Ha. I rode the elevator with Payton at the Embassy Suites in Tuscaloosa last night. I assume he is there for pro day?
I wasn't sure at first b/c our players are at the White House today, but: Cecil Hurt @CecilHurt 5m5 minutes ago New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton is in Tuscaloosa and gave the Alabama basketball team a pregame speech. Friend of @CoachAvery6
So several of the latest mock drafts I've seen have us drafting A'Shawn Robinson with the #13 pick. Thoughts? I'd be fine with that, but still feel like secondary is a bigger concern. Then again, choosing the weakest position on our D is like looking for the shortest midget.
I'd say that we'll address one defensive concern in Free Agency, but last time we did that we ended up with Brandon Browner
We also need a true #1 threat at WR. Cooks can be a great complimentary guy, but he's not a #1. With Colston gone, we need a big body out there to move the chains. Thank goodness we got CJ fucking Spiller back there
I just really hate being in purgatory as a team. Meaning that we're not 1 or 2 players away from a championship team, we're a total clusterfuck on D, and don't really have an explosive O anymore. But we're not so bad that we'll get a top 5 pick, we'll go 8-8 (+/- 2 games) next year as well. I'm all for tearing it down and starting over (which I guess is what we've tried to do on D). Our cap situation is one of the worst in the league. But as long as we have Brees, that's not going to be the case. We're going to try and build around him, but I feel like our window has closed on that era. I'd like to keep Payton, but I don't feel like he survives the fallout of a re-build.
I think our secondary would be greatly improved with a halfway decent pass rush. Delvin Breaux, & Keenan Lewis are very good- PJ Williams, and Damian Swann should be decent as well. I guess we're keeping Byrd, and it's hard to say if he sucks or if someone else blew coverage (Browner), so I guess the coaches like him enough- and Vacarro needs to get his shit together and start playing good again. So unless we can get a true # 1 CB at # 12- I'd rather us go front 7. The good thing is our front 7 is bad enough that we can draft literally any position and it'll be an upgrade.
very much agreed. Really hoped the Graham trade was an indication that was going to happen, couldve been the moment for it.
I don't think in today's NFL you have to tear it all down- as long as you have an elite QB you can quickly build the pieces on O and D to become a contender- the key is you can't wiff on all your draft picks for 3 years in a row. You get 2-3 years of hitting on those mid rounds picks and then you have a short window before having to paying all those guys. Last year I think we hit on a good number of picks - so that's a good start at least. Have to get those role players, and tier 2 players- those are the guys we've been missing for a couple of seasons. There is just so much parity in the league, if you have the QB and can get hot at the right time you can make a run- just need those young guys to be contributors.
but with the way mickey loomis has kicked the can down the road on the cap this really isnt an option, need to get rid of the deadweight. Just accept a year where half the cap room is on cut contracts and the likes
I think that year was last year, and this year (partly) - but if you have not shitty drafts you don't have to sign these expensive role players then cut them because they aren't worth it. The horrible drafting was what the big reason we got put in this hole
yeah I've seen Treadwell mocked to us as well. We have so many holes its kinda hard to know what we're going to do on draft day we'll probably take another shitty OL and a few more clemson fags
Dog. Fleener is legit. See two years ago with a healthy luck and last year a decent year with a 40 year old QB. He's 27 and extremely athletic. Brees is going to make this dude a house hold name. But fuck. Do we not see that we have an atrocious defense and offense alone isn't going to win us a super bowl or even get us to the playoffs??? I mean. Fuck
Fleener is not legit. I disagree strongly. 5 years $36 million we're never going to get out of this cap hellhole
36m. How much guaranteed? Not 36. Not even close. His cap hit alone this year could be as low as 3m. Now, what you need to agree with me on is this terrible defense and our attempts to fix it, by spending money on offense. Money we don't have.
I do agree with you on the cap hellhole. We are in it for two more years, when we get our dead cash off our books
$14.6 fully guaranteed with $8 million signing bonus. Another $3.4 million becomes fully guaranteed in March of 2018 if we haven't cut him by then.
So 14.6 we are on the hook for and another 8 on top of that due to the bonus, which we prorate. His cap hit would be 4.6m this year and the next. Increasing in 2018 if we don't cut to around 6m which we could pay him though 2019 and cut loose with no hit in 2020. This is not even taking into account the insane dead money calculations that could positively or negatively effect us
.... Timing of that dead money is what I meant to speak to when I used the term positively If we cut him early than 2019
Not sure who Jacob Griffith is but he isn't pumping any sunshine up my ass Can James Laurinaitis Really be a Difference-Maker for the Saints? By Jacob Griffith On Wednesday, the Saints inked former-Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis. The free agent was a solid LB under Jeff Fisher, until last year. With questions about health and performance, as well as age, what can Laurinaitis bring to the table next season? This offseason has seemed to be a let down for many Saints fans, with New Orleans failing to make the big splash everyone was hoping for. Sure, they signed Coby Fleener to help shore up the TE spot, but it wasn’t without, what some consider, the Saints paying a hefty price. The only reason New Orleans was in position to sign Fleener was due to the fact Benjamin Watson bolted for Baltimore after a career-year. The departure is part of a troubling trend that is starting to develop down in the Big Easy. Simply put, the Saints, right now, are worse off now than they were last year. And that is an impressive feat, if you ask me. On Wednesday, the Saints attempted to counteract those losses when they signed free agent linebacker James Laurinaitis. Attempted being the operative word in that sentence. I’m really not on board with this pick-up. To say this move was puzzling would be a complete understatement. This move just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It completely goes against the drafting of Stephone Anthony. You just don't sign a player to fill a void that doesn't need to be filled. Especially with a player who can only play the position that doesn’t need filled. Sure, the 29-year-old has put up some great stats in his career. He’s recorded at 100 tackles in all 7 of his NFL season, an impressive stat. But, tackle stats don’t tell the whole story. We’re talking about a guy that is coming off the worst season of his career, showing obvious signs of decline. And that isn’t even the worst part. While the details have not been released yet regarding the contract figures, this writer can’t imagine a name like Laurinaitis came to New Orleans cheap, and he surely didn’t come here to be a backup. Money is just not a luxury New Orleans has at this point. The issue is, he’s a middle linebacker, much like Anthony is. Laurinaitis has never played in another position during his career. Trying to learn a new position late in the game can be a tough task for some players. What’s head-scratching to me is that the Saints brass ignored an obvious need: the outside linebacker spot. It’s not like there weren’t options at OLB in free agency, either. For instance, an OLB like Justin Durant, who would fit in great in the Saints 3-4 scheme, is still sitting at home, as of this writing at least. Even someone like Zach Brown, former-Titans OLB, would be a good fit. And the best part? They don’t come to you as a project. They’re already outside linebackers. You plug them in and go from there. But, I get it, the Saints need LB help and people may look at this signing and think it was a smart move and I understand that, too. I’m from St. Louis, I’ve had the chance to see Laurinaitis play, both in person and on TV. He was a pretty good player and he was very consistent. But, that was the past. Fast-forward to now and the LB doesn’t look as dominant as he once was. He looked slow last season and out-of-sync. His time has come and gone. So, to answer the question posed by the title of this article, no, he can’t be a difference-maker. When you bring a player in of his caliber, it should bring more answers than questions with it, providing a sense of calm for the fan base that their team found the answer. This doesn't do that. In fact, it's the complete opposite of that. We all now have fewer answers than before, and even then it wasn’t as if we had that many to start with. This just adds to the heaping pile of uncertainty around our beloved Saints going into next year. Keep in mind, the Saints don’t have a whole lot of play-room left with the checkbook, meaning, if Laurinaitis’s contract ends up being a larger one, this could be one of the last signings we see the Saints make this offseason. If that’s the case, it would be a fittingly disappointing move to cap off a disappointing offseason.
It's fucking hilarious. Huge offseason for us due to our time pinch with Brees and we sign Coby Fleener and James Laurinitus to fat contracts and call it good
drafting has been mediocre and FA has been worse for years now. I get trying to mortgage the future for our chances as long as brees is around but at this point (to stay within the mortgage talk) the interest (dead cap) is taking all our spending money. Would rather just stink it up a year and build an actual team for brees to shine in for 1 or 2 more years. Roster just has no talent at all at this point
what are everybodies draft day wishes. personally dont want anything but defense in the first. Only offensive positions i consider draftworthy for the saints are OG and WR and neither position has someone i like at 12.
I think we'll probably go DL in the first and hope on of the better WR's are still on the board in the 2nd. We need a WR fairly early in the draft, preferably a possession guy to replace Colston like Treadwell.
The good thing about going DL @12 is that it would be hard to fuck up. Should still be some good to great talent left, depending on which teams go QB crazy for no apparent reason. Not that we wouldn't fuck it up.
We are so out of touch with reality. It's sad. We don't even get to be hopeful for drafts when we suck because we always fuck it up. I hate the draft so much.
I want front 7 on D, all of them. We can find someone to work at WR, and pray we can pick up some obscure G that will play great again- but we need so much help in the front 7.
Im fine with them not rebuilding through free agency. Dont think that has ever worked for teams. I think they have to get a DL if he's there. A DL can make the secondary look much better, and the line got absolutely no pressure last year. Even if it is a guy like Jarran Reed, I think he'd still be a great fit.
I would be happy with both these picks I like Payton, I'm glad to see him coming back - I do think he was stagnant a little this past year, maybe almost getting canned reignited his fire. I don't know. He's one of the best offensive minds in the NFL, and have to keep him. The true test will be the 4th / 5th year of this contract when he doesn't have Drew. I mean shit Luke McCown played pretty solid in his offense for that one game, so maybe we won't be quite so fucked as we think. FA should be used to add complimentary pieces, anything bigger than that and it hardly ever works out. I like our CBs, I really do- the problem was just a complete lack of a pass rush, and LBers that just flat out sucked. Also add in Browner letting guys run right past him, or holding them and it was easy for teams to convert against us. Good. It would've been so boring if the Saints were forced into it.