LKelley67

New Orleans Saints
If It Aint Broke … Hey Saints, It’s Broke
Is there any team in the league that needs to blow things up and start over more than the Saints? New Orleans has missed the playoffs four straight years, and if they were just a bad football team, that would be one thing. But they’re something far worse – a mediocre football team.

Four straight years of seven to nine wins. Four straight offseasons without making major adjustments to the roster. Four straight years of looking like a Super Bowl team one week, an expansion team the next. Four straight years of mediocrity under Jim Haslett.

Much like the Dolphins last year, the Saints need to be absolutely horrendous one of these seasons to shake them out of their doldrums. These .500 seasons just encourage the front office to leave things pretty much as is so the cycle can repeat itself the following year.

Annually, New Orleans tinkers with its roster, reaches for a defensive lineman in the draft, stumbles out of the gate, puts together a run at some point that has everyone believing they can make the playoffs, but falls just short.

The tinkering has been minimal this winter. The biggest name the Saints added in free agency has been former Buccaneer safety Dwight Smith, a versatile player who has also been a corner, but hardly a game-changing force. He’s also had a pair of gun-related arrests the last four years. So much for upgrading the character of the New Orleans locker room, which has been a mess since Albert Connell stole cash from Deuce McAllister’s locker and Joe Horn allegedly slept with Willie Roaf’s wife. Smith replaces Tebucky Jones, who was released after the Saints learned with Bill Belichick knew when he traded him to the Big Easy – “Tebucky� is Flemish for “Doesn’t Wrap Up.�

Antowain Smith was also added to serve as McAllister’s backup. Ho-hum. That ought to be good to move the Saints from 8 to 8.2 wins.

Draft Needs
The Saints’ primary needs are all on the defensive side of the ball, which is rather remarkable considering they have selected a defensive lineman in each of the last three first rounds. But only Charles Grant of that group (which also includes Will Smith and Jonathan Sullivan) has cracked the starting lineup. And with Darren Howard’s status uncertain – he has been hit with the franchise tag but may still be traded – the Saints still have a need along the line.

New Orleans would also like to address the linebacker position and get a safety to play behind Smith and Jay Bellamy.

On offense, Joe Horn is the best player, but he’s not getting any younger and the jury is still out on former first-rounder Donte’ Stallworth after three seasons, so receiver could also be a need.

But there’s no reason to suspect New Orleans will alter its defense-first strategy, and will probably reach for player in the first-round. Nothing else has changed about the Saints the last four years, so why should the draft strategy?

Recent Draft History
Remember how we pointed out how Carolina could have has many as seven starters this season from its top eight picks the last four drafts? For New Orleans, the number could be as low as two – McAllister in 2001 and Grant in 2002. You can watch a lot of Saints games without seeing any contributions from some of the other high picks – names like Devery Henderson, Sullivan, and Sedrick Hodge.

Given the draft history, it’s surprising that New Orleans has been able to hang around the .500 mark for four seasons. Unfortunately, it also means this is a team that is probably on the downside, not the upswing.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/ram...?p=2497&cat=16