Mike Florio on Saints Free Agency Approach (2 Viewers)

[bearze34]

While I was reading this thread, did we sign anybody? And why don't we have a live skycam over the facility?

No, but the bottom line is that the team with the worst defense in the NFL by a pretty wide margin, the team with arguably the worst defense in NFL history, has done nothing to improve said defense. I predict that after an uneventful free agency period we will move on to looking forward to getting camp cuts on the cheap. It will be a quantity over quality issue.

 

[insidejob]

I realize I'm in the minority here. I do understand that Florio was our beacon in the bounty scandal. I'm not really slamming the site, just expressing disappointment.

Sample headlines:

-The Seattle Seahawks tendered offers to three restricted free agents on Tuesday.
-the Jets have restructured the contract of cornerback Antonio Cromartie.
-Free agent cornerback Jerraud Powers arrived in Arizona Tuesday night for a meeting with the Cardinals
-The Redskins and defensive tackle Kedric Golston reached agreement on a new three-year contract on Tuesday.

The list goes on. None of these are terribly exciting. They are retructurings and visits listed.

Vilma and Smith are bigger names than these guys, save for Cromartie maybe. Just expressing a little disappointment.

A little disappointment? You've been railing on about it for multiple posts getting your panties all bunched up. Chill out.

 

[insidejob]

What Florio fails to mention, is that staying put, and let the bad teams spend the money hardly works for the Saints.... Of the FA pickups, only C Lofton is noteworthy....Bunkley was OK, but nothing special.....and who else?...well, nobody else.

Or, we can go back to previous year FA acquisitions...Kennedy?, S Rogers? Both of them were released the following year...

We can say with some degree of certainty that the Saints FO has problems finding good players in FA.... most of the FA pick ups never pan out............maybe this year is different.

Serious question...do you ever grow tired of being wrong?

 

[birdog]

Everyone has problems finding good players in FA. That's why staying out is a good move. Given the success rate in FA is pretty bad, and given that even when you do finding a contributor you likely overpaid for them, standing pat and overspending less for marginal players is a good move.

The best teams in free agency are teams like the Packers and Ravens who never spend a dime, just collect compensatory picks, or teams like New England and San Francisco who pick off under appreciated older players late, late in the process on cheap short term deals.

Arguably we should be doing less. Certainly not more.



But, since you asked, Saints FA successes
Ben Grubbs
Curtis Lofton
Jabari Greer
Darren Sharper
Darren Sproles
Drew Brees

We've had some success. Franklin wasn't that bad for us either, our decision to not retain him had more to do with Spags replacing Williams than his performance I think (less 3-man fronts).

If we look at these DEFENSIVE players (and btw, who would say anything bad about offensive players anyway?)...but all were paid more like first tier players than 2nd & 3 tier players which we love to sign, only to be disappointed. Sharper was the exception, (who got paid as a 2nd tier talent, being so close to retirement) but the rest of our defensive 2nd, & 3rd tier pickups wasn't much to brag about. The Greer pickup was a great pickup, but he was very close of being a 1st tier talent. Same with Lofton, and Bunkley....they got pretty good contracts, which puts them above those 2nd & 3rd tier players who we pick up every year, only to be disappointed shortly after.

Now on offense is quite different....we do go after 1st tier talent....Ben Grubbs is the prime example, and I would love to add to that list Sproles as well.

Which is my lame attempt to say that I would love to see a bit of change in the approach by the Saints FO....maybe they should try to bring in player on the defensive side of the same, or very close to 1st tier players they go after on the offensive side....maybe that would yield a better result...??

 

[ndcc]

Coming up with the "Dream Team" that Philly bragged about last year is OK (i guess)... but:

Coaching and team organization is more important than a lot of folks give it credit for. We know, because our having Sean Payton at the helm in '12 would have been good for at least 2-3 more W's.

"You can swap teams and he can whip his team with your boys. Then he can swap back and beat your team with his." (O.A. "Bum" Phillips)