First let me state that some of these are totally up to speculation and I have no inside source within the building.

1. Brees played hurt most of this year. Obliques can be a testy thing , one moment you can throw a 90 mile an hour fastball and feel fine . You sit awkwardly on the couch and boom.

2. Graham significantly injured and kept reinjuring his shoulder. I don't even think he was at 60% this season. He was a decoy for a reason ..

3. We lost the best player on our defense. Byrd didn't look all pro by any means in his first few starts , but a pro of that caliber doesn't stay down. He would've led this secondary along with Warren on a tear. All those 3rd and 30s would be a done deal with him there.

4. We lost our most explosive weapon on offense. Ingram aside , Cooks was the best guy on offense this year.

5. We lost our Muscle in the secondary when bush went down. Regardless of how he covered , nobody dared run a foolish route into the deep middle with bush lurking. See Edelman hit again.

6. Westbank was bothered by a nagging injury. Our best corner #3 in the league by my watch was always hobbling , even shutting down boldin DAMN there crawlings between plays.

7. Ingram was hurt too. We didn't miss all that much of a beat because Robinson is a workhorse, but Ingram undoubtedly opened everyobe up down field. He would've gotten into an even better groove this year.

8. Greer was far more important to this defense than anyone will care to admit. You can say loss of leadership with the big 4 leaving town took an affect , sure to some extent. But Greer shut things down opposite of Westbank which provided Cam and Galette with that much needed extra second to get there.