|Mitch|

It's hard when you lose most of your defensive starters to injury; just ask Rob Ryan when he was with the Cowboys. Losing Sean Lee and a couple in the secondary got him fired...

We've lost our top 3 corners and our LBs are not that good to start with

SaintsBro

It's not the sole reason, but one serious issue in this area where other teams succeed with injuries and we don't, is the DEAD MONEY.

If you have DEAD MONEY, and are struggling to free space up against the cap (like Loomis was doing literally every week/month this whole off season), all you can do is sign league-minimum UDFA's at the bare minimum to plug the holes in the roster after your starters and your free agent signings in the spring (Spiller, Byrd, Brandon Browner, and so on). If back in March/May we had magically had about $20 million to spare, to spend on players, like MOST TEAMS do, we would/could/should have likely gotten some MUCH better quality backups in the mix. Go back in the time machine, take a look around....if the Saints had more money to play with, back when Loomis and Payton were putting the early roster and draft list together, if they'd had some of that $20 or $30 or $40 million dollars in dead money that they're not able to use, it's quite possible that we could have gotten some higher-priced veteran backups or solid journeyman role players, to fill some of those spots currently held by absolute bargain-basement, league-minimum, spare parts scrubs. I don't mean superstars or big names, I only mean humdrum guys like Scott Shanle or Anthony Hargrove, those type of journeyman type players. They also wouldn't have to depend so much on reaching for big-splash free agent players with nagging injury histories, which Payton and Loomis often have to do, because they are cheaper on the free agent market, and that's all they can afford because of the ongoing, perennial DEAD MONEY problem. If only we could have had some of those types of players in the mix, solid journeyman guys at the bottom of our roster, instead of walk-ons, and undrafted rookie scrubs from nowhere schools we see so much of now, "learning on the job." See what that $15 or $20 million could have done, if we'd had it to spend, on solid, dependable defensive pickups in the spring?

captainshawn

I don't think any other team is dealing with the number injured starters that we are this season. Not saying that's the only problem here but is sure is a big part of it.

Euphoria

Oh there are injuries on other teams and even some suspended players in KEY positions as QB - Brady.

WHy are they 3-0 they have a solid line they can play next man up behind them.

|Mitch|

And a pretty good defense! All thanks to Matt Patricia

WillSaints81

Those teams are ball-control teams?

Danno

Losing one or two players is much different than losing 10-12 starters.

Utah_Saint

There have been a few notable exceptions but for the most part, they don't. Every year there's a team or two that are expected to do well at the start of the season but they end up losing more guys than they can make up for and fall far short of expectations.

I keep seeing Brady used as an example of playing through a loss of a player but nobody has mentioned what happened to the Cowboys last year after Romo went down.

NOLA54

Coaching, draft picks, attitude, physical conditioning...should I go on?

hagan714

quality of bench players that can only be achieved by a fair batting average in the mid rounds of the draft, same type of FA players and smart trades.

Drafts average is piss poor
Cap is all a mess
Saints can not trade worth a squat