darksoul35

That's all I hear from the so called experts is how bad our defense was last year. I never hear them talk about the guys we drafted or the FA we added or the fact that over half of our defense was injured last year. I haven't been this excited about our team in a long time.

SaintFanInATLHELL

One has to understand the national media filters for the NFL. Teams fall into one of 4 buckets:

1. Teams in the Northeast corridor. This includes all of the NFC and AFC East.
2. Final 4 teams from the last year or two.
3. Teams with spectacular single players. Derek Carr is probably the poster child for this category this year.
4. The also rans.

The Saints have drifted between groups 3 and 4 in recent years. Brees does enough to pull them up to category 3 sometimes. Structurally we'll never qualify for category 1, which gets the bulk of the coverage. One can sit through a 90 minute NFL Live on ESPN or 60 minutes of and learn absolutely everything about the Giants, Cowboys, Redskins, Jets, Patriots, and the like. But fans of categories 3 and 4 just get dribbles.

BTW the Saints will be a solid 3 this year. One reason: Adrian Peterson. We know that he's the B back in an offensive system that does RB by committee and commits to the run once or so in a month of Sundays. But the 10 year track record of a HOF RB means that every national Saints reference this year will be about him.

It's interesting that the media knows about the productivity churn in the NFL. Analyists can spout of the fact that nearly half the playoff teams and half the division winners change each and every year. It happens because of the types of changes we have made this year. But teams in categories 3 and 4 simply do not get enough air time, or analytics time to get predictions that map to the churn that happens.

So you'll see the same trite lines about Brees passing for 5000, the defense being terrible, and can Peterson singlehandedly turn around the franchise. Along with the same trite lines about the rest of the NFC South. Lots of 'clowns and kittykat coverage because they are both in category 2 for example.

The lesson to learn is to ignore it because none of the national media have an investment in the Saints.

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.

foreverfan

Enough said right there....

The Dude

I did my due diligence on this one. I paused the TV every play last year and put a tape measure to the screen and measured the distance between point A. Drews arm during release and point B where the ball went. He was indeed off 1/16 of an inch from where I think it probably was the year before.

Seer1

What sized screen?

The Dude

Good question. To ensure accuracy I took measurements on 4 different sized TV's. I developed an equation (very technical much to discuss in laymen terms) using a 30" as my control subject. The sum average is where I got 1/16 an inch. There are some decimals in there but I didn't want to make it to complicated.

SmashMouth

FinSaint

Seer1

Now is that a male 1/16"? The formula of that I believe is M equals 1.75 times F expectations.....

Cruize

It's all about health. But, there are several real upgrades on defense.