WillSaints81

Old or new, players have to play in the offeason in camp and drills to build chemistry with players. New players to learn the system, old players and new players so they don't start out rested. Pre-season is not enough as starters play maybe a half and mostly less than that in games.

That brings up two points. And its very funny when considering in 2012, Brees held out until close to August before signing a deal. Think that did not affect him early on?

And Graham does the same thing. A deal does not get done until July. Again, Graham did not really get enough time to get ready for the season and it might be why he had more injuries.

And the most important is Byrd. He had back surgery in 2014 offseason and did not join the team until two weeks before the season started. Therefore he had no time to learn stuff, to gel with the team, to get his feet wet. This had a lot to do with why he didn't play well early on. And then he gets hurt week 4 again and misses the season.

Its important for the whole team to be working together in the offseason so they can all be on the same page when the season starts. If I hear that Unger, Browner, Spiller, and/or Ellerbe have some kind of minor injury and will miss most of team activities and not be able to do anything until August, I will not expect them to play at a high level when the season starts.