WhoDat!656

Last year Jairus Byrd signed a six-year, $54 million contract with the Saints. And it went downhill from there.

Byrd suffered back and knee injuries and ended up playing only four games in 2014. But now that he’s back to health and back at work, he says he’s finished focusing on last season.

“I’m talking about this year,” Byrd said, via ESPN. “What happened last year is last year, and all my attention and energy is on to this year.”

Coming off a rough season, the Saints made some significant changes this year. Byrd thinks his presence on the field for more than four games is going to be part of a change for the better.

“I’m definitely excited. I think anytime you’re away from the game as long as I had to be, you’re just grateful just to be able to do the normal things that you might have taken for granted,” Byrd said. “You definitely are more appreciative of it. I’m really excited and grateful just to be out here doing this [minicamp], running around and being with my teammates again.”

Byrd had made back-to-back Pro Bowls at the time the Saints signed him. Getting him back at a Pro Bowl level this year would go a long way toward turning things around in New Orleans.

Jairus Byrd is done talking about last year | ProFootballTalk

"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."