It’s time to cut ties with Mathieu (1 Viewer)

[Saints 318]

I heard a couple of times this season that he was frustrated that he’s not being used like he was in KC.
Meanwhile the whole defensive side of the ball needs a rebuild from the sidelines to the field.

 

[bigdub81]

What did he say? I went back 3 pages and into the post game threads and didn’t see anything unless I overlooked it

 

[St.Dan]

This organization is coming across to me as arrogant. It's why you hear these leakage statements from players who can afford to make them. Honey badger has a ring and knows what winning staff looks and feels like. This one won't listen to convenient private locker room talk. It needs to be made uncomfortable in order to make any movement in a positive direction. Probably why it took so long for DA to be gone.

Green Bay was humbling. Don't have a rich owner, small market but with a bunch of young dudes literally kicked our you know what.

Interestingly, Green Bay isn't a large market either and has an ownership structure that's been grandfathered in to what's acceptable for the league. According to the link, we're third-smallest among U.S. cities with a team, ahead of only Buffalo and Green Bay. (Ironically, though, both those teams are in the playoffs this year and might well be a Super Bowl matchup)....

Major pro and college sports teams ranked by market size

See which pro sports cities rank as the biggest TV markets, according to Nielsen. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are the top three.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

But back to the actual thread topic, the ol' Honey Badger indeed has reached the end of his rope. It's his 12th season of pro ball and he's not the same player as he once was. It doesn't matter what his usage is at this point. The other posters on here who track the cap situation more closely probably know how much his cap hit is. But whatever it is, he needs to be among the veterans let go for 2025.

 

[sfidc3]

What Mathieu did isn't ideal but at the same point, with the team eliminated from the playoffs, the season is over. And I think we can all see that there are issues on defense and that the execution is bad on this team. I think Mathieu was frustrated and let it break through. And while Cam didn't say stuff in emotion directly after the game, he made it clear that Grantham should not have been the DL coach and was a serious issue. That's a pretty big indictment of DA and Grantham. Is it better or worse that he said it while not in the heat of emotion after a game? I just don't know that it rises to the level of you can't keep him. Especially when we should have an essentially entirely new coaching staff next year. But, I do think that they need to get younger at Safety and it's possible that Mathieu has hit the age wall.

Rizzi didn't have to address Cam's comments only because Rizzi demoted Grantham and Grantham moved on.

Agreed, I took the comments by TM as something with nothing to lose (ie: he won't be back next year with the Saints) would say.....I also think there is a good chance he retires after the season....

 

[sfidc3]

It's drafting goggles. Whenever fans convince themselves that one position is a greater need than others, they also convince themselves that that specific position is the deepest in the draft. Happens every year.

Awesome post.....

 

[B4YOU]

So the issue here is HB complaining about non-tackling walkthroughs during the season?

 

[SAINT BIGAL]

Agreed, I took the comments by TM as something with nothing to lose (ie: he won't be back next year with the Saints) would say.....I also think there is a good chance he retires after the season....

He signed a two year extension earlier this season.

 

[sfidc3]

He signed a two year extension earlier this season.

Didn't know that, Thanks.....idiotic move by the FO.....IMO

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

There's more problems on this defense than Honey Badger. The guy shouldn't be utilized as much as he is at this point in his career. A good coaching staff wouldn't overexpose an aging player like him, but would use him as a supplemental piece to help out younger emerging players with communication and identifying what they're seeing. The guy has shown he can still make big plays, but the season is long and their bodies take a lot of punishment.

Problem is, not much of the young talent on this team is stepping up when the opportunity is presented, at least not consistently. There can be endless debate on whether that's on coaching, talent evaluation, or player effort. That's just what the reality of the situation is

And who are these emerging players for TM to supplemental?

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

Right, I agree...and yet I don't think it's being understood.

Again, I don't have a problem w/ what Mathieu said. Similarly I don't have an issue w/ what Cam said, but he didn't say anything about it until both guys were out of the organization. He didn't air dirty laundrey, Mathieu did and he did it in such a way that the HC had to answer questions about it.

Anytime your coach has to get up and address your actions or words, what was done probably wasn't smart.

It was incredibly inflammatory at a time where everyone in the lockeroom probably feels or felt the same, but absolutely NO ONE went out of their way to say it.

If you will, go and look at Cams and Demario's Post Game conferences, they quite literally went out of their way to deny that they weren't unprepared or didn't get enough practice reps. Specifically Demario he immediately shot down that notion when asked.

So not only did he cause his coach to answer questions, he had his teammates having to respond to comments based around what he said. He put people in uncomfortable situations the moment he did what he did. That's a personality type that can be detrimental in the long game.

and I should clarify my previous statement about was it wrong or right. It wasn't wrong, we have the option to be critical, but absolutely nothing about what he did helped the situation in that moment, it very obviously harmed the situation.

Yeah well we needed someone to tell us about how trash our practice habits are and it's clear as day no one else was going to do it. How did we even expect to win a playoff game let alone the Super Bowl if we're barely practicing? He's clearly at the end of his career, so why not call it out now? And it wouldn't surprise me if the players said it was okay for him to do that for that reason.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

And yet he's has not been good in Atl and Jax

People forget that our DL was already regressing UNDER Neilsen. Now you can blame some of that on losing talent, but how do you explain big onion starting to suck? Or was he a product of the talent around him? Either way, our DL has been regressing ever since we lost Malcolm Brown.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

Thats a legitimate way to look at it. However I must ask, when has publicly airing grievances ever made a situation “better”? Those conversations, respectfully, are better had in private, even if you’re right… yes?

Brandin Cooks complained about not getting a single target in a 40 burger beatdown on the Rams and the very next week he got the ball immediately, so yes, they have made situations better.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

What did he say? I went back 3 pages and into the post game threads and didn’t see anything unless I overlooked it

I didn't read it either but I heard some of what it was about. He apparently said that we don't practice tackling and that we'll barely practice a play 20-30 times whereas the Chiefs will sometimes practice a play 200 times. No wonder why we are garbage and the Chiefs are looking to 3peat, besides having Mahomes of course.

 

[sainthood]

Cam Jordan, Demario Davis, and Tyran Mathieu are the respective veteran leaders at each level of the Saints defense. All three have a legitimate case as hall of fame players. All three are past their prime, too slow, and need to not be on the 2025 roster if the Saints are serious about a rebuild. We have to get younger, faster, and less expensive. Trading our best defensive player (Lattimore) was the price of other bad decisions. We let Trey Hendrickson, Zach Baun, David Onyemata, Alex Anzalone, Marcus Williams and Chauncy Gardner Johnson go. All are younger defensive starters on other teams. We failed on the defensive line in wasted draft picks on Marcus Davenport, Peyton Turner, and Isiah Foskey. This defense needs a reckoning. Cam, Demario, and Tyrann are not at fault. Loomis is the GM. Allen was the coach. The organization needs to make some hard decisions based on who we can draft. That starts at edge passrusher and both safety positions with the most likely to eek one more year in Davis.