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NOTES, QUOTES
NOTES, QUOTES
â€â€ÂAccording to annual rankings compiled by the Dallas Morning News, the Saints' special teams ranked second in the NFL in 2004. All 32 league teams are ranked in 22 different areas and assigned points for their standing, with one point for the best team going on down to 32 points for the worst team in each category. The team with the low score wins. The Buffalo Bills won this year's title with a composite score of 232 points, 43 points ahead of the Saints. The Bills' special teams are coached by Bobby April, a Louisiana native and former Saints assistant. The Saints finished first in the Dallas Morning News rankings in 2002 when Al Everest was voted NFL special teams coach of the year by his peers. â€â€ÂIt's still early, but rookie cornerback Dwight Ellick made quite an impression on the Saints' coaching staff during their workouts this spring and could be a strong candidate to earn a spot on the practice squad. Ellick, an undrafted free agent from Notre Dame, is a former Florida state high school sprint champion. His time of 4.37 seconds in the 40-yard dash makes him one of the speediest players on the roster. â€â€ÂNow that the team's off-season work has concluded, Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis, director of player personnel Rick Mueller and senior football administrator Russ Ball will begin working to get their draft picks signed and to training camp on July 28. The Saints have been allotted a rookie pool of $3,606,940 by the league office to spend on the seven selections they made in the April draft. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/footb...aints/home.htm |
if only we had the equivalent of AL Everest on Defense?
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That's the max they can spend on signing rookies, and they still need to be under the cap. Last I heard, we had about 1 mil in cap room. Boy would a Howard trade have been looking good right now. :wink:
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You'll eat those words in December chump! LOL
Hhhmmm... so we need cap room you say? Can you think of any older vets who are highly paid that supposedly have young guys threatening? Gandy? Bellamy? Thomas? Rodgers? Conwell? Think any of these guys gets cut? |
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As far as cutting someone goes, Bellamy just signed a new deal this offseason, which I complained about when they did it, but it's done now. Gandy seems the most obvious as much as his salary is, and if you believe the Stinch hype, which I desperately want to. Rodgers should go as well probably. Fred could still be traded, rumors cleveland was interested before the draft. |
One of them, at least, will have to go. I think you nailed all the obvious ones there WhoDat.
I predicted Thomas gone earlier this year, and we'll definitely cut a LB and a TE. Probably both. But Gandy I'm not so sure about. I don't think they're ready to cut him yet. Definitely next year. Stinch may be coming, but injuries do happen, and that's such a key position.... Resigning Bellamy didn't make any sense to me. I thought we were going to draft Thomas Davis. Regardless of the signing, I hope it's just for depth, and that he rides bench this season as a backup. I don't wish to dog on him, but I still haven't forgotten that 'juked out of his shoes for a touchdown' by that quarterback last season. He's just not up to par, IMO. A backup, but that's all. |
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Was it that long ago, back before my Alzheimers started kicking in?.... guess my age is showing.
Good point. He's a decent backup, but I'd rather see Mitchell or Gleason in there, not to mention Bullocks.... How long was the contract he resigned with? Two or three years? |
3 years. I am still pissed we wasted that $800,000 per.
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Hm. He will play one, maybe two years of that contract. He won't play three - no way. He and DT are the weakest points on our defense, IMO.
I read earlier that they're only planning on playing him on running downs, i.e. blitzing him or cheating him up into the box. He's already lost his slot on nickel and dime packages. |
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December, if memory serves, is when the Pro Bowl balloting ends and the Pro Bowlers are announced. :) Regardless, Howard will be valuable this season and you'll thank me for keeping him on this team. LOL |
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So Pro Bowl players don't help a team go to the playoffs? If the Saints don't make the playoffs this season it will be Darren Howards fault? Didn't you want to trade him for a draft pick and to clear cap space to sign Bentley, Deuce, McKenzie, etc. to long-term deals? Doesn't that represent FUTURE VALUE to the team? Those things wouldn't have helped this year anyway, would they?
Now who is making the assumptions? :) |
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Whodi, what are you trying to prove?
I would rather have zero Pro Bowlers and go to the Playoffs also. My point is simply that Howard, in my estimation, is going to play well this year. I like players who play well. I can't ask anything more of a player than to be amongst the top 5 or 6 at his position in a league. If the team doesn't go to the playoffs, I'm sure that it will all be Howard's fault. But if we make the playoffs and Howard plays well, I wonder what you'll say. |
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I really do not see boo boo boy making it through the season healthy .Trade Howard for a 12 pack and future consideration on a lap dance and get this drama over with . Another disaster of the Hasbeen era , they should have packaged Howard to someone for a chance at someone who can plug the holes at the linebacker position . O.J. Simpson could get a 100 yards on the Saints if he suited up tomorrow for someone .The Saints are loaded with perimeter talent to put pressure on the quarterback , but opposing teams do not need to pass because of the huge holes in the middle . |
Wait a second.
Never did I dispute the fact that the Saints need to upgrade at DT or LB. I've been screaming that for years. Nor did I say that the Saints should not trade Darren Howard. I said that they SHOULD trade him IF they can get fair market value. The team should not give away good players simply to free up space for other players already under contract, IMO. It is not the best situation, I won't dispute that for a second. However, suggesting that having three very talented DEs is a bad thing is just assinine. Sure, having two talented DEs and one talented DTs is better, but c'mon. This offseason, though not great, was IMO, one of the better in recent Saints history. Yes, again they failed miserably at addressing glaring needs in the middle of the defense with proven talented veterans. However, for once, I don't think that they made a bad signing. I also think that the team attempted to upgrade at MLB and players went elsewhere. As for Howard, if it's a choice between an insufficent deal that frees up space and keeping the guy, I say keep the guy. Simply b/c that's not the best option, or the option you wanted, does not mean that the guy won't play well this year. I think he will, and yes, I know all about his history with injuries... but then, how often in the last 5 years was he playing in a rotation with two other guys just as talented as he is? |
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I have to get in on this... fair market value to me is phoney. Its more of what you will give up to get this, is what it boils down to (but looking at the bigger picture of contracts ect). I say we have to make a run this year with what we have at this point and let the chips fall where they may next. There are to many issues that will have to be addressed this coming off season, that we may very well be looking at a completely new Saints team next year. Between now and the next off season there will be no contract deals/extensions we are fine now with the cap. Those who don't live up to the money this year will surely be gone. There will be money to keep Duece and I feel Deuce isn't expected to break the back he knows the importance of good blocking from last year and he is from just up the road.
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oops
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God Help Us. |
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Defence more impact than offense? - definitely. But I think he was talking about which player has the most impact, as opposed to a set of players. And I have to agree, that'd definitely be QB in my book.
And I'd also have to agree that it's scary, because he's so damn unpredictable. A probowler making beautiful passes one minute, a complete boneheaded embarrassment the next. C'mon A-Mac! I'm hoping he can replace Charles Grant as my favorite. |
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I believe you ASSUMED (incorrectly I might add) that I was suggesting that the Saints would not make the playoffs b/c I said December and not January. Based on that faulty assumption you inferred that I would therefore prefer to have Pro Bowlers on a bad team, rather than go to the playoffs with a bunch of Average Joes, another incorrect assumption. Finally, you've argued my OPINION, once again, that I think keeping Howard based on the available options in the market was not the best solution, but wasn't a bad one either, and now claimed victory by comparing Howard to a couple of RBs and suggesting that he will not be healthy this season b/c he hasn't been in the past. Oh well, I guess Joe Horn, Donte Stallworth, and Deuce McAllister are all screwed too. Have you been hanging out with Billy? Claiming victory of a phantom argument which you fabricated. Congratulations. You must be so proud. |
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Next time, choose your words better. Why would anyone regret anything in December, when the season isn't even over then? Then you throw out some lame idea about that being when pro bowl balloting ends and blah blah blah. Please. Quote:
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