SmashMouth

Someone finally locked the revolving door at the New Orleans Saints practice facility leading to the linebacker room.

Yes, the Saints spent significant dollars to secure former Jets defender Demario Davis. Yes, he's potentially the fifth different Week 1 starting middle linebacker in the past five seasons. That doesn't include those filling in as the quarterback of the defense because of injury or ineptitude the past few years.

All of that aside, the Saints linebacker corps is easily the most stable it's been since the days of Jonathan Vilma, Scott Fujita and Scott Shanle.



The stable of players like A.J. Klein, Craig Robertson, Alex Anzalone, Manti Te'o, Nate Stupar and Michael Mauti are all returning to the field for the start of the 2018 on-field workouts next week. New Orleans also added youngsters like undrafted rookies Colton Jumper and KeShun Freeman, as well as veteran Jayrone Elliott.

The Saints can actually claim a depth chart at linebacker. No longer will defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and position coach Mike Nolan grasp at straws.

There's no longer the need for the Saints to gamble on the health of Dannell Ellerbe. The Saints can stop relying on a hope and a prayer that 2015 first-round pick Stephone Anthony gets it. Or if the team can fill up James Laurinaitis' tank one more time.

Just about the entire wall of linebackers understand Allen's system. Now here comes the challenge for Nolan and Allen:

Who starts where? And which veteran(s) might be on the outside looking in roster-wise?

"You can't ever have enough good football players," Allen said after last Saturday's rookie minicamp. "A lot of times guys get caught up about where a guy is on the depth chart right now and that's really not any of our concern, no different than what we did last year. We're going to put all those guys out there. We're going to move them around. We're going to let them compete."

The Saints opened the wallet very wide for Davis in free agency to the tune of $8 million on average the next three seasons, including $16 million in guaranteed money.

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