AFC GM on Saints
 

AFC GM on Saints
By Mike Detillier

[SIZE=2]I had an opportunity to talk to an AFC general manager this past week and he was frank about the additions to the New Orleans Saints and the weaknesses still for the Black and Gold.

“I really think the draft pickups of defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins and safety Vonn Bell will help the Saints and very quickly, “ said the AFC general manager. “We had both players rated very highly and they are two very motivated young men. To be honest we had given Bell a first round pick grade. The Bell addition is the sign that it is basically over for Jarius Byrd in New Orleans. The Saints still don’t have a signature pass rusher off the edge and their depth along the defensive line and in the secondary are razor-thin. All those years of not hitting on draft days are catching up with them. Everyone in this league deals with dead money issues and some more than others, but this team really has not drafted well and even the 2015 crop is an up-in-the-air unit.”

“Delvin Breaux was a great pick-up for them at cornerback and he looks like an extra first round pick the way he plays. He has a chance to be a signature player in the NFL. The real key defensively will be the development of Stephone Anthony and Hau’oli Kikaha. Both sort of flashed it last year. The one thing I can say is that (defensive coordinator) Dennis Allen will find the right spots for them in his defense. Allen is a very good coach, but you work it better on the field with better personnel. Both young men are athletic, can run the field and are playmakers. And both really struggled to cover folks downfield last year. The kid I liked was the young man from Georgia (Damien) Swann. If the concussion issues are behind him and that’s serious, he’s a really good “nickel” cornerback.”

“Offensively Drew Brees is still one of the very best players in the game today and he will make those receivers and tight ends look better, but I worry about their running game and the play upfront. Terron (Armstead) is a monster player and one of the best in the business at left tackle and I really like Max Unger. The guards they have are below average, but my main concern would be at right tackle. Zach Strief is getting up in age and has lost some of his quickness and agility to respond to the hard edge pass rushers in the NFL. I was very disappointed in Andrus Peat-who looked as stiff as a board last year in the games I saw. We had him a mid-20’s pick in Round One last year, but everyone’s board is different. He has got to come through for them. And he can’t play guard, Peat is a tackle.”

“I always worry about an older quarterback with major protection issues and a team that has trouble running the ball when they really need to. The Saints problems offensively are upfront along the offensive line and not much added this off-season. That part I don’t get. I think the world of Sean Payton. I truly believe he is one of the top five head coaches in the league today. But his really good teams were the ones with the best offensive lines. I look at 2006 and then the run from 2009 through 2011. The Saints offensive line those years were outstanding. The veteran personnel decisions and financial issues for the club have bogged them down, but nothing like those terrible drafts following the Super Bowl win.”

The knives are out | HoumaToday.com

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Pretty much spot on.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

I agree.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Damn... these are some of the same exact things some of us on this board have been saying. Who says we can't be GM's? [emoji14] Payton and Loomis, are you listening?

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Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Wow...

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Sounds about right.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Well duh. Give any qb a great oline and you can get a Brees. Even scam newton. (Reference to another thread)

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Sounds like he likes a lot more than he dislikes.

His main gripe... OG's

Personally I agree that we didn't address OG with a proven stud, but we do have a couple guys returning who should improve, and we signed about 3 or 4 OG/OT prospects that were rated mid rounders, and we replaced our O-line coach with what appears to be an upgrade.

Some may say that the article was negative, but I disagree.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

I especially agree when he mentions Peat. He does us no good at OG, for us to be successful and make The Playoffs, he has to beat out Strief for the starting RT spot. With Armstead and Peat at the OT's, we can manufacture two Guards(I believe one will be Landon Turner). Defensively, we just need to be no worse than 25 and we're in the playoffs.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

And to be honest, the easiest position to address on any NFL offense is probably OG, or perhaps FB.

I'm sure there will be some adequate veterans available if Lelito, Kelemete and every one of our rookies bomb.

If our biggest worry on offense is an OG, we're just fine.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

No doubt.


I thought the comments were fairly general and missed several nuances and additions that (could) make this team much better.

The schedule is hard, no question, but this is 2016 not 2015.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

payton and i would love to know who the hell is bunking the boys, is rex ryan the GM. in buff. as u can see i don't like the truth.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

My problem is at offensive guard as well. I liked the article because he was right.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Good read, job well done.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

I felt I could have been reading my own article here. I slightly disagree when he talked about the secondary. I think it's got plenty of talented young players, but they are mostly unproven. So I would say the jury is still out, rather than say the team is "razor thin" in the secondary.

Other than that, his criticisms mirror my thoughts and observations over the last few years. But I guess this guy's opinion counts, as opposed to that of a fan. I could rant for a while about that, but there's no point.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

One month too late with this article.

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

Which criticisms do you agree with?
He listed OG, no pass rush, razor thin DB's and Brees declining..

Re: AFC GM on Saints
 

I was pretty sure I covered all the things I agreed with when I mentioned the one thing I slightly disagreed with. Not sure why I should spend time listing them one by one. If you've even loosely followed my opinions over the years, you know how I feel about the bad drafts, the failure to properly address a leaky offensive line, the annual lack of pass rush and so on.

He said that Brees is still one of the best players in the league. I don't consider that a criticism. But he is aging and not particularly well protected. That has caused a noticeable decline. It's not a huge decline, but he hasn't been as sharp. If Drew were upright as much as Tom Brady is allowed to be, I don't think he'd be slowing down much at all.

Drew's performance is the least of my issues with this team. I mostly took note of what he said about the organization, as a whole, in the way it got really careless after winning the Superbowl.

The next couple of years after that, I don't think people paid much attention to how bad some of the moves were, because we still had the foundation in place. But once those guys started aging and getting injured, they weren't prepared. It was as if they were on an extended Superbowl hangover. Even if that isn't true in a literal sense, it's hard to deny that they dropped the ball in a lot of ways.

But when you read what some people say, it's often been said what geniuses these guys are, and that fans don't understand the process, yada yada. So when I read a GM, who would presumably know something about how things work, say many of the same exact things some of us have been pointing out, I just find it interesting. It's always been my opinion that too many people over estimate how difficult it is to understand the things that we can see with our own eyes.

There are undoubtedly things that I, and others, don't know anything about. But the game, in it's essence, is pretty straight forward.