So, as DC, the past decade:
2006 San Diego Chargers defense #7 pts #10 yds
2011 Houston Texans defense #4 pts #2 yrds
2012 Houston Texans defense #9 pts #7 yrds
2013 Houston Texans defense #24 pts #7 yrds
2014 Denver Broncos defense #16 pts #3 yrds
2015 Denver Broncos defense #4 pts #1 yrds
2016 Denver Broncos defense #4 pts #4 yrds

It's not "fascination". It is that Wade Phillips is a well established DC, with a track record of success with different teams, and as of right now, he's available. Except for 2013, all of the listed defenses would probably have put the Saints in the SB.


Cuba Gooding Jr. would like to say something...


And you know there is nothing in NO to support his style of play because...?


And the guarantee that the Saints defense is not going to continue its struggle of the past 6-7 years is...?

The "fascination" to which I am referring to is the going on and on about something that has no shot of happening.

However, when someone else says a comment such as this, you tell them they have no clue about what goes in the Saints organisation and therefore we cannot comment on the matter.

How do you know this has no shot of happening?

Payton is on the hot seat, he may go for broke in an effort to save his job.

No. You TOTALLY missed my point.

Wade Phillips isn't coming to the Saints. He has no reason to come to the Saints. I agree completely that when given enough time and the right mix of players, Phillips can put a very good defense on the field. But getting him is a pipe dream. If there was any shot in hell of his coming to the Saints, Dennis Allen would have been on the same bus out of town as Vitt and the others.

The Saints would have just as much of a chance of having Bill Belichick becoming their next DC as Phillips.

The "fascination" to which I am referring to is the going on and on about something that has no shot of happening.

Oh, I did not miss your point AT ALL. Goes with the theme.


As far as everyone knows, Wade Phillips is not under contract. And we don't know what's the train thought in Denver, or how their dealings with Wade, if any, are going. However, we do know what large amounts of cash do.


That a false equivalency. For starters, Phillips is not under contract right now, Belichick is. Belichick has a long history of HC'ing with the Pats, Phillips has DC'd in 2 teams the last 6 years.


Says you. Again, Phillips is not under contract. He can talk to any team he wants to. We don't know the situation in Denver. Maybe they are eyeing a HC who wants his own staff, DC included... we don't know. Although we know what large amounts of cash can do in such situations.

The point that you are missing is that Phillips' scheme doesn't match the Saints personnel at all.

Oh, so yet another point I am missing... ok.

What makes you so sure Phillips' scheme doesn't match Saints personnel at all?
Being how historically bad the Saints defense has been the past few years, a very valid argument can be made that the Saints either don't have the personnel to run what they want to run, or they have no idea what to do with the personnel they have.

Any other point I am missing?

First of all, as halloween pointed out, our two, and perhaps as many as our FOUR best defensive players are not 3-4 type players. As he mentioned, we would have to get rid of Cam Jordan and Kenny Vacarro and not retain Fairley. He also assumes that Rankins, who looked like a stud in the 4-3, could seamlessly convert to a NT. He would be wasted at that position.

Now, as for the last few years, in 2012, Coach Spagnuolo attempted to pigeon hole players that were primarily 3-4 players into his strict 4-3. It was a disaster. In comes Rob Ryan in 2013. As he had done previously at Dallas, he introduced a stripped down version of his 3-4. There was enough 3-4 personnel to make it work that first year. In 2014 he fully implemented his defense which to say it is complex is an understatement. The defense looked lost. Some of the players were still more suited to a 4-3, such as Jordan. In 2015 Payton saw that the Ryan experiment wasn't working and brought in Allen. Allen quickly started using players to their strengths. This past season you know what happened with the injuries. Allen is flexible in his scheming, not like Phillips who is strictly a 3-4 coach.

That's great and all, but still none of it addresses MY point, that this defense has been historically bad for too long, whether it is a 4-3, 3-4, 2-3-2, 1-1-1-1-1-1-1, whatever, that it may take someone who really knows what he's doing to figure out what can be done with what the Saints got.

Also, stop making statements like "Allen is flexible, Phillips is strictly 3-4". Please...

And don't tell me what happened 2013-2014. I saw the games. Ryan's system wasn't complex; on the contrary, his system was so simple, he got figured out, just like he's gotten figured out the next season everywhere he's been.

A source within the Saints organization said most of the sideline issues revolved around Ryan's calls coming in late or the wrong defense being called. The source, who was granted anonymity to speak freely of the situation, said that happened "at least 40 or 50 times this year."

"It was awful," the source added.

...

It drove Payton crazy that Ryan's defenses turned into a whirlwind of chaos and confusion, plagued by misalignments and personnel issues due to Ryan's penchant for mass substitution packages.

"There were a few things that you looked at from a year ago and you said, 'We can't have X number of snaps with not the right number of guys on the field. We can't burn timeouts, you know, every other week because we can't get the right personnel on the field.' We just can't do that," Payton said Wednesday. "We can't have guys looking left and right at the snap of the ball. There's a game last season where the first eight plays of the game, we're misaligned and we don't even cover down the right way. Those were just facts."

Rob Ryan runs a multiple scheme that is complex in nature, and heavy on personnel groupings.

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones clarified this week that Ryan was dismissed for a mass defensive confusion caused by too many schemes.

"We felt like too many schemes can cause problems regardless of how good they are and how sound they are," Jones said, according to The Dallas Morning News. "If there is more than the players can digest in this day and time -- as you don't keep players for long, they move on and you have injuries."

It's a fair point. Ryan is known for mixing up concepts and deploying his personnel in creative ways. His defense worked well at full capacity, only to give way to communication breakdowns when inexperienced players were forced into the lineup. It certainly didn't help that Ryan lost five starters and two role players during the 2012 season.