Anyone know why Spiller did not play (1 Viewer)

[Noisemaker]

This may have already been discussed, but please let me know if you have info on Spiller. Thought he looked fast in pre season.

 

[diehardfan]

No, not the real reason. Spiller should have at least been returning that last kickoff.

He was a healthy scratch and SP said Cadet was part of the week's gameplan and that's why Spiller was out. I just can't believe that Cadet would be a better option at anything over Spiller.

Personally, I'm not buying it. But that's just my opinion....who knows??

 

[LombardiGras]

He was a healthy scratch. All signs point to it just being another failed free agency signing.

 

[crosswatt]

According to Payton, they had a gameplan that Cadet was going to be heavily involved in, so the numbers just didn't necessitate Spiller being active. Ingram and Hightower are the one and two in terms of rushing attempts, and Lasco and Murphy were going to be active due to special teams responsibilities.

Cadet's involvement in special teams, along with his inclusion in the offensive game plan, essentially made Spiller expendable.

Several posters have felt that there was much more to the story, and that would make sense. But that was the answer given when Payton was asked about it. I guess we will get a glimpse over the next few weeks as to what was actually going on.

 

[BoNcHiE]

Regardless of the reason (I speculate he was in the doghouse over something), my hope is that after seeing Murphy, Payton will decide that it's much smarter to have Spiller active returning kicks and as an option on offense. Murphy is just not good enough to be active IMO.

Cadet, for all the talk of him being heavily part of the gameplan, had 2 drops last week. He caught a gimme TD, and that's fine, but he wasn't great by any means nor did he look invaluable.

Spiller needs to be active this week against such a talented offensive team like the Giants. You never know what situation his unique skill set could come in handy (i.e. having Spiller to return that final kickoff this past week).

That's my opinion.

 

[LombardiGras]

According to Payton, they had a gameplan that Cadet was going to be heavily involved in, so the numbers just didn't necessitate Spiller being active. Ingram and Hightower are the one and two in terms of rushing attempts, and Lasco and Murphy were going to be active due to special teams responsibilities.

Cadet's involvement in special teams, along with his inclusion in the offensive game plan, essentially made Spiller expendable.

Several posters have felt that there was much more to the story, and that would make sense. But that was the answer given when Payton was asked about it. I guess we will get a glimpse over the next few weeks as to what was actually going on.

None of that explains why Cadet is being used ahead of Spiller. Saying that Cadet is featured more in the game plan is a non-answer. We want to know why Spiller isn't factoring into the game plan. The Saints chose to release Cadet and sign Spiller to take on that role. Cadet was not supposed to be a better option than Spiller. Something has gone wrong with the Spiller signing.

 

[SaintKent]

healthy scratch, another bad FA signing.

Wasn't Cadet cut and resigned a few times too?

At least he helped beat the Cowboys last season.

 

[crosswatt]

None of that explains why Cadet is being used ahead of Spiller. Saying that Cadet is featured more in the game plan is a non-answer. We want to know why Spiller isn't factoring into the game plan. The Saints chose to release Cadet and sign Spiller to take on that role. Cadet was not supposed to be a better option than Spiller. Something has gone wrong with the Spiller signing.

I don't disagree.

 

[SaintsJunkie]

Cadet is better at the screen play and we needed that for the expected pass rush, but they held Cadet bad , guess they knew why he was in also. cost us 7 , because they also game drew the intentional grounding in the red zone on that play

 

[CajunSaint]

Regardless of the reason (I speculate he was in the doghouse over something), my hope is that after seeing Murphy, Payton will decide that it's much smarter to have Spiller active returning kicks and as an option on offense. Murphy is just not good enough to be active IMO.

Cadet, for all the talk of him being heavily part of the gameplan, had 2 drops last week. He caught a gimme TD, and that's fine, but he wasn't great by any means nor did he look invaluable.

Spiller needs to be active this week against such a talented offensive team like the Giants. You never know what situation his unique skill set could come in handy (i.e. having Spiller to return that final kickoff this past week).

That's my opinion.

I agree with all of this.

I am gonna speculate he was late to a meeting or curfew and Payton didnt want to disclose it. We will find out this week. If he is inactive again, i think we can write him off for good.

 

[Bronson]

This is just a shot in the dark since I don't know ****, but I think it had to do with pass protection. Our game plan was obviously pass heavy, and we were concerned about their pass rush.

In hindsight, our OL played great and Brees wasn't pressured much. Would have liked to see Spiller active over Cadet, but if the reason was pass protection, I can understand Payton's decision.

Of course, Payton isn't going to spill his reasoning to the media, so it's up to us if we want to play the guessing game. Whatever it is, it makes no sense for Payton to disclose and give the opponent a possible advantage of knowing our game plan.

 

[BooBirdSaint]

In no universe are we "game planning" for Cadet. I agree with the comments that Spiller must have done something bad and he was being "punished". However, I believe that he still got paid (a lot) so not sure how it is punishment? I'll chalk the answer up to the black hole that is a Coach Payton interview.

 

[LAhotsauce]

My theory is Sean Payton ****** up. There is no doghouse big enough to explain that. Not after Spiller looked good in pre-season and Cadet looked like he always does.

 

[rsmith2783]

There's something going on behind the scenes that we don't know yet.

 

[Fiyo]

The only thing that makes real sense to me is that Spiller is trade bait and we don't want him to get hurt and lose any value he might have