Barry from MS

During this 3-game losing streak, the age-old philosophy of winning football games by dominating the middle of the field has never been more apparent than it has been these last 3 games in the Super Dome. The play of these players should point to exactly where our FA & draft targets should go.

Goodwin: Driven off the LOS on short yardage for a center is the worst possible thing that can happen. Can we please have Lelito hold down this position?

Bunkley/Jenkins: Neither one can maintain gap integrity in the middle. Rushing yards of 144, 186, & 215 in 3 straight games is just down-right terrible...and bad. NOTE: I do wish Bunkley a good recovery. Always hate any time I see a player go down with any kind of injury.

Hawthorne: Good Lawd. It doesn't help our NT play is poor-to-awful, but Hawthorne isn't even average MLB enough to compensate for bad D-line play.

Grant it, there have been many others with bad games over this 3 game stretch, but these 3 have stood out to me the most in these losing efforts as needing to be benched or replaced or motivated or cut or whatever.

"I'd far rather be happy than right any day" ~ Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
"Honor: if you need it defined, you don't have it" ~ Ron Swanson

lee909

I'd like to see more of Kasim Edebali and Ronald Powell,same with SJB, We need to see if these have anything to offer long term

Danno

Edibali played in the 2nd half and looked just as bad as everyone else did.

Not sure about Powell tho.

jlaw8920

Good point. I wish everyone could run stuff like Hicks, and then let outside lbs rush. At the same time, I think with decent tackling and good situational football, this team could have a lot more win.

blackangold

Are you being sarcastic here?

Hicks has been awful against the run as well... one of this years most disappointing players.

ChrisXVI

Amen! We know Edebali plays with some real passion and Powell has the size, strength and speed to potentially make some plays so let's turn them loose! Forget SJB though... He's busy "developing." We'll throw undrafted rookies out there for better or worse though.

Mardigras9

Goodwin (with the rest of the O-line) has been as big of an issue this year as the all the defensive issues.

Rugby Saint II

All three positions need to be addressed in the draft. We can't afford any more Loomis free agent deals. He hasn't really hit on too many free agents of late and our money is tied up in a few "key" free agent signings.

We also need to address guard, right tackle, wide receiver, corner back, and safety while we're at it. That shouldn't be too difficult because we draft much better earlier on in the draft and it looks like we will get high draft picks this year if we continue this slide. That is unfortunate but true.

Barry from MS

There was a thread on here earlier asking if we are "tough enough". SF, CIN, and BAL are "tough" teams. They are solid in the middle of the field on both sides of the ball. We lost all 3 at home with the last 2 being pretty sad.

It seems our front office & coaching staff are enamored with "bright, shiny objects". Corners and wide outs are great to have, but if you can't win the battle in the middle of the field, drafting corners & wideouts are pointless if the others teams are:

1) cramming it down your throat with the running game at will...exactly how many shut-down corners do you need to draft to stop this from happening?
2) stuffing your running game between the tackles...most defenses look good when an offense is forced to become one-dimensional.
3) putting constant QB pressure from between the tackles...that makes any future HoF QB look average.

A good, physical football team wins the middle of the field on both sides of the ball. And it travels well regardless of weather.

"I'd far rather be happy than right any day" ~ Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
"Honor: if you need it defined, you don't have it" ~ Ron Swanson

hagan714

need at least two. since Greer went down the saints have done nothing to address this issue. SJB? If the kid can not see the field now i do not see him stepping into the starter role next year. Yes another solid man cover CB would go a long way to helping against the rush. you can turn those two lose and use the remaining players to stop the run. Right now you need 3 solid CB min on the team and right now all i see is 2 and 2 long term projects. one dance partner for Lewis would be huge for this defense

this i agree with. depth stinks. not getting a solid rotation in the middle of a 34 defense is well the stupidest thing the saints did this year on the DL. You gotta rotate your NT all game long or you are doomed. Jenkins off the bench even for a play of two in an active rotation would have been better than Bunkely out there playing 90% of the snaps. That was just Rob cutting his own nose off out of some stupid spit issue of his own personal making.

LB? heck been screaming for those for year. Thank god for Harilson or things would be really ugly.

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