burningmetal

I would rather not see it come to the point of Drew leaving. I think that's pretty obvious that we don't want that. But if this coaching staff and front office can't properly prepare for life after Drew then maybe we should be discussing THIER worth. Tom Brady sure wasn't a great college QB, but they developed him, and as I mentioned before, they won even without him. I look at the Ravens and see that they won two super bowls with Trent Dilfer and Joe Flacco. I think back to last year when Peyton Manning resembled Danny Wuerfful, and his team still won the Superbowl. There are other ways of winning. Allocate money wherever you have to in order to be successful, and more importantly, have the ability to develop players within your system.

Throwing for 48,000 yards doesn't mean what it used to. Again, he's still very good, but when you throw as much as the Saints do, you will have yards. They finished middle of the pack in points per game. And as long as we're paying Drew the kind of money people say he's worth, then that's not going to cut it. He needs some help. I have high hopes for the young guys on defense, but I can't say the same for the people who are in charge of keeping him conscious, up front.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, the NFL would fine and suspend me.

SaintFanInATLHELL

The difference in all of your examples is that each and every one of those teams carried a top 5 defense. The Saints defense in the last two years has been so bad that literally rank 35 out of 32 teams in many categories. Historically bad. 3-13 or 2-14 bad. Yet the Saints went 7-9 and amazingly actually had a chance to make the playoffs in 2014.

And I think you are still missing a critical point... moving on..

I call BS on your tons of yards comments. Brees has been a master of being efficient completing the ball and having a high yards per attempt. There is a reason that Brees has 4 of the 8 5000 yard seasons and why no other QB has more than 1. Even in today's NFL if 5000 yards was simple then a ton of QBs would attain it.

Back to the critical point, which is Brees is still playing at an elite level. So preparing for life after Brees really isn't the crucial item. Preparing to support Brees in another SuperBowl run soon certainly should be.

SFIAH

Super Bowl Championships: New Orleans Saints:1, Carolina:0, Atlanta Chokers: STILL ZERO

Only Atlanta choked in an unchokable situation... Life is definitely good.

burningmetal

Yes, I know the defense was bad. And I know that those other teams had top defenses. Why do you think I brought them up as examples? That was my point.

It means that you don't have to panic because there aren't QB's on the market. Build a freaking defense, build an offensive line. Be physical up front like all championship teams are. Be creative. For all the money they pay Brees, and for all his stats, this team misses the playoffs just as often as they make it. I'm not blaming that on Drew. I'm illuminating the fact that obviously there is something missing, and perhaps a different philosophy is needed. It's merely a thought. We can win with Drew if they can keep him upright, have some balance on offense and stop some teams on the other side. But that's obvious.

Unfortunately, they don't keep him upright enough, they don't run very effectively, aside from a couple of good games, and they don't stop anybody. If they can't afford to pay him, they could theoretically fix some of the other issues and be competitive that way. I'd rather have Drew, but I'm trying to be real. I think he stays, but it's not all about him. This is more reflective of my lack of confidence in the organization in recent years. When you go 7-9 three out of four years (yes I know one was without Payton, but that team still should have been a little better) and make several bad mistakes in free agency and the draft, you've clearly got some issues.

You brought up the fact that they traded for Unger and drafted Peat. But those were both last off-season. We had a full year to see how well that worked out. And Unger was good. We know Armstead is good. I never liked the Peat selection, and not only was he bad last year, I haven't heard glowing things about him this off-season, either. The revolving door at guard has been terrible, and Strief is a decent backup who is still having to start.

But this is what we're going to have this year, again. And I'm not sure what you're going on about with the 5,000 yards argument. No, only a couple have done that other than Brees, but a TON of 4,500 to 4,800 type seasons are being thrown around by several QB's.

Yes Drew has been one of the best throughout his career in accuracy and yards per attempt. I didn't say he wasn't! Stop being offended by any comment that doesn't kiss his butt. Honestly. It's a little ridiculous how worked up some of you get about Drew. I'm trying hard to be patient and not get angry, but this is just going over the top.

He has been among the best. However, I see more and more dink and dunk every year. And it is leading to middle of the pack in points. I pointed that out in the last post and you completely ignored it. Instead you went right to the stats. So the defense makes us score less points? The Saints averaged more points per game in 2002 with Aaron Brooks AND a bad defense. And went 9-7, not 7-9. AND that was still before many of the wuss rules had come out and made the game what it is today.

So please, let's not act like many of the stats we see today aren't inflated. Drew was once THE best in the league, in my opinion, and is still one of the better. But we're not winning. I feel better about this years team, I truly do. But I'd like to see some consistency built into this organization. Not just "hey, let's keep maxing out on Drew and hope that works out". And I don't know that Drew is asking top dollar. I'm just a bored fan having a discussion with all knowing people.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, the NFL would fine and suspend me.