The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

The 53-man roster is for sure now far, far too small. Injuries are too frequent and players today are too specialized. You now have blocking tight ends and receiving tight-ends. You have receivers that can only play in the slot. Corners who specialize in man to man but can't do much else. In the 70's and 80's it was more 'one size fits all', but today for every position there are two or three implied sub-positions. The players are bigger and faster and more players get hurt. The NFL is worried about concussions and taking concussed players off the field more often for evaluation (and rightly so), yet you can only have 46 players active. A NFL player shouldn't be cut and readded to the team 8 times a season just because of active roster gymnastics. Careers are getting shorter (due to injury and salary cap concerns) and thus the average NFL player is quite a bit younger. More players seeing time on the field are unproven commodities for the purposes of NFL-calibre play. What this means is you have a playing environment that is a little more similar to college football - there is more volatility, more depth chart changes. And yet if you told any NCAA Div 1 coach that they had to cut their active roster to 46 players before they coached their next game, they'd be spitting fire.

The active/inactive roster sizes need to be pushed up from 46/53 to 53/60. More liberal activation and demotion to practice squad should be allowed. And then there's an even more sensible improvement - clone MLB and allow expanded rosters in the last month of the season, or at least the last 2-3 weeks. Make it so the players don't use up their season of FA eligibility for their callup to the expanded roster. The NFL powerhouses get a shot in the arm toward the end of a long, physical season. The cellar-dwellars get to try out marginal players and mine for diamonds in the rough. Not every player will like this idea (and neither would the NFLPA in some regards) but it tremendously helps the game.

If the NFL could get it together, maybe we would see SJB gets some snaps. Because I'm sure most of the reason he was held back was for FA-eligibility reasons. The Saints have been DREADFUL at developing talent for at least the last two years. We continue progressing this way and this team will be a horrible 4-win mess for numerous years to come. But I can't throw Payton under the bus, perhaps just a limb or two, because a lot of it is an NFL problem because of what I've said above.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

SJB not being active has nothing to do with what you are saying. FFS we had 3 qbs active today and SJB still inactive.

Although I agree the roster needs to be expanded.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Not an excuse in my opinion.

We just don't have very good football players or very good coaching right now. Look at the good teams today and they have hard nosed, tough football players. We have slackers for the most part. Good idea on expanding the roster and game day actives. I have made similar post before but I don't think it would have helped this team.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

No excuses should be our motto for next year.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Yeah, it's the NFL'S fault. Increasing the roster limit will equal having more marginal players. Did you watch all the "Ex Saint" players today. They were all over the NFL

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Yeah maybe it's not a good excuse. Maybe it's just time for Payton to go. It's a hard realization that the coach who saved team and the city from the depths of hell and then made it freeze over with the SB win a few years later has lost his mojo.

I'd rather this organization make the tough call on this now than a few years later. I'm just afraid we will have a number of 3-4 win seasons and a major rebuilding effort required by the time the organization sees the writing on the wall.

I still think Payton is a good guy, but I also think he and this team have lost their way. We went from being the hungriest team to being the fattest team. We're a team that seems to care more about endorsements, commercials, ticket sales, popularity, fantasy football, statistics, social media and all these things that are just fools gold. It has become a picture of complacency. At least when we had Ditka and Haz we still had players playing hard.

More and more, I don't see a path to get back to where we want to be that includes Payton. Payton has us too far down the wrong approach and none of the players seem to care anymore. We need a guy like Zimmer with the Vikings who is more of a hard-nosed s**tkicker. We may not find the 'right' guy on the first try, but at least we will begin on the next journey and that alone will wake up the team.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Fantasy Football? What other kind of football is there?

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

No excuses! You get to play 16 games. Show up, and play.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

I want to give Sean at least one more season before I can decide if I want him to stay or go. If he approaches next offseason and season like he did this year,and/or he says he's gonna make big changes,but does very little change,then that shows me that he is stubborn and refuses to adapt and does not have the best intentions for this team. If that's the case,then I'll go down there and pack his bags myself. This is not the first time we've gone 7-9 with him and he's fixed things in the past. Not saying it'll happen this time....hell,it might get a lot worse,but I'm having faith he'll pull through until he proves me wrong.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

IMO the front office crapped in the bed when they judged Harper & Jenkins value more by their cap hit than on their leadership abilities.

Considering how well Harper and Jenkins played their 1st season on new teams it is obvious than that they weren't released/traded because of ability. It is possible that the Saints wanted to keep both of them but they refused to restructure or take a pay cut.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Should be. But it ain't.

There is no excuse. Only reasons. And it seems we are scared to look the reasons straight in the face.

Which is disappointing. Because until we can, we will not deal with the reasons for underperformance.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

what we saw was the teams complete roster. not to pretty as a whole. there is a few bright spots but not enough to cover up poor personnel moves.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

If we bring Payton back (which is most likely), I just hope the organization makes it known the seat is getting a little hot and that the team needs to play smarter and harder under his watch. If we give Payton the "don't worry, you're good, just do your thing" approach, I fear we'll see more of the same from last season, except worse.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

when the fan base, let alone the opposing team knows exactly what play you have dialed up - there is a problem

when you trade away veteran players on a good d and pay big money for the answer - there is a problem

when you give huge contracts to people who then under perform - there is a problem

when simple fundamentals like wrapping up on a tackle are not corrected week after week - there is a problem

when you are more concerned with social media than solid football - there is a problem

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Hey we beat the AFC north and NFC north division champs, and split with the NFC south division champs (if you want to throw that in) this year.

Payton will right the ship for next year, this season is a hard one for him to swallow.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

This team comes back well from an off season after a poor showing the year before. We are a consistent winner that back slides occasionally. We are a perennial power house and will get things back on track again after a little tinkering to the O-line and some good moves in free agency. We will be back to a 13-3 record or better again. Self scrutiny is humbling and sometimes necessary.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Truth is it's a "What have you done for me lately" occupation. Produce or go!

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Tell him we will pay for results. If he doesn't like that, that tells all.
I hope it is a hard to swallow. There are many Saints fans reeling also.and we lost to?

It is the half full / half empty approach. Which is correct?
Tune next season, same time, same channel.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

I think what we might have seen over the last couple of seasons is the "Tiger Woods" effect. Remember back when Tiger was setting the world on fire? That was also the time when he was banging every woman within eye sight.

That was the Tiger that was so relaxed he could hit a 50 foot putt with his eyes closed. As long as the poon-tang was free-flowing, Tiger was untouchable. Unfortunately, as soon as the train of skanks came to an end, so did Tiger's game. He has never been the same.

Now I'm not saying that Peyton was cheating on his wife, but the timeframe in which he was reported to be "feasting on the bearded oyster" was also the time we were winning Division Championships and Superbowl Titles. He's now back in a steady, monogamous relationship and our club is in shambles.

Just a theory.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

Come on man... That's just crazy and disrespectful.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

rehire Kromer

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

LOL well Kromer exposed Cutler can't argue with him there.

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

No Byrd was the word

Re: The few excuses I can make for Sean Payton
 

I know how to fix it, wait let me check my in box..............