Underhill article: “Saints moves are telling us what they felt the real problem with the team was last season”

As Roseanne Rosannadanna would say, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” Observing last season was painful, but it wasn’t just one thing.

1. A mediocre free agency period. Chase Young and Willie Gay, the latter of whom barely played. Salary cap restrictions reared their ugly head, limiting acquisitions.

2. A mediocre draft, with Fuaga as the only real success. McKinstry seems promising, though. And not enough picks due to the constant and toxic trading up.

3. Injuries concentrated on the offensive side. It’s one thing if injuries are scattered between offense and defense. Ask the Detroit staff what a plethora of injuries on defense does to a defensive unit, to cite a mirror image example to that of the Saints.

4. Terrifically disappointing play of the defense. Bad tackling , screwups, inadequate pass rush, lack of takeaways, and porous run defense were characteristic..

5. Coaching. No more needs to be said.

6. Related to coaching: lack of focus on the DL, including choice of coach. Allen was an elite DB coach but didn’t seem to value sufficiently or coach adequately the front seven.

Injuries were the main problem but not the only one. And there’s no doubt others can name some other problems with last year’s team.