The Fundamental Questions Facing the Saints Organization and Ownership

Is this a top 10 team? No. The why is a better question, though.

It's easy to place a lot of blame on the OLine, and it would be deserved. However, we've seen patchwork OLines work in the past. Why? I think that would be the coaching staff and the skills of a certain Mr. Brees.

Does the team have top 10 talent? If the OLine were even better than average, I would argue yes. But has the coaching staff utilized that talent? Definitely not.

At the end of the day, the problems do lie with the coaching staff. The Dennis Allen experiment has shown its results and it is not satisfactory. I have trust in Loomis. Loomis has shown in the past that he understands the NFL is a year to year thing. He puts the pieces in place and, if they don't work out, he makes changes - but he is not reactionary nor should he be. I find it unlikely this year can be salvaged. The defense is generally outstanding but the offense lacks imagination and doesn't execute. Some choices that seemed appropriate at the time (kicker) have shown to be incorrect and the staff has not made the requisite adjustments.

Let's look at the kicker situation. Clearly this 3-3 team would be 4-2 with a kicker who can make a chip shot under pressure (Green Bay game). I would also argue that the misses against the Texans put the team in a more worse hole (if Grupe had made both kicks it would have been a 1 point game in the late 4th Q and even a 4 point deficit could have made a difference). In past years, Grupe would have been out after the GB game and would be long gone after the TX game. Yet I'm hearing nothing about tryouts. That is a glaring difference in coaching philosophy, to me.

So, overall, I expect the Saints to end up around .500 at the end of the season and out of the playoffs. Dennis Allen can't pull the trigger on the needed mid-season adjustments. If Loomis does his job the way I expect, I think we'll see a new coaching staff, new philosophy, new kicker, and significantly overhauled OLine next year. Barring a major change in DA's way of doing things, though, this year will finish as a trip down Mediocrity Lane.