Jairus Byrd's turn to shine for improving Saints defense, and other practice observations

crosswatt said

Sunk cost isn't limited to money. Forget how he got here, and who deserves any blame for the situation.

Did he play at an acceptable level for a starting free safety last year? Yes. Is he looking more like the player he was in Buffalo so far this training camp/preseason? Yes. Will it carry over to the regular season? Who knows really.

But how he got here and what he cost and our expectations as fans and how they were not met really shouldn't factor into what we are seeing at the moment. Whether or not this player can help win football games is really all I care about. The rest is inconsequential in my mind.

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I don't understand this logic. Perhaps its inconsequential to you but I gauruntee it factors into how the coaches/front office evaluate players. How a player got here and cost absolutely play into expectations, both from fans and from the team's perspective. The team invested heavily in Byrd, just as they invested heavily in Peat (with where he was drafted). Both, to date, have underperformed. That's disappointing. I also disagree with the folks that say Byrd played well or acceptable last year. He was brought here to provide a spark, to be a ball hawk, to create turnovers. He has not done that. Period. He is also out of position at times whiffing on deep balls, despite playing deep center. Byrd will be gone next year unless he shows up in a big way and makes the plays that were expected from him, the reason we made him one of the highest paid safeties in the league.