Tag: New Orleans Saints (Page 6 of 55)

      Spagnuolo was a great hire but do Saints the have enough pieces on defense?

      May 28, 2012 /

      Steve Spagnuolo proved in St. Louis that he was overmatched as a head coach but there’s no denying that he’s one hell of a defensive coordinator. That’s why the New Orleans Saints did well to replace Gregg Williams with Spagnuolo when their coordinator position became open last January.

      But do the Saints have enough pieces on defense to make Spagnuolo’s scheme work?

      Make no mistake, Spagnuolo’s defense has more depth, is more creative, and is more versatile than the one Williams developed over his three-plus decades of coaching. Spags is a disciple of the late Jim Johnson, who was a blitz-happy playcaller but he also played with discipline on the backend.

      That’s why New Orleans fans should take comfort in the fact that Spagnuolo will keep the Saints aggressive while also implementing more zone coverage in the secondary. Instead of almost irresponsibly blitzing defenders like Williams, Spags will bring a more calculated approach to his play designs.

      That said, you have to wonder whether or not Spagunolo has enough to work with. Leading pass rusher Will Smith has been suspended four games for his role in the team’s bounty scandal and Curtis Lofton, one of the Saints’ free agent signings this offseason, doesn’t have the same coverage skills as Jonathan Vilma (suspended for an entire year).

      Can the Saints generate enough pressure with their front four in order for Spags’ defense to be effective? Safety Roman Harper recorded nine sacks last season but if Spagnuolo plans to run a lot of zone, Harper will likely remain in coverage. Junior Galette finished with four sacks last season but he’s only a situational pass rusher and Sedrick Ellis has been a major disappointment since the team selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 2008 draft.

      The Rams weren’t very good under Spagnuolo the past three years but one thing they could do was get after the quarterback. Chris Long finished with 13 sacks last season while James Hall and Robert Quinn each had six apiece.

      But all three of those players were able to rush the quarterback starting with their hand in the dirt, just like Osi Umenyiora, Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck were able to do while Spags was the defensive coordinator in New York. His schemes work best when the front four is able to generate pressure on its own, which is why he potentially has a problem in New Orleans.

      While Williams was able to generate pressure from the secondary, that’s not the way Spagnuolo runs his defense. The Saints simply lack that premier pass rusher and unless 2011 first-round pick Cam Jordan is ready to take the next step in his development, New Orleans could struggle in Spags’ first season as DC.

      That’s not to say that Spagnuolo isn’t creative enough to find other avenues to get after the quarterback but Saint fans may have to exercise patience when it comes to their new defensive coordinator. He was an excellent hire but every coach needs the pieces in order for their scheme to work.

      External Sports, NFL

      What’s with the stalling? Saints need to pay Drew Brees.

      May 17, 2012 /

      No other quarterback besides Drew Brees has made it past the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs in the entire 40-plus year history of the New Orleans Saints. He continues to produce outrageous passing numbers, he means more to his team than any other player on New Orleans’ roster, and he wins.

      So why the Saints continue to anger him by not giving him a long-term contract is a question worth $20 million on its own. If Peyton Manning, who didn’t take a snap last year, is worth $19,200,00 in 2012 then why are the Saints balking at paying Brees $20-plus million per season?

      Sean Payton and Jonathan Vilma are suspended for an entire year. Gregg Williams is gone, Joe Vitt must serve a six-game suspension before taking over as interim head coach for 2012, and three other players have been suspended for their role in the bounty program. Brees is the only true leader that the Saints have on their roster but he refuses to show up to camp until he receives a long-term deal. Why owner Tom Benson refuses to hand Brees a blank check and says, “Write down any number you want – just get out on that practice field and lead this team like you’ve done the past seven years,” is beyond me.

      Some insist that Brees is being selfish because he won’t just play under his one-year tender. But if you nearly had your entire career ruined because of an injury to your throwing shoulder, would you play on a one-year deal? The Saints are lucky they even wound up with Brees in the first place. He was set to sign with the Dolphins before Miami’s doctors told the team to pass because they thought he would never throw again. He landed in New Orleans only to team up with Payton and turn the Saints into one of the most imposing offenses in the last five years.

      It’s not like Brees’ production has dipped either. He set career highs in competitions, competition percentage, yards, touchdowns and yards per game last season. So while he may be getting up there in age (he’s 33), he shows zero signs of slowing down.

      Unless they have a shutdown defense teams can’t win in the NFL without a quarterback. And the Saints don’t have a shutdown defense.

      What they do have is a quarterback who posts Hall of Fame-type numbers but he’s extremely frustrated (his words – not mine) by the way his contract negotiations of gone with the team. Considering what he means to the Saints, the city of New Orleans and his teammates, it’s befuddling why Brees doesn’t have a contract yet. And while the Saints still have until July 16 to work out a long-term deal with their record-setting signal caller, why wait?

      External Sports, NFL

      Drew Brees extremely frustrated by lack of contract negotiations with Saints

      May 16, 2012 /

      It’s May 16 and Drew Brees has yet to receive a long-term contract from the New Orleans Saints. As you would imagine, this has left the veteran quarterback extremely frustrated about his situation.

      From ProFootballTalk.com:

      “This is a big time for our team, especially when you look at what’s happened in this offseason, missing our head coach, Sean Payton,” Brees said. “There should be a sense of urgency and yet it seems like there’s not.”

      “We’ve reached out on a number of occasions and at times I’ve been frustrated by the lack of response,” Brees said.

      “It’s been extremely frustrating for me,” Brees said. “The negotiation shouldn’t have been this difficult.”

      It’s understandable that Brees is frustrated but when you’re talking about a contract of this magnitude, it takes time for the situation to get settled. It’s not like Mickey Loomis woke up one day and forgot what Brees means to this team. And in the wake of the bounty scandal, the Saints are well aware that at some point they’re going to need to provide their fan base with positive news.

      It would make everyone in New Orleans feel better if Brees were signed to a long-term contract but it’s only May. There’s a good four months before the regular season starts and a month and a half before players report to training camp. It’s a safe bet that Brees will be donning a Fleur-de-lis on each side of his head next season.

      The only thing that would make this story remotely interesting is if the Saints came out and stated that they want Brees to play on his one year tender. If that happens, then the crap will hit the preverbal fan because Brees is unlikely to play on a one-year deal. Not after he’s set the league on fire the past three seasons.

      External Sports, NFL

      Gregg Williams’ bounty program is the problem – not his locker room speech

      April 6, 2012 /

      Imagine for a moment that you knew nothing about the Saints’ “bounty program” or the fact that players and coaches were providing monetary motivation to injure opponents.

      Does Gregg Williams’ locker room speech still sound horrifying to you?

      One of Kyle Williams’ brothers is a friend of mine so when Gregg Williams started talking about testing “little No. 10’s” concussion, I cringed. My heart dropped. The specific manner in which Williams was discussing the Niners’ players and their injuries was downright disturbing.

      But most of what Williams said can probably be heard in football locker rooms around the country every Saturday and Sunday. (Maybe even on Friday nights, where prep action dominants the newspapers.) Right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust, a lot of Williams’ speech can be chalked up as “football talk.”

      What Williams said about Frank Gore was hardly unnerving. “Kill the head and the body will die” is a phrase. When he says, “We’ve got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore’s head,” he might as well said, “We’ve got to take Gore out of the game,” which nobody would have had a problem with. (And most people would have understood, seeing as how Gore was the key to San Francisco’s success on offense.)

      “We want him running sideways,” and “We want his head sideways” are hardly shocking statements either when you keep it in the context of a football coach telling his football players to make sure the opposing running back runs east and west instead of north and south. Again, had Williams used different phrases to get the same message across, then his speech wouldn’t have been as jarring to people.

      My problem isn’t so much with Williams’ poor choice of words but with his actual bounty program. Players get paid enough money to go out and inflict pain on one another – it’s unnecessary and almost cruel for a coach to be offering monetary motivation to target their opponents’ specific injuries. It’s ridiculous to pony up extra cash in order to motivate a grown man in the best shape of his life to go onto a field with the sole purpose of targeting an opponents’ knee or head. That’s not football. That’s not sport. That’s not playing for the love of the game or in the spirit of competition. That’s just inhumane.

      That’s when I feel for Kyle Williams, Michael Crabtree and the rest of Gregg Williams’ bounty program victims. That’s where I draw the line and say, hey, what’s going on here isn’t right. Could Williams not have delivered such an unsettling speech? Sure, but that’s simply a matter of semantics.

      Outside of the specific comments about Williams’ head or Crabtree’s ACL, it’s not Williams’ words that are so much the problem, but the manner in which he tried to execute them.

      External Sports, NFL

      Parcells to Saints seems more like a reality than a long shot at this point

      March 29, 2012 /

      Bill Parcells can’t help himself, can he? The man can’t not coach when an opportunity presents itself.

      Call it a hunch, a gut feeling, or just history simply repeating itself but I think the Big Tuna will wind up taking the Saints’ interim coaching job this season. And his recent comments to Chris Mortensen don’t suggest otherwise.

      “If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll think it over and clearly I’m in some phase of the process without knowing whether it’s going to become a reality,” Parcells told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen by phone on Wednesday. “Sean’s become a dear, dear friend. I’m trying to be a friend.

      “You know, when I was a young coach, there were people like Chuck Noll, Chuck Knox and Tom Landry who were there for me. I think to honor those guys who helped me, you turn around and pass that legacy on to somebody else and Sean’s an example of that. If he needs me and the owner and GM feel the same way, then I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t consider it.”

      Does that sound like a man who wants to keep hanging out with his buddy Bobby Knight while relaxing in his home in Florida? It doesn’t to me. If Parcells didn’t want the job he may lead the media on for a little while but eventually he would simply and bluntly say, “I’m not coming back.”

      It’s been a week since Mortensen reported that Sean Payton would approach Parcells about coaching the Saints next season and the story has yet to go off quietly into the good night. Maybe this is the juncture where Parcells is just playing the media but again, it makes too much sense for him to try his hand again at coaching.

      Parcells craves being coveted and as he’s suggested, he’s interested in helping one of his protégés. The Saints are a perfect fit because they’re already modeled somewhat after Parcells himself. Granted, Parcells has always preferred a tough defense over a finesse-oriented offense, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t relish watching Drew Brees run Payton’s aggressive attack up close. (Payton was also his QB/Assistant coach in Dallas so obviously he’s fond of Payton and his offensive ideologies.) Plus, teamed with new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, he could hand-pick players to rebuild the Saints’ defense. They already added run-stuffing middle linebacker Curtis Lofton earlier this week, and with Parcells’ help as a talent evaluator, they could address holes along the defensive line and outside ‘backer.

      If it were another team, I would be more hesitant to suggest that Parcells would come back. But because he knows it’ll only be for one year and he doesn’t have to completely start from scratch (the Saints are already a Super Bowl contender), he can go after his third championship and then exit stage left next January or February. Maybe his heart isn’t in it to deal with the media, but I think he’ll overlook that one aspect for a golden opportunity to win another title.

      Update: As I was writing this, Mortensen said on SportsCenter that his “gut feeling” is Pracells will be the Saints’ head coach.

      External Sports, NFL

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