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Lost amid the warm and fuzzy nostalgia of the New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl XLIV championship is this oft-overlooked fact:

Those Saints were very, very good. I'd argue they were even great.

They aren't mentioned with the 1985 Bears or 1972 Dolphins but their accomplishments rank with the best teams in NFL history.

The 2009 Saints were one of seven teams in NFL history to start a season 13-0. That covers a span of 95 years.

What's more, they were one of three teams to start a season 13-0 and then go on to win the Super Bowl. Only the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1998 Denver Broncos managed to accomplish the same. Elite company, to say the least.

Moreover, the Saints won nine of their first 11 games by double-digit margins, including five by 20 or more points. Think about that as you recall the 2014 Saints struggling to dispose of the Tampa Bays of the world.

The 2009 Saints were not the most talented team in NFL history. Not by a long shot. In fact, they might not have been the most talented team in Saints history. For my money, the record-breaking 2011 squad was the best Saints team I've covered. By the end of that season, they were simply dominant.



But no Saints team was more complete than the 2009 champions. They had it all: talent; coaching; experience; intelligence; chemistry; hunger; and hubris. They were dominant on offense, opportunistic on defense and aggressive in all phases.

"We were kind of a combination of all that," said former linebacker Scott Fujita, one of the team captains in 2009.

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spkb25

In my opinion the decline of our Oline has been extremely detrimental. 2011 was the other year we should have won the SB, which is why the SF game still burns and hurts so much. Since that year our Oline has declined. It started the following year in 12 and has not been able to climb back to what it was then. even with our success in 13 our oline still had issues. I think last year our oLine was the worse it has been since SP has been here.

I think our tackles are fine, but we have a glaring hole at center and our guards either need to play better and/or take pay cuts. We do need to find a better backup then what we have as well.

I do think if JE is healthy and we add a good center our oline could be really good this year, and man we need that.

Anyway, just my thoughts, what does everyone else think?

Your team stinks

halloween 65

I think the O needs to get fixed, they are not horrible but these players that are there now are just not as dominate as they once were, Goodwin, Evans, and Grubbs to be exact, while Strief has not let down as much as those 3. Lelito is not dominate at C but he is not bad. These late round picks in recent years with the exception of Armstead have not been able to step up to the level of an aging(declining) O-line starters and that alone worrys me. If we do address the O line either in FA(like JP's thoughts) or in the draft C and G needs to be studded out with young players that can give us great production for years to come.

Beastmode

I hope we address the OL and do the best we can to forge some real protection. If we get back to scoring bags of points not much teams can do but try and keep up.

Rugby Saint II

We don't have chemistry.............we are not an invicible force anymore. We have really let the talent slide and haven't been good at restocking the shelves.