Team Speed on the Saints
Something that is missing on the Saints is team speed, and its absence is glaring. On offense, Sproles has been fantastic, and Graham for a tight end is fast. But the speed of Bush, Meachem and a younger Henderson is missed.
And on defense, even before last night I was struck at how much faster Atlanta's defense is compared to ours. I wonder at times whether we have four 3-4 ends starting on our defensive line. Our linebackers are slow, and Harper has average speed.
Greer is a former track star, PRob runs sub 4.4, Jenkins is a 4.5 guy at FS, Will Smith ran a 4.5 once upon a time, Junior and Wilson are both very fast for ends, Sedrick Ellis is quicker than your average DT and at LB we have guys that aren't slow on paper.
Yet when the ball is snapped our defense looks pedestrian compared to other teams. I'd like to think it is because they are thinking too much before reacting because it is a new system but it was the same way last season.
It is almost like there is a magic hormone that our guys are missing which makes them play bigger, faster and stronger when the bright lights are on. Instead it seems like they play slower and less intense than they are on paper.
I have a theory why that is.
When a team is great on one side of the ball but not the other they are quicker to let a player walk on the side they are great. For example, we let Meach, Goodwin, Bush, Nicks and some others go even though we really didn't want to. Then on the other side of the ball we are afraid to let average players walk because we need all the "talent" we can get. We overpay for players like Will Smith and Roman Harper. We are afraid to bring in replacements for guys like Malcolm Jenkins because we are worried about upgrading other positions that are bigger needs. We find 1-2 year stop gaps at positions to get us by because we have the proverbial window constantly closing. Then our offense is just so good that we are never picking very high in the draft. Then when we do pick high in the draft we just haven't been able to get that star player. The next problem we have is the defense as a whole is weak and it makes it more difficult to plug in a younger player like a Junior or Martez because they are "not ready". To top it all off we don't have that leadership on the field or a couple players on the field that just make everyone else around them better like Ray Lewis, Ed Reed or Demarcus Ware.
In 2009 we had those guys in Vilma, Sharper and Will Smith. Smith is now old and just doesn't look or play like the same player. Sharper is long gone and Vilma has spent more time in court and the operating table than he has the field and when he has been on the field the injuries have shown.