tiggerpolice

NOTES, QUOTES

—According 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.

—It'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.

—Now 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

FireVenturi

if only we had the equivalent of AL Everest on Defense?

WhoDat

What?

saintswhodi

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.

WhoDat

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?

saintswhodi

We'll see who's eating what words when. And since I will be eating them in December, and the playoffs start in January, I am to assume from that statement we will not be in the playoffs again, thus having Howard here made no difference, and therefore we should have traded him. :P

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.

LordOfEntropy

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.

saintswhodi

That was David Carr, and that was two years ago. But if David Carr could juke him out two years ago, Drew freaking Bledsoe could juke him out now.

LordOfEntropy

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?

saintswhodi

3 years. I am still pissed we wasted that $800,000 per.