Is There Really A Mickey Loomis? (1 Viewer)

[xLr8n]

Loomis has been general manger for how many years? Five? He has presided over one great offseason--he was the guy in charge so he deserves the credit. But he also presided over two terrible offseasons--2007 and 2003 when we moved up to pick Sullivan at 7 and our big free agency signing was Tebucky Jones.

The problem is that Loomis does not have an eye or any instincts for talent. He is a process guy whose job is to handle the numbers and to determine what the consensus,and to play umpire if there is no consensus, with personnel decisions.

According to Mike Detiller, Sean Payton has plenty of say about who we draft and sign in free-agency. I tend to agree with that. Maybe your anger is misplaced to some degree?

 

[Saint Droopy]

Why then the discrepancy?? To me, last year's draft looks almost identical to the Haslet drafts...we got some "prospects" who aren't starters. Contrast that with the 2006 draft, and we see a huge difference in players who started right away. To me it surely looks like the 2006 draft was conducted by some other people, and last year they reverted to the same people who did the previous 5-6 drafts.

See that's the problem... apparently our FO thought we were only a player or 2 away from being in the Super Bowl... so they figured they'd hold onto the guys that got us there, and draft for depth.

Problem is/was... the players that we brought back didn't overachieved as they did in '06.. look at the 06 seasons of Shanle, Grant, Hollis, and Stinch and compare them to the 07 seasons they all had. Instead of getting better at these positions we settled for what we had, and throw in the injuries... which we didn't have last year... you end up with a 7 and 9 season.

The 2006 draft was extraordinary by ANY SAINTS DRAFT STANDARDS! We never had a draft like that before! New coaches, new faces, and they hit the bullseye! Was it luck? Or somebody else had an outside influence? The thing is, last year we reverted back to our old ways......and that is sad, considering the potential the team has!

That does smell like 2000 doesn't it... new staff... new players... do well... I think Payton and the FO realize they can't stay stat quo and expect to compete for a title. I hope they go into free agency with all guns ablazing, and bring in some guys that can help us now rather than wait.

I guess the good thing about last year's draft is that these guys have had a full seaon with the team... and we'll go into this with pretty much 2 drafts worth of players.

 

[birdog]

That does smell like 2000 doesn't it... new staff... new players... do well... I think Payton and the FO realize they can't stay stat quo and expect to compete for a title. I hope they go into free agency with all guns ablazing, and bring in some guys that can help us now rather than wait.

I guess the good thing about last year's draft is that these guys have had a full seaon with the team... and we'll go into this with pretty much 2 drafts worth of players.

I sure hope so! I started to post my thoughts on this very same idea after the regular season ended. I said, that I expect the Saints to go into the FA as you said, with all guns ablazing, and expect a splash in FA! For too many years we ignored to look at top talent on D, settling on marginal players like JD, and drafting for athleticism (Bullocks) instead of play making ability. When Sean Payton came in, he said that not the best players are the SB winners....but the team is what counts. Well, after last year, I kinda disagree....without play makers, no team wins anything! Marginal talent can only take the team so far......sooner or later the play making ability of the players will carry the day. Just look at Simoneau, and JD......I seriously doubt they can do much on their own. JD was OK, as long he had Freeney in front of him in Indy......but he was exposed in NO, when there was no pass rush! We need PLAYMAKERS, period!

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

Some observations:

--I am not talking about number of interviews. I am talking about "strategic" interviews when the building of the team and the offseason addressing of personnel deficiencies are addressed. With that type of discussion, Bill Polian is the principal spokesperson for the Colts. And though there are limits to how candid any team official will be when duiscussing personnel, the general manager can certainly be more candid because his job is, or should be, to get the best personnel for the team, not to extract maximum performance from the personnel selected.

--So if we say the 2007 offseason was bad, who was responsible? Does anyone know? Was Loomis listening to the coaching staff? Was Loomis listening to the scouting department? When responsibility and accountability are not clear in any organization, there is a problem.

--Yes, the only way to definitively--the adverb is the key--judge a draft is several years after the draft has taken place, just like the only way to definitively judge how well your mutual funds are performing is several years after you invest your money. But this is a discussion board. We don't have an opinion on draft day? We don't have an opinion a year later? At what point did you conclude that the 2003 offseason, the first Loomis technically presided over, was a train wreck?

Reggie Bush and Roman Harper are not busts. Whatever else happens, they have already shown enough production and talent to avoid their selections being labeled as a bust. Their performance in the long run may not meet certain expectations. But I think we saw enough last year to say the 2006 draft was superior.

And I think we have seen enough of the results of the 2007 offseason to say that the execution was substandard--including the draft. A team like the Saints does not have the luxury of red-shirting rookies.

And this draft speaks for itself: the first round pick never suited up and didn't even give us special teams production; we traded away our second round pick; Young shows promise, and one of the two offensive linemen might turn into a quality player; the second day of the draft was a disaster with our trading up in the fourth round to draft a player could didn't make the team.

--

 

[bobad]

According to Mike Detiller, Sean Payton has plenty of say about who we draft and sign in free-agency. I tend to agree with that. Maybe your anger is misplaced to some degree?

Yes. Much of the fan's anger is usually misplaced. Much of the blame for problems is usually wrongly assigned. Fans don't have access to all the variables that go into the decision making processes, so they wrongly second guess the FO for "bad" personnel moves. Just like the Offensive Coordinator is always the scapegoat for the players and Head Coach. Lack of information always leads to fan frustration and wild speculation.

I have heard several radio interviews with Loomis this year, and find him very impressive. Fans just don't realize what a tight rope he has to walk when speaking for the team. If he answers 1 way, he steps on the owner's toes. Another way, he steps on the coach's toes. Another way, and he is blatantly untruthful. Another way, and he tips other teams off to confidential team goals. If he talks too much, it's like letting other teams into the Saints huddle. Very few people can appreciate the tight rope a GM has to walk, so he catches a lot of unfair criticism. It's very unfortunate, but part of football, I guess.

 

[Andrus]

Yes. Much of the fan's anger is usually misplaced. Much of the blame for problems is usually wrongly assigned. Fans don't have access to all the variables that go into the decision making processes, so they wrongly second guess the FO for "bad" personnel moves. Just like the Offensive Coordinator is always the scapegoat for the players and Head Coach. Lack of information always leads to fan frustration and wild speculation.

I have heard several radio interviews with Loomis this year, and find him very impressive. Fans just don't realize what a tight rope he has to walk when speaking for the team. If he answers 1 way, he steps on the owner's toes. Another way, he steps on the coach's toes. Another way, and he is blatantly untruthful. Another way, and he tips other teams off to confidential team goals. If he talks too much, it's like letting other teams into the Saints huddle. Very few people can appreciate the tight rope a GM has to walk, so he catches a lot of unfair criticism. It's very unfortunate, but part of football, I guess.

Thanks Mickey! J/K

Yo Spam! Bill Polian is definitely a GM that get's a lot of face time. However, things have generally gone pretty well for Polian over the years with the success of the Colts, so there is no reason for him to hide from the fans and media.

On the other hand in most markets the GM's are FORCED into showing face time and showing accountability by their local media and fanbase alike. The New Orleans media and fanbase are really touchy-feely towards the Saints by comparison.

Since Mickey is famous for keeping everything close to the vest anyway and his interviews are painfully vanilla, it is probably better that he just shy from the media. Were I him, after this past offseason unless I was pressed hard to give an accounting to the fans and media I would pretty much lay low myself. But true, now is evaluation time and a game plan for free agency and the subsequent draft are surely being formulated. That certainly has to be priority one for Mickey.

 

[bobad]

Thanks Mickey! J/K

I'm not Mickey, I'm Mickey's mom. He's a good boy. JK!

 

[Saints#34]

Maybe I'm alone here, but I've never sat around and wondered where all the Mickey Loomis interviews are. I don't much expect to hear anything juicy from him and don't really care to.

I also agree with LS that the head coach is the face of the franchise, not the GM. Can you name all 32 GMs? Doubtful, but I bet you can name every head coach, or close to it.

How can you possibly expect him to come into an interview and say the draft and offseason in 2007 was a disaster? What kind of message does that send to the young draft picks from that year that we have on the roster? Why would he make such a damning evaluation like that publicly after only one season?

As far as the London game, not only did that just happen, but I doubt Loomis had anything to do with it. Its not his job to comment on decisions by ownership, especially when those decisions are clearly not approved of by the fans. There's no winning in that situation and anyone should be able to see that.

As for commenting on the upcoming season, both Loomis and Payton have made some comments on what their general strategy will be. To say anything further is stupidity. We've cited Bill Polian, but I'd love to see a link to an article where he starts talking about his upcoming draft strategy, or a link to a similar article by any other GM in the league.


As far as I'm concerned, Loomis/Payton have been on the job for 2 seasons. Loomis/Haslett were on the job before that, and that proved to be a failure. You have to judge them both together, and so far IMO the Loomis/Payton combo has been successfull, even including last year. As disappointing as it was, we still scored the most points in our division and were in the hunt for a playoff spot until late in the season, despite some terrible breaks.

As far as more media face-time, I have many more concerns to direct my attention to than how much I see Loomis' mug on camera. We're not going to get any real details out of him anyway, why are you so demanding that he come on TV and be incredibly vague and misleading?