WillSaints81

I hope Shaq has a good combine so he moves up and we have a chance at Ray. We do need ol help though, I would also like a backup LT to Armstead as we saw the last two games what its like without him.

Danno

I think the top of the draft will address defense (unless that Iowa freak of nature is there) and the middle rounds is where we'll see O-line addressed.

Free agency will likely shore up CB, LB, DT, OC, OG, CB and maybe K.

NonieT

I hope we draft 2 LBs that can cover.

darksoul35

I think we have talent on D. We just had the 4th ranked D the year before. Rob will turn it around if he can pick his own coaches. What does it look like when he tells Vitt what to do? He probably laughs and tells Rob to shut the hell up. He needs people to have to respect him.

NonieT

One reason the D regressed so badly was because Ryan used a different D from the one he used in 2013. I'd like to know why he got away from what was working?

SaintsBro

It's pretty darn simple. For them to fire Rob Ryan, it would mean Payton and Loomis admitting THEY MADE A MISTAKE in hiring him. When have those two EVER admitted to making a mistake or being wrong about anything? When Spags was here for one year they had the convenient excuse that Payton and Loomis were suspended and out of the building, to fall back on. Very tidy, no mess to clean up. Plus I think in Spags' case, you had that anonymous media report, the article about players criticizing him that came out around New Years', and then Payton came back a week or two later and I suspect he pulled aside a few trusted guys like Vilma and Harper and asked them what the *** was going on, and got his answer.

Firing Rob Ryan right now would destroy the Myth of the infallibility of Payton and Loomis, and only draw more attention to the team's problems, that have happened in recent years under their watch. Ryan stays, at least for now.

hagan714

everyone had rob figured out mid way through the 2013 season yet he could not adjust. the tweaks he did in 2014 were ok but not enough. again no adjustments till injuries forced his hand.

he is what he is and nothing more.

NonieT

Is that right? And we still managed to finish a top 5 defense. I wonder how that happen?

lumm0x

I will start by saying I am glad Ryan was given another shot. I never like the idea of having a cook make a meal when someone else buys the ingredients as Parcells used to say. Ryan was handed his assistants, positional coaches and players and very few pieces have his direct fingerprint on them. Let him have carte blanche discretion over personnel and coaching on his side of the ball and we can judge based on that.

But.....Rob Ryan has a reputation as a pressure coach with exotic blitz packages and scheming to disguise pressure. We were one of the lowest teams in the season last year in pressure. And I don't mean generating pressure I refer to sending pressure of more than 4 people attacking the QB. I believe the stats I saw were 27% on 1st down, 28% on second and 35% on 3rd. These are hideously low numbers for a guy reputed to be an attacking/dictating DC. Why was that?

Our secondary was riddled with injuries and we had street FA's playing, back ups to back ups playing. You would assume the best friend you could offer a weak secondary is disrupting and rushing QB's. Letting them sit back, unhindered would be the worst thing you could do, yet that is what we did.

I was not impressed with his ability to coach guys into effectiveness, to motivate players at a low point or to understand that what he was doing was not working and make adjustments. I didn't see any radical changes to scheme to at least be different. We just stayed a course of hoping for improvement which didn't really occur. We had a few games where our effort and base defense was enough to get us by an appear as improvement. But when all was said and done we were pretty much consistently bad and I didn't see alot change over the course of the year.

I think Rob only gets one year to improve though, even though that's not enough time to change his staff and personnel and install everything that needs to be, tweak it, and show definitive forward progress. So this is where he needs to prove he's a coach and make more out of less. I hope he is successful and the guy who can do that.

Rugby Saint II

Give Rob the ILB'er and DT he needs......and of course CB. I can wish can't I?