WillSaints81

The defense was ranked in the top five. We should have held onto our players. I think losing Greer, Vilma, Jenkins, Smith(don't care if he was old), Harper should not have happened. We should have worked on adding pieces in the draft and addressed the glaring need at the time which was oline and receiver. If we had done that things would probably not be as bad. We were obsessed with wanting to have what Seattle had we didn't realize we just needed to play at home in the playoffs. We still should franchize tagged Graham though but instead of signing Byrd held onto De La Puente(Unger was not an option in 2014). Veterans do not all fall off at the same time.

If we had done this we beat Atlanta week 1, Cleveland week 2, Detroit week 7, SF week 10 and are off to a 8-1 start. We probably beat Baltimore as well and likely end the season 12-4.

saintsfan1976

Yeah and if "ifs" and "buts" were fruit and nuts, every day would be Christmas...

Greer's career ended the day he was injured.
Smith was picked up but never saw the regular season again.
Vilma. No value there.

You can make a case for Jenkins and Harper but don't underestimate what a change in scenery can do for a player's career.

Poor draft decisions. Poor talent evaluation. Paying the wrong players.

This is more of what got us where we are today.

2015 looks bright in terms of young talent, at least on defense.

The opposite is true on offense.

Crusader

No kidding. I switched teams this year and had my best season in quite a while.

SaintsBro

I do think you are sorta right about the Seattle thing. Seattle envy, seems to have been a factor in some of Payton's thinking.

I'm absolutely convinced that the colossal 34-7 beatdown loss to Seattle in prime time on Monday night football in 2013, was so jarring and humiliating to Sean Payton, I think it really affected him somehow. I remember watching it on TV, and seeing shots of Payton looking up at the scoreboard like "What just happened to me here?" He literally looked pale and kinda nauseous, and he seemed to be almost dazed and shell-shocked in the press conference afterward. The noise level, the lack of Seahawk penalties, the violence with which they out played the Saints at every position, the weather... They got into his head, big time. It's almost kinda like that's where the slide really started; if you ask me, it started that night!

RaginCajun83

you bring up a good point Bro but I think the downfall of Payton happened when he got suspended in 2012, he hasn't been the same since he returned

Danno

Yep, 2013 was the perfect "revenge" season for him. Highly motivated with an us against the world attitude.

When 2014 arrived that was gone and it became business as usual. He's lost the eye of the tiger. Its common in the NFL and usually a change of scenery is the only thing to get it back.

Some rumors are floating around that he has a drug and alcohol addiction, as well as horndog-itis. That may or may not be true, and if it is we don't know to what extent.

I think he's just burnt out, and we have a hodge podge of talent. We have about 80% of the ingredients for a great pot of gumbo, and 80% for a great pot of chili, and 80% for a killer jambalaya. We just don't 100% of the ingredients for any of them.

Pick a system and focus on acquiring players that fit it.

Just like Roman Harper was a near perfect fit for a Gregg Williams defense, he was a bad fit for a system that uses 2 deep zone safeties.

SmashMouth

We can build on this good talent we have...

Some new coaching talent below...

DrewDat

Vilma, Greer and Smith were ALL hurt on the way out...wasted roster space

DrewDat

And the pieces to replace them were pretty spot on besides lofton

CharityMike

Cant live in the past. Waste of time and energy. I am sure when we let Brees go, no matter how awful he will be playing, when the next QB comes in, people will say, we shouldn't have let Brees go. Ridiculous right?