Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

METAIRIE, La. -- While working with a group of draft-hopeful linebackers in Dallas this offseason, former New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Shanle was struck by the passion and work ethic of one in particular. Shanle said he figured it was an undrafted free agent-type who was eager to get as much coaching as possible.

Then he looked him up.

Turns out, the player was Hau'oli Kikaha, who led all FBS players with 19 sacks for the University of Washington last year and was drafted in the second round by the Saints.

“This kid, right away …,” Shanle said. “He wanted to meet with me, go over chalkboard sessions, watch film, go over my plays that we ran [with the Saints]. I was completely blown away with his passion and how eager he was to learn.

“Because there were some other kids I worked with who were gonna be late draft picks or undrafted, and they had it all figured out. They didn’t need any help. This kid, there was never a moment he didn’t want to meet and talk football.”

Former New Orleans Saints LB Scott Shanle impressed by Hau'oli Kikaha - New Orleans Saints Blog - ESPN

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Its Shanle, how hard would it be to blow him away

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Passion, eager, work ethic etc... sounds like the kid wants to be great at his craft. Regardless of competition, 19 sacks this past season was impressive for Hau'oli.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

scott was a hard worker and an extremely intelligent player. I respect his opinion

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Exactly, as much as I didn't like Shanle you could never doubt his passion for the game and football intellect. He was never a good athlete and it showed on the field. If Shanle had the athleticism of Martez Wison he could have been the greatest LB ever.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/05...6e9fc6d032.jpg

Wow, you know absolutely nothing about Scott Shanle.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Cool! I hope this guy comes in and makes an impact! Nice to hear from Shanle that this guy could be the real deal.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I hate how everyone talks down on SS. He had a few productive years here and helped win a championship.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I'm disappointed that someone would correlate NFL talent with NFL IQ.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

He is going to be better than stellar. I believe it!

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I'm surprised Shanle's not coaching to be honest.


Shanle interview for anyone interested. Mentioned some nice things about the Saints, Payton, and our new pass rusher.

TBL: Former Husker and NFL linebacker Scott Shanle - Omaha.com: Big Red Today Blog

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

High praise from Shan the man, glad to hear it. I think it's really cool that he still has a good relationship with the organization. Wish he'd come back and help coach the LB's, Vilma too. I think both guys would make good coaches.

I'm still liking the pick more and more with time. I think the comparison to Suggs says all you need to know about the 40 time. And with the injuries, I think what a lot of folks are missing is that recent and significant strides have been made in repairing ACL's. People are coming back faster and not having as many setbacks. He and Anthony could end up being the 1A and 1B of our draft. Though currently Williams is my second favorite pick.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I only clicked on this to say something smart but u stole my thunder.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Im sorry but he also let Davis score the winning touchdown. I think we would've won the superbowl that year. I think I just hate that it seemed like we never tried to upgrade when he was here and I just got tired of our D sucking. I know it wasn't all on him.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

You got your s**t all crossed up dog. That was on Harper....SS wasn't even on the team!lol

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Ever notice that superstar athletes generally make horrible coaches, yet the so-so athlete who never really produced all that well generally makes better than average to great coaches. Well most on thiis thread noticed anyway with a couple of exceptions.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I'd take a guess that "super-star" athletes rely on mainly their ability, while the ones with not so great ability study the game more... :confused:

Just a wild guess...

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

ding-ding-ding-ding-ding...give that man a ceegar

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Watching his highlight reel again and for someone who runs a 4.9 40, he sure gets around the edge quick...

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

He was an very important part of the crackerbackers.
Did Shanle ever play for the worst defense in the league?
Maybe second worst but not the worst. :D

Wait a minute... that wasn't funny. This looks like Scott's cat.


http://www.best-gif.com/wp-content/u...e-training.gif

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I miss the way Shanle would trot through the camera shot one second after the whistle.

That's all I miss about Scott Shanle. He may be a football genius, but he wasn't much of a football player.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

This going to be the year we are going to be a true 3 / 4 defense. The depth going to be ridiculous. A hicks, cam Jordan, with John Jenkins in the middle. The pass rushers Anthony spencer with back up kikaha, & junior galette with Edebali back up

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

That might be the case. Will be interesting to see.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Actions speak louder than words when it comes to Scott.

Every year the saints signed free agents and drafted players to replace him and put him back to his multi position backup role we signed him to be.

Well Scott had other plans. He beat all comers and stayed the starter

how much money and picks must a team waste till they realize the answer was staring them in face all along.

Lunch pale toting blue collar players are hard to judge.

He earned my respect because of it.

He just made me feel better about this pick.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Hey do you all remember when Marshawn Lynch met Shanle in the trenches during our playoff game and Lynch proceeded to also blow Shanle away... sorry I had to lmao

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Just a thought Who Dat fans ... let's look through the front windshield rather than the rear view mirror ;).

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Shanle played in the league 10 years. Not bad for a 7th round pick. That in itself is enough to earn my respect.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I wasn't a "Shanle Guy", but I respect his opinion. I'll bet Kikaha works out beautifully.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Scott Shanle was a smart player. If he wasn't he wouldn't have even been on the field because his physical ability was sub par compared to the rest of the league. I always wanted us to upgrade his spot too, but I can't say anything bad about the guy. He did a good job.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Not too sure how accurate that is.

Can't recall any OLB FA signings, nor do I remember the Saints drafting any decent LBs.

You could say Danny Clark was the one big FA signing but he replaced Fujita (and did a pretty good job).

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

I don't think he did a good job.

He was actually fairly bad, but his passion and football IQ shouldn't be questioned. Problem was his body could catch up to what his mind wanted.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

98 tackles and 4 sacks his first year as a Saint.

69 tackles and 2 picks in the Super Bowl year. He was straight.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Well, in all fairness I do remember a few LB's being taken in Shanle's time. I can remember Marvin Mitchell, Tez Wilson, Nate Bussey. Tez was a 3rd rounder, and his build could have had him challenging at WLB. I remember Arnoux too, but he was ILB if IIRC, so Arnoux wouldn't count for competition. But I also remember Cassilas (sp?) taking over at WLB some year (Shanle was a will, except for that one year - I think - when he moved to sam, again IIRC).

Bottom line was there was at least -some- competition for Shanle through the years. And he just stayed on.

I personally have pleasant memories of the guy. But he was he a magnet for a lot of unlove from fans.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Stats are not a very good measure of a player's ability.

Statistically, his first year is the only one that sticks out as good. However, if we base everything on stats Lofton would be the best Saints LB to play the game and we know that's not the case.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Jonathan Casillas was the only actual competition and he was a UDFA, he was athletic enough but apparently didn't have the football IQ.

The rest of the folks you mentioned wouldn't really be fits for the WLB, Wilson was more of a SAM and the rest were MIKEs.

Again though, I am not trying to slam Shanle. I think he played to the best of his ability.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Not much Football in Alaska huh? SS started for a superbowl winning defense but he "was not much of a football player". Give me 2009 SS over our lb's all day long right now.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

Sorry but getting half tackles for being the last player there does not make him a smart football player. He was abused and slow his entire time in New Orleans, sure he would make a play but that normally occurred when the opposing offense did something wrong or if the QB threw a pass behind the TE he was covering. Just because he played during the game doesn't matter, he had little to do with the victory in SB 44

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

He was also a lot better than most people gave him credit for.

Re: Former Saints LB Scott Shanle 'blown away' after working with Hau'oli Kikaha
 

He was ranked number 3 in the nfl right in front of ray Lewis the year we won the super bowl.
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