Utah_Saint

There's no point in staying with the status quo with the personnel on defense for the New Orleans Saints.

The Saints are buried in the NFL defensive dumpster again for the fourth time in five years. The season already could be beyond return. It's time to make some moves.

You can almost envision Sean Payton saying exactly what his buddy Jon Gruen said during the "Monday Night Football" broadcast near the end of the Saints' 45-32 loss to the Falcons in Week 3.

"Once again, Jairus Byrd in the middle of the field is a liability," Gruen said without hesitation following Devonta Freeman's 48-yard run near the end of the game.

Why not put second-round pick Vonn Bell in the starting lineup at free safety? You've got nothing to lose if you're the Saints. Byrd is highly likely in his final season with New Orleans despite receiving a six-year deal that could have maxed out at north of $50 million in 2014.

Bell is the safety of the future. Everyone in the building understands that. I would hope even Byrd gets it, too. It honestly wouldn't stun me if we saw Bell start on Sunday in San Diego instead of Byrd.

It also wouldn't be ridiculous if the Saints made some switches in the linebacker group. Payton was very frank about how the linebackers performed against the Falcons.

"In general, we didn't play well at all at linebacker," Payton said Wednesday.

Craig Robertson is the only linebacker playing with any consistency. He leads the NFL in total tackles after Week 3 with 35. It's one ahead of Luke Kuechly, Jerrell Freeman and Zach Brown.

To put some franchise historical perspective on this, the Saints have more leading tacklers to finish outside the top 50 (three) in the NFL than finish in the top 10 (two) since 2001.

Typically, middle linebackers lead the team in tackles. Robertson can play the Mike spot. Payton has said so in the past. Robertson said Thursday he's fully capable. Why not make Robertson the starting middle linebacker instead of James Laurinaitis?

Again, I could see the Saints pondering that option heavily this week.

I will always assume Dannell Ellerbe won't play at weakside linebacker every week because of injury. So why not give Nate Stupar a chance at the Will spot to replace a shifted Robertson?

None of these ideas are over the top. And gauging by what safety Kenny Vaccaro said Thursday, changes certainly seem like they're on the way.

"I just don't think he (Payton) wants what's happened in the past to infiltrate our locker room again. He just wants to make sure the best 11 guys are out there, whatever can help our team win, he's all for," Vaccaro said. "If you have to sit guys, if you have to rotate guys, whatever that takes, it's all about getting the win. It doesn't matter how much you make, it doesn't matter how many years you've been in the league."

More at: Time for Saints defensive personnel changes, plus other First-and-10 tidbits | NOLA.com