2017 Offensive Needs (1 Viewer)

BCK30

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Well fellow Who Dats, 2016 is coming to a close and so begins the long process of preparing for 2017. There's free agency and then the Draft. I'm sure the Saints will focus on needs on defense as linebacker and pass rusher should be the top needs.

But what about the offense?...surely improvements can be sought there too.
Whether the Saints retain Jahri Evans or not I must say securing a top notch Guard has to be a top priority. The older Brees gets the more essential It will be to protect him...especially given his size and the fact that he likes a nice pocket to step up in. Payton has gotten away with not properly replacing Sproles for two years but if this team is to be as explosive as can be it needs a true 3rd down scatback type that can create mismatches out of the backfield or lined up in the slot. Some people have suggested bringing back Reggie Bush...I'd be all for that if his heart is in it and he is healthy. But if I'm the Saints I'd either draft a younger guy with a similar skillset either with a late round pick or bring in a UDFA. The biggest reason you need the aforementioned is because Coby Fleener does not present anything dynamic in the passing game. He's just a guy...one who has dropped too many passes in my opinion. We all know what a mismatch Jimmy Graham was and a complete Tight End Ben Watson was. Fleener again to me is just a guy. If there is a Tight End in the draft who is anything similar to a guy like Jordan Reed the Saints have to take him. Salaries can no longer dictate who is on the field....it has to be the player's talent level and whether he's making plays on the field. Bottom line is as much as I love Brees, Payton and Loomis, I'm on board with 2017 is either playoffs or bust it all up!!!!
 
G, RB, Developmental T/WR/TE

Guard would be best addressed in FA

TE reminds me of Paytons 1st 3 years from 2006-2008. We had 3 good solid guys but not that very good TE until we got Shocky and then later Graham.

RB - Last week Cadet led the RB's in snaps. In other words the RB/WR role is still integral and it needs to be added to. I'd take Bush over McCaffrey because the pressure on McCaffrey to produce would be higher. Especially since Sean has already whiffed on Spiller/Fleener in back to back years. Bush if available would give him an instant plug and use guy plus add value to ST's. Then if you want to draft a guy 2nd or 3rd you have the luxury of doing that and bringing him along slowly.

T - Strief is going to decline at some point. Even if its next year you'll have signed a G that can kind of take some pressure off of him and allow him to rely on technique just that much more. So with that being said you don't have to take someone high but its worth a mid-rounder if the right guy comes free. We also still have Avery Young.

WR - I think we like Coleman. I like how he performed last week, and i look forward to seeing him continue to get better. My issue with him is that the Seam route has disappeared in the offense entirely. It typically came from the TE or the WR. Coleman does not look like the seam route guy and already neither does Fleener. So I think to bring that part of the offense back you need to add a guy at either position there that's a possible threat in that area. Either that or you begin to work the Slot more into Thomas game and allow him to be that guy. Either way the Seam route and the matchup RB position are two areas along with G that the offense needs a really big upgrade in.
 
Larry Warford at RG would be a great addition if he gets to FA.

I also see the glaring need for an upgrade over Cadet. EJW mentioned Reggie Bush, but I don't believe Bush is anywhere near the player he was when he left N.O. I think we would be better served grabbing an upgrade in the draft.

Bucky Hodges would be a nice piece to add as a vertical TE, and I'think he'll be available in the 4th round.

A developmental RT is also a need, but could wait until the 6th or 7th round.

I know everyone loves Kuhn, and he's been great for us this year, but he's 35 years old. I believe a guy like Zach Line from Minnesota or Kyle Juszczyk from Baltimore would be nice adds.
 
G, TE, deep threat WR, RB, T

OG/OT
I think we'll grab a G during FA for a decent price (Warford from Detroit I think would be a good as mentioned above) as well as drafting 2 additional OL prospects (insurance in case Armstead can't stay healthy forcing Peat to slide over and the inevitable decline of Strief as EJW mentions above). Taylor Morton would be top mid-round choice with Dan Skipper later round. We also have Turner, Jack Allen, and Avery Young on the roster already. Hopefully one of them can be an upgrade over Lelito and insurance for Strief in addition to the draft picks.

TE
With Dan Campbell to coach up our TE's I'd be in favor of drafting someone like Jordan Leggett, Bucky Hodges or Gerald Everett. Though I notice we have two TE's on the PS, with Garrett Griffin having the potential to double as a LS so it'll likely come down to value/scouting draft time. The TE/FB position will be interesting to see what happens next year if we can get all our TE's healthy given Kuhn's age and FB's aren't that expensive or hard to find.

WR
For receivers, looking at the FA's this year some names that stand out are Cordarrelle Patterson and Robert Woods who both have added value as a ST returner. Dark horse WR would be bringing back Kenny Stills. I'm not sure what terms Stills left on, but you can't argue against his production and MIA is pretty stacked at WR so I don't think they'll retain him with Parker, Caroo, and Landry (though they are on rookie deals so who knows). I also wouldn't be surprised if we trade Cooks for a 2nd or 3rd because Thomas has clearly outplayed him and with Snead and Coleman you have a good pair of run blockers to compliment Thomas plus we have Jordan Lambert as another big body WR on PS.

RB - Alvin Kamara or McCaffrey in R2. Historical draft trends at RB say only 2 will be picked in the first round with most others in the 2nd/3rd. We have 5 RB's on the roster and typically keep 4. Replace Cadet with one of the two and release Murphy as we will likely have a different ST returner (TLL, Kamara/McCaffrey, WR as mentioned above)
 
There are more needs on offense than on defense.

The offense arguably needs two new players---a guard and a second lineman with hopefully the versatility to play guard or right tackle. The caveat here is that we do not how the coaching staff feels about the big-name UFAs we signed this year and whether one might become a solid starter.

We need a running back who can pose the match-up challenges Bush and Sproles posed. We could use tight end. We grossly overpaid for Fleener.

And then there is quarterback. We could draft one in the first three rounds.
 
Above all... Payton needs a "Reggie Bush/Darren Sproles" for his offense. While we have ranked high on offense the past couple years, we haven't been as dynamic. It just seems different without a legit receiving threat out of the backfield.

More needs are:

OG - We've looked pretty decent on the line this season but the past few weeks we're starting to see our Oline problems that we thought we would have coming out of training camp. We need 2 starting guards. Move Peat to RT, and let Strief ride off into the sunset. Strief has been great this yar but its time to let Peat take over.

TE - Not sure what to make of Fleener. He has the ability to be dynamic but he just doesn't have "it". We all thought he'd be that playmaking TE but he just hasn't shown he could e that guy. He's serviceable... and for a guy making the kind of money that he's making, "serviceable" is just not good enough. But since we're stuck with him, I think we should go out and draft another TE to pair with Fleener. Still don't know why we gave Josh hill that contract, but he could be our third TE. Hooman is coming back I think, but he's not the receiving threat that we need.
 
G, RB, Developmental T/WR/TE

Guard would be best addressed in FA

TE reminds me of Paytons 1st 3 years from 2006-2008. We had 3 good solid guys but not that very good TE until we got Shocky and then later Graham.

RB - Last week Cadet led the RB's in snaps. In other words the RB/WR role is still integral and it needs to be added to. I'd take Bush over McCaffrey because the pressure on McCaffrey to produce would be higher. Especially since Sean has already whiffed on Spiller/Fleener in back to back years. Bush if available would give him an instant plug and use guy plus add value to ST's. Then if you want to draft a guy 2nd or 3rd you have the luxury of doing that and bringing him along slowly.

T - Strief is going to decline at some point. Even if its next year you'll have signed a G that can kind of take some pressure off of him and allow him to rely on technique just that much more. So with that being said you don't have to take someone high but its worth a mid-rounder if the right guy comes free. We also still have Avery Young.

WR - I think we like Coleman. I like how he performed last week, and i look forward to seeing him continue to get better. My issue with him is that the Seam route has disappeared in the offense entirely. It typically came from the TE or the WR. Coleman does not look like the seam route guy and already neither does Fleener. So I think to bring that part of the offense back you need to add a guy at either position there that's a possible threat in that area. Either that or you begin to work the Slot more into Thomas game and allow him to be that guy. Either way the Seam route and the matchup RB position are two areas along with G that the offense needs a really big upgrade in.

The Seam route was my favorite part of the offense.

Line 2 WR's and a TE out left and an RB in for blitz pickup. WR 1 runs a post route, TE runs a seam route and WR 2 runs a slant route, RB is in for blitz pickup and runs out to the right for a dump off outlet.

This was impossible to defend. If WR 1 beats his man, it's a TD. If the TE is open (Jimmy always was) it's a big gain. If WR 2 is the only one open then it's a nice short gain. If everyone is covered, dump off to the RB and let him make something happen with the DB's and LB's covering the middle and deep.
 
Above all... Payton needs a "Reggie Bush/Darren Sproles" for his offense. While we have ranked high on offense the past couple years, we haven't been as dynamic. It just seems different without a legit receiving threat out of the backfield.

More needs are:

OG - We've looked pretty decent on the line this season but the past few weeks we're starting to see our Oline problems that we thought we would have coming out of training camp. We need 2 starting guards. Move Peat to RT, and let Strief ride off into the sunset. Strief has been great this yar but its time to let Peat take over.

TE - Not sure what to make of Fleener. He has the ability to be dynamic but he just doesn't have "it". We all thought he'd be that playmaking TE but he just hasn't shown he could e that guy. He's serviceable... and for a guy making the kind of money that he's making, "serviceable" is just not good enough. But since we're stuck with him, I think we should go out and draft another TE to pair with Fleener. Still don't know why we gave Josh hill that contract, but he could be our third TE. Hooman is coming back I think, but he's not the receiving threat that we need.

I had an argument with my friend that works with the Pats. When we picked up Spiller he told me it was a mistake, I argued that even if he didn't work out we were still top 5-10 on offense yearly. He said that statistically that was true, but in reality no team has feared us since we let Sproles go.

The last two seasons have proven that to be true.
 
Starting RG (free agency - one of the team's top 2 priorities)
3rd down RB (free agency/draft)
Developmental RT (draft - middle round)
"Joker" TE (free agency/draft)

IMHO, that is the order of necessity.
 
The Seam route was my favorite part of the offense.

Line 2 WR's and a TE out left and an RB in for blitz pickup. WR 1 runs a post route, TE runs a seam route and WR 2 runs a slant route, RB is in for blitz pickup and runs out to the right for a dump off outlet.

This was impossible to defend. If WR 1 beats his man, it's a TD. If the TE is open (Jimmy always was) it's a big gain. If WR 2 is the only one open then it's a nice short gain. If everyone is covered, dump off to the RB and let him make something happen with the DB's and LB's covering the middle and deep.

You must play Madden. That was/is my favorite route combination on there. The pistol trips/bunch look makes it easy to identify coverage, running strengths, and the TE out wide makes defending the edge runs really difficult.
 
Pass catching RB... I'm sorry but Pierre sproles and bush.. that open up so much... teams would be terrified of reggie in shot gun... payton addresses that cooks thomas snead and fleener can get over the top easily no one realizes of how ib this offence is needed. I peraonally feel if we had someone like shady mccoy with eagles we dominate easily
 
The net cap hit for cutting Fleener and Byrd is 1 million. Have to cut both or the cap hit for cutting Fleener is 4.7 million.
 
The net cap hit for cutting Fleener and Byrd is 1 million. Have to cut both or the cap hit for cutting Fleener is 4.7 million.

I'm not following you. How would cutting Byrd change Fleener's dead money? I thought we needed to keep both of them 1 more year and then could cut them for just a little bit of dead money.
 
The net cap hit for cutting Fleener and Byrd is 1 million. Have to cut both or the cap hit for cutting Fleener is 4.7 million.

We don't have to cut either of them.

You give Fleener another year to figure things out and you make Byrd take a pay cut (we have all the leverage vs. him hitting the open market).

Giving up on Fleener this soon is exactly the kind of ridiculously stupid move we've made way too often in the past few years. We'd eat 12m dead and lose 4.7 in space, and for what exactly?
 

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