Less running backs better defense please
 

i just want to see a better defense. we have an awesome offense already but too much depth at running back. Lets go boys strengthen that defense and let deuce produce. thats why yeah pay em

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

well they can't turn him lose if no one is blocking for him...

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Huh? Too much depth? Are you serious? 3 backs and a fullback is perfect. That's pretty much what every team has these days. Deuce, Smith, Stecker, and Karney is perfect. I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

Look at Green Bay with Green, Davenport, Fisher, Henderson... go down every NFL roster and you will see 4 or 5 running backs on every depth chart. Nothing is wrong with that... look at how many Carolina, Miami, Minnesota, Houston, etc... carried last year. If one goes down, you would want another guy with talent filling in wouldn't you? If you go down our roster, we have depth at every single position. You can never have enough depth that's why there is even a practice squad. That's the least thing anyone should worry about in having lots of depth.

Besides, the running game helps out the defense tremendously. A good rushing attack will allow the defense to get extra rest and it will burn time off the clock. I say it runs hand and hand.

Anyways, welcome to the boards.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

I don't know if you can ever say that you have too much depth at a position in today's NFL, especially when you consider the injury rate is consistently rising every season. But I do agree that going and getting Antowain Smith shouldn't have been as big of a priority as improving the defense.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

i disagree.......the better we are at RB better we control the ball and keep our D fresh & off the field......deuce is a great RB but he can't do it all by his self....we can use a good dependable backup RB......besides that ....you can have the best D in the NFL but if u can't control the ball they will eventually tire out......

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Classic example... Baltimore. Running game complements defense, vice versa.

Antowain Smith is going to be paid less that 1 mil this year. It was a great move to solidify our back field. Would you rather have Fred McAfee, Lamar Smith, or KiJana Carter back there than Smith? It's not like he was a high profiled free agent that we broke the bank for... which is no where near the case.

Re: Less running backs better defense please
 

Amen to that.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Are you kidding me?????? Baltimore has, IMO the best defense in the NFL, and they would be the best in the NFL even without Jamal Lewis, which they proved last year when he was out. No way you can compare a scary intimidating defense like Baltimore to the Saints, that's just ridiculous.

No, but I would rather had us use the 665,000 that we payed Smith for to try and get somebody for our defense. Besides, I think Aaron Stecker is a good backup (he averaged more than 4.0 yards per carry last season). I am happy that our backfield is solid and very deep now, but I question whether or not we should have spent 665,000 on another RB instead of on a defensive player.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Huh? Are you really reading anything? When and where did I compare the Saints defense to Baltimore's? This must be a classic example of skimming real fast which I was so prone to do. If you go back and read carefully, you will see that I'm giving an good example of how a RUNNING game can COMPLEMENT a DEFENSE. There is no where in any of the post in this thread have I compared Saints defense to Baltimore's. Baltimore's defense is 4 to 5 times, heck 10 times better than the Saints if you want me to compare them for you.

What high profiled free agent would you like us to sign with the 665,00 dollars we are paying Smith? Tell me I would like to sign him too. He cost the pretty much the same than Carter and McAfee... well maybe a little more. Wow, big deal. We used a good amount of money this off-season addressing our defense... retaining Howard, signing Dwight Smith, resigning Bellamy, Fisher, Jimmy Williams, bring back Hodge and Craft, etc... and made like 3 offensive acquistions. Mayberry, Poole, and Smith... looks like we did spend more money on defense than offense didn't we... :roll:

Oh yea... Lamar Smith is gone and so is KiJana Carter. Hey let's not sign another running back to back up Deuce, who's coming off of injury, and Stecker. Deuce, Stecker, and Karney... that doesn't sound to smart to me.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Don't you think we'll probably keep McAfee too - for special teams anyway? Either way, most teams do have 4-6 RBs (including FBs) on the roster), so it isn't a big problem. Although, we may be looking at keeping 4 active TE's, so the extra spot will have to come from somewhere (perhaps WR?).

I don't see a problem with A. Smith's salary - that is good for a good backup. It isn't preventing us from signing anyone, as papz points out, since there isn't anyone to sign.

I am in agreement though with the general theme - why haven't we seen an answer at DT and LB yet. Sure we made some moves, but it looks like developing our young guys is the plan - in the last few years that hasn't worked. I guess, I'll cross my fingers?

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Yea I kind of left Freddie off at the 3rd string running back because in the last 5 full years he's been here, he's had a total of 7 carries. And out of those 7 carries, probably half of them came off our punt formation. He's one of our special teams ace and that's pretty much it.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

OK I guess I misunderstood what your post was getting at about Baltimore. My bad.

Sure we might have spent more overall money on the defensive side of the ball, but with the exception of Dwight Smith we brought in a bunch of nobodies. So sure it might seem like we did a lot to improve our defense, if you look at how much we spent, but we used the majority of that money on a bunch of scrubs (Jimmy Williams, Hodge, Fisher, Mel Mitchell, Tony Bryant). Maybe we could have used the money we gave to Smith to try and make a deal for Corey Simon, or maybe go after Ian Gold or somebody else.

Anyways, my point is that with such an awful defense last year, we only brought in 1 guy from FA that can make a difference. That just shows me idiocy. Sure we didn't pay Antowain Smith very much money, and I'm glad that he strengthens our backfield, but our FO could have used the money to improve our porous defense.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Even if there were anyone out there good enough for us to grab on D, 665K sure as hell wouldn't get them to us. We made moves on a few LB's but they didn't bite. So we picked up Levar Fisher who probably won't do anything anyway. Picking up A. Smith gives us depth (which I agree with the rest is good) and it also gives us another player on our team who has been to and won a superbowl, which I think is great for addressing the intangibles of our past shortcomings. A. Smith, Mayberry and D. Smith were all great FA pickups IMO.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

True TheDeuce... I would have loved for us to acquire Gold or Simon. Unfortunately we weren't able to move Howard or cut Gandy to free up the cap space to do so. I don't think Ian Gold even considered signing with anyone else besides Denver during the offseason. He wanted to go back home.

I think we are trying to build around our young players that's why we weren't able to sign a big name linebacker. There wasn't really any big name DT's out there and our secondary was already pretty solid. But remember, we did attempt to sign a Antonio Pierce... but we were rejected. So you can't say the Saints didn't try at all. I mean Hardy is still out there, but I personally don't want him coming in taking Colby's or Courtney's playing time. It can only hurt their development. Boulware is there too but he's pretty much a pure pass rusher. We have trouble against the run and that's not exactly his strong point.

I think we'll be fine. We saw glimpses at the end of last year of what this defense can become. With another year of developing chemistry, we can only get better. I mean we can't get any worse... we were the last ranked defense. Hopefully one of our DT's will emerge and provide us with that extra spark we need up there.

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Bryant isn't a scrub.

Re: RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Yep. This guy was up and coming. There were high hopes for him in Los Angeles. Then he suffered a career threatening neck injury. I think he missed nearly two years of football before coming back to us.

He's a big DE, good quickness, who can spot play all 4 D-line positions. I'd have no hesitation to start him at LDE if Charles Grant got hurt. He's big enough to to contribute in the DT rotation. He's a younger faster version of Willie Whitehead. Definitely not a scrub. I think when Howard goes down (and its quite likely he will) Bryant (with Will Smith) will step in and do well.

Fisher is an interesting prospect too. A starting LB who was doing well until he got injured. he'll be nearly two years removed from the ACL this year which is typically the time it takes to get back to 100%. Low risk, high reward signing. I wouldn't call him a scrub. I'd call him an inexpensive gamble that may pay off big.

Jimmy Williams? Reminds me of Fahkir Brown 2 years ago. He's got skills, but still needs some development. He's probably as good as any mid to late draft pick we could have gotten. Its not like we threw Champ Bailey money at him either.

Mel Mitchell? Scrub? OK maybe. But for a 4th round SS, who had won the starting job before being cheap-shotted, who excells playing special teams, and still may develop into a decent SS, I think signinging him for near league minimum was a good move.

Hodge? OK, I'll buy the scrub line. But for a back-up to Allen (and probably the last LB roster spot), you could do a lot worse. I'll be kind and just say, at least he knows the system.

Re: Less running backs better defense please
 

Don't we all. There's been a lot of discussion about talent lately. But I still haven't seen anything about scheme. Who's defense will be out there in September? Venturi's? YUCK! Haslett's? Robinson's? Who's going to be the coach making the defensive calls.

I figured out that Venturi's pictures of Benson and the farm animals is real problematic. :D

Awesome is debatable. I'd call it a slow starting, inconsistent, yet expolosive offense. The offense's goal this upcoming season should be to put up 150 first quarter points. If they can score consistenly in the first quarter it'll set the tone for the rest of the game.

It looks like there was a signficant talent upgrade on the defensive side of the ball. Let's just hope that the coaches can put that talent in the right position to make the key plays that the defense needs to make.

SFIAH

RE: Less running backs better defense please
 

Bryant didn't really do any thing special last year blocked the kick against Carolina. He really wasn't that great as much as ppl say he is.

Wow what a response
 

i do understand everyones arguments(which were all legitimate claims) but all i was saying is that we can put so many points on the board every game. but every year it seems our PA is higher than our PF. Which means 8 and 8 seasons every year. We need to keep our offense intact as it is. and give ourselves a baltimore/new england D#. lets face it defense wins games and all that offense pizazz goes down the drain when you lose. It doesn't matter! SAINTS FAN FOR LIFE! Peace fellow saints.

RE: Wow what a response
 

Yeah, as much as we were banged up at RB last year, you can never have too much depth at that position and our defense will be fine this year. Craft has come on, we have Smith, Grant's back, Fincher at Middle, Watson outside, the best damn DE's in football and average, yes average DT's.

But this looks alot better than last year, does'nt it!!!!