros and very few could feed themselves if the had to do it on there own. Turning down health coverage for life for cash now says it all. Then cry for rule changes? Take pacifier out their mouths ditch all the rule changes and stick the pacifier back in a different orifice. boy i could go way off topic with this one .....

Front office need help also. throwing around way to much to a few players does not help. to continue backing yourself up against the cap year in and year out is not what i call a great job overall. but they have 2 years of grace period left in my book before i go off on that topic.

But a win is a win and I will take it.

[halloween 65]

Lofton tackles great plays hard but lacks cover skills, what would help Lofton is a cover ILB to compliment him on the inside.

[Barry from MS]

Originally Posted by halloween 65

Lofton tackles great plays hard but lacks cover skills, what would help Lofton is a cover ILB to compliment him on the inside.

Spot-on & awesome.

[ScottF]

When Lofton was in Atlanta, he was not good in coverage. He is much better now, and nowhere near the liability everyone claims he is.

We play a ton of nickel and dime, and he out there in both sets.
Teams throw against us 60% of the time or more, and Lofton is out there for 98.3% of the snaps. What do they 'experts' know that Ryan doesn't?

Logic question: if Lofton is bad in coverage, but is used in every passing situation, does that mean Ryan is an idiot, or that every LB we have sucks in coverage also?