AsylumGuido

Kromer was with the Saints 2008-2012.

Brees interceptions:

2008 17
2009 11
2010 22
2012 14
2013 12
2014 17
1015 11

With Kromer averaged 16 picks per season.

Without Kromer averaged 13.3 picks per season.

Brees averaged 2.7 more picks per season with Kromer as coach including the two worst years of his career (2010 and 2012).

Don't let facts stand in the way of a good argument.

RaginCajun83

facts, no one got time for facts

Euphoria

I'd say we are starting to be...

Look if you have a problem and have the problem year after year after year... you start to become a joke.

saintshrimp

totally agree started going downhill when he became head of operations of the pelicans have said this for a couple of years now.

FinSaint

While things have been less than ideal... with Payton and Brees - the Saints won't ever be the laughing stock of the league.

hagan714

I agree LOYALTY has been a fault in so many cases. Overpaying players for winning the super bowl and then over paying FA to return.

To manage a cap one must use the draft. NE may strike out a bunch but they do hit their mark with so many picks also. Keeps the cap in flux and allows them to case FA as needed. They arrange to cap in such a way that they have the ability to case high price Free agents every 3 or 4 years.

When they do sign FA they do not over pay in the lean years. Nor do they sign them to long contracts. The vets they chase are really nothing special either. Just solid players in the back 9 of their careers.

To make a trade they really need to be sold on a player and the trade must have a safety blanket built into it. They love raiding teams like Cleveland who go through house cleaning with a new coaching staff.

OG Jonathan Cooper and a second-round draft pick for Chandler Jones Here is a great example of trading from strength to improve weakness and fore sght in cap control.

Cooper may yet be able to rescue his career if he gets past the leg issues. Even if he ends up as a OG/OC back up in the future he will be cheap to keep. If not They pocketed a 2nd and free up cap space to sign their key FA in 2017. So just to be safe they traded for

Barkevious Mingo for a fifth-round pick? to fill the void in already deep young position.

So worse case the Pats get Mingo and a second for Jones and a 5th. Mingo will be cheaper to keep.

Pats do not over pay. They do not keep trouble and no one is safe. BUT they always cover their butts in more way than one. Cap management is always involved in the picture with a player moved and a pick to replace a risk that did not work out. Kicking the Cap can down the road is not in their nature. Dead cap is not acceptable,

Granted they have the best coaching staff in the NFL. But they are the master of making runs for the title.

These are gambling moves I can at the very least understand and accept the cost as a fair risk.

Saints? grrrrr

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins

SloMotion

The year you won the Super Bowl, New Orleans forever shed the brown paper bags, the "Aint's" nickname and any eligibility to be in laughing-stock-club, IMO. Nah, you guys are just in a rut. As long as there's a team in Cleveland, nobody should feel bad about their team ... this from a fan of the team in Detroit, which can also make you feel better about your team now & again/historically, .

Cruize

They beat the Giants by 17 this week with a couple sacks and picks and the conversation flips. WHO DAT!

SaintsBro

I wouldn't quite say laughing stock, but I did hear some national TV commentators joking about Jalen Richard's embarrassing 74-yard TD run, saying "aww, but highlights don't really count against the Saints defense, you know it's the Saints" and again in another segment on another show someone used a play from the Saints/Steelers preseason game to draw on the screen and demonstrate in detail how Big Ben was carving up our inept secondary. On one sports show I watched, even the clip of the 98-yard Cooks TD was introduced with a chuckle, as in "how do you make this amazing play and then go on to lose the game?"

And we have fewer prime time games this year than any recent Drew Brees era year. So on a national profile, maybe not Browns-level laughing stock; but the Saints have sorta been reduced to being only shown on TV or mentioned when it's the other team's highlights. They are almost never mentioned by commentators as being in the mix for playoff spots. It's kind of reminiscent of the old days again.