Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Zach Strief will play for the New Orleans Saints or no one - New Orleans Saints Blog- ESPN

Sounds to me like he is willing to take a good size pay cut to stay a Saint. Not to often a player shows this type of loyality. Could be a valuable cheap backup.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Extremely rare. Keep him around. Might as well see if he can beat out the kids. If not, hey, we can always use a guy like him as a backup.

Good guy. Wish there were more like him in the NFL.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Strief is a solid tackle but seems like an even greater guy!

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

I'm fine with him being a back up RT, but please God, don't let him be a starter anymore. I never understood the infatuation with Strief. He's the most overrated player to ever touch our offensive line. We should have moved Bushrod to RT and let Strief walk years ago. Then maybe we wouldn't have wasted a picked on Peat and took an interior lineman or pass rusher instead.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Yeah, we should have wasted it on Chris Conley!

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Has been rated as one of the best RT in the NFL in 2013 and 2014. His character in the locker room has never been questioned. Zach your a pro in every way. Wish we head a 53 man roster on game day with guys like you. If so we wouldn't be talking about missing the playoffs, but how deep we get in the playoffs.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

he was really good prior to this season, but this season he has been a disaster, Peat has to take over and we should keep him as abackup

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Number 64 is eligible!
Great Dude.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

C'mon Rez, I'm as critical as the next man when it comes to aging players but overrated? Zach is a long time starter however father time has caught up with him. He has been the starter since Stinchcomb retired, no? I wish we had the 2011 Strief but unfortunately he is past his prime.

I also think Zach was good for many years.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

I think Strief was overrated for many years.The same way he's been getting beat all year is what I always saw out of him. Brees just stepped up and out of the way of plenty of killshots. When he hit the market nobody went after him.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

He's been a blue collar RT. Nothing flashy but able to do his job. Now the wear and tear has started showing I think he could be a decent backup and hopefully mentors Peat to become the next starting RT. We could have did alot worst than Strief, he's been solid enough for a very good O over the years and hope he does retire with the Saints, he's earned it.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

I know it's not popular but he usually grades out well by PFF.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

He is a good guy. I met him at training camp in Jackson, MS, after practice, and he had time to sign tons of autographs & take pics w/ my kids. My pic. with him is one of my favorites, and one of the funniest you'll see.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

and so who else on the roster has taken his spot?
Who do you want in our lineup to take his place? Im game, if they can do the job better.
He's one of the best athletes in America.
He's a starting right tackle in the NFL, and has been for several years, with no challengers.
In the NFL's #1 productive offense.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Would like to see him back as a back-up for both OT and OG spots.

He also adds a lot of value as a leader on the team, essentially he is a coach in the locker-room. We saw how valuable that type of player is when we cut Jenkins and Harper. You can't judge a players value by just looking at his contribution on the field. Hell, even Vilma was valuable to us in his last few years, the guy didn't play but you would always see him coaching on the sideline.

Off topic, but I would love to see Vitt get cut loose and us bring Vilma in as the LB coach.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Wouldn't say he is great by any means, but he is an above average RT.

Not too sure how you can be overrated when drafted in the 7th round.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Not sure if you ever catch Pro Football talk w/Florio, but when Vilma is on air he has been pretty good. I think he will opt for full time TV broadcasting vs the grind of coaching.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

I don't doubt that, but some times the football itch can't be scratched unless your back on the field in some capacity. We all love and miss Vilma. I'm sure he won't be coaching for the Saints, it's just a pipe dream for me.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

^^ This ^^. Somebody obviously held him in high regard, :neutral:.

It's a thankless job, O/L. Everyone notices when you make a mistake, everyone else gets the credit when you do your job. You go home at the end of the day in a lot of pain and usually only with the satisfaction of doing a job that nobody really wants or can do, because you rarely make the big bucks.

Guy wants to retire a Saint, the team he started with, instead of bouncing around the league trying to squeeze every last payroll dollar out of the game, speaks volumes in regards to his character and his experience with the organization, IMO.

Put him in the FO or on the coaching staff, whatever, but you want to keep this type of guy around, just sayin'. :)

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

Just because our front office was inept when it came to replacing him doesn't mean he should have been starting for all these years. They drafted Peat for obvious reasons. The writing has been on the wall. They put faith in the interior line hoping it could mask the issues at Tackle, and at times it did. They never brought anybody in to challenge Strief. He's not overrated according to his draft position, he's overrated by the Saints fan base. At his best he was average. An above average run blocker, and a sub par pass blocker. Speed rushers destroyed him time and time again. We had this conversation about Strief like 3 years ago and I said it then. People tried to use PFF as a reference. Strief has always been a liability on the right side.

Re: Strief a Saint or taking his ball and going home
 

He was Nails yesterday.
He'll be back next year.
GEAUX Zach!