WhoDat!656

NEW ORLEANS – The NFL's final four – Seattle, New England, Green Bay and Indianapolis – highlight one incontrovertible reality: the New Orleans Saints have fallen from among the league's upper echelon.

I arrived at that conclusion long before this past weekend's divisional playoffs – or for that matter, the previous week's Wild Card round.

Watching the Saints stumble, bumble and even fumble (see the Week 1 and 16 matchups with Atlanta) their way to a 7-9 finish was all the evidence needed. The postseason has merely served to drive the point home.

Can the Saints bounce back? Of course. Are they close? Well, that's a question whose answer is far less obvious and, if answered properly, deserves more than a few words.

Therefore, before I delve into that one (and don't worry, I will), I'll first take a position-by-position look back at the good and bad of 2013, as well as what's needed moving forward.

Saints offseason crystal ball: quarterbacks

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."