Mudbug67
Katz & Besthoff
Offline
I think we are witnessing something very special right now in NO.
Sean Payton is becoming recognised as one of the preeminent offensive minds in the league. After arriving in NO in 06 Payton brought in a FA QB who wasn't strongly persued by any other team (Miami did show token interest) At the top of his first draft was Bush and at the bottom was Colston. Regardless of your opinion of either, they were both major contributors in their rookie seasons and helped Payton bring NO to it's first ever NFCC game.
Quite a start for a rookie HC. A coach who has one of the best pedigrees in the league. Ray Rhodes 97-98, Jim Fassell 99-02, and Bill Parcells 03-05. It looks to me like The Big Tuna has had the biggest influence on Payton. He is an excellent judge of talent and has done a good job of bringing in guys to upgrade the talent pool.
We seriously underacheived in 07 and 08 despite an amazing offensive effort and missed the playoffs both seasons. Payton pulled the trigger on the biggest reason for our poor defensive play and fired his close friend Gibbs. It has to be tough to fire a close friend, but that's the NFL. An even tougher decision had to be to hire a new coordinator who he didn't know.
NFL coaching is a fraternity and coaches rarely hire other coaches whom they don't have any history with. ( Remember that GW coached under Buddy Ryan who once punched out his own OC during a game for not doing well ) Especially if that coach has the resume to potentially threaten your job or leadership.
On top of that, he tells the FO to sweeten the pot with a very large chunk of HIS on money to seal the deal. That is leadership at the top of the scale. He's a pure offensive guy and he tells his defense ' I'm gonna get you a big time coach'.
Remember in 06 when Payton took his new team to his mentors house and proceeded to beat the snot out of him. That also was a big message to his players. 'The student has now become the teacher'.
On the other side of the ball we now also have a coach with very good football pedigree. Greg Williams coached under very good coaches. Most notably Buddy Ryan and Jeff Fisher. He has also been a HC in the NFL. Williams and Payton are very simmilar in their coaching and leadership styles.
They are both very spirited coaches and are both strong teachers. Neither of them could give a darn about a players draft position or their contract size. You play if you are successfull or you practice until you are successfull. Both have a history of coaching top talent to reach the top of their game and bringing in unpolished talent and coaching them up to be solid journeyman and/or high performers.
The third part of this equation is someone who doesn't get a lot of credit, but is an enormous part of what is happening in NO. Rick Reiprish who is in charge of college scouting. Reiprish is the man responsible for bringing the talent to the attention of the coaches and I must say he's doing a fine job of it. Reiprish has brought to NO ( Since 04 ) a reputation as the team with the strongest presence at small colleges and other pro foootball leagues.
Peiprish who came to NO from Jacksonville where he was head of player personnel, once drafted 7 straight 1st round picks who became starters. We are doing a better job of evaluating what is sometimes unnoticed talent. That's a big deal with salary caps and limited roster size. I beleive that this strategy is completely due to the teaching abilities of our coaching staff.
The same goes for UDFAs and FA pick ups, we are sometimes going after players who are being waived ( Lance Moore ) or are not really sought after by other clubs. Our coaches teaching ability and unwillingness to bring in prima donna's is also creating that good atmosphere that most players are looking for. Afterall most NFL players are family men who really want a good locker room and a chance to succeed. In NO they are getting both.
Remember hearing Williams say that he considered trading for Vilma while he was with 2 different teams. He also said that in the 08 draft he had Sed Ellis rated higher than Dorsey. My point is he didn't have anything to do with either aquisistion, but he probably would of done what our scouting dept. did.
We have got some very good coaches and top quality talent scouts who are all on the same page when it comes to who we bring to NO and players are leaving other more successfull teams or teams in bigger markets to become a part of this.
I beleive we have seen a change in the character of this team. I always read post on this site about it being NO year this year. I'm not disputing that, but I beleive we are seing a transformation to a team that others will soon expect to be in contention year in and year out.
All good teams start out because of good decisions in all areas of the organization. This ain't no one night stand.
Sorry I ran on so much, but I'm hyped about this whole organization right now.
mb
Sean Payton is becoming recognised as one of the preeminent offensive minds in the league. After arriving in NO in 06 Payton brought in a FA QB who wasn't strongly persued by any other team (Miami did show token interest) At the top of his first draft was Bush and at the bottom was Colston. Regardless of your opinion of either, they were both major contributors in their rookie seasons and helped Payton bring NO to it's first ever NFCC game.
Quite a start for a rookie HC. A coach who has one of the best pedigrees in the league. Ray Rhodes 97-98, Jim Fassell 99-02, and Bill Parcells 03-05. It looks to me like The Big Tuna has had the biggest influence on Payton. He is an excellent judge of talent and has done a good job of bringing in guys to upgrade the talent pool.
We seriously underacheived in 07 and 08 despite an amazing offensive effort and missed the playoffs both seasons. Payton pulled the trigger on the biggest reason for our poor defensive play and fired his close friend Gibbs. It has to be tough to fire a close friend, but that's the NFL. An even tougher decision had to be to hire a new coordinator who he didn't know.
NFL coaching is a fraternity and coaches rarely hire other coaches whom they don't have any history with. ( Remember that GW coached under Buddy Ryan who once punched out his own OC during a game for not doing well ) Especially if that coach has the resume to potentially threaten your job or leadership.
On top of that, he tells the FO to sweeten the pot with a very large chunk of HIS on money to seal the deal. That is leadership at the top of the scale. He's a pure offensive guy and he tells his defense ' I'm gonna get you a big time coach'.
Remember in 06 when Payton took his new team to his mentors house and proceeded to beat the snot out of him. That also was a big message to his players. 'The student has now become the teacher'.
On the other side of the ball we now also have a coach with very good football pedigree. Greg Williams coached under very good coaches. Most notably Buddy Ryan and Jeff Fisher. He has also been a HC in the NFL. Williams and Payton are very simmilar in their coaching and leadership styles.
They are both very spirited coaches and are both strong teachers. Neither of them could give a darn about a players draft position or their contract size. You play if you are successfull or you practice until you are successfull. Both have a history of coaching top talent to reach the top of their game and bringing in unpolished talent and coaching them up to be solid journeyman and/or high performers.
The third part of this equation is someone who doesn't get a lot of credit, but is an enormous part of what is happening in NO. Rick Reiprish who is in charge of college scouting. Reiprish is the man responsible for bringing the talent to the attention of the coaches and I must say he's doing a fine job of it. Reiprish has brought to NO ( Since 04 ) a reputation as the team with the strongest presence at small colleges and other pro foootball leagues.
Peiprish who came to NO from Jacksonville where he was head of player personnel, once drafted 7 straight 1st round picks who became starters. We are doing a better job of evaluating what is sometimes unnoticed talent. That's a big deal with salary caps and limited roster size. I beleive that this strategy is completely due to the teaching abilities of our coaching staff.
The same goes for UDFAs and FA pick ups, we are sometimes going after players who are being waived ( Lance Moore ) or are not really sought after by other clubs. Our coaches teaching ability and unwillingness to bring in prima donna's is also creating that good atmosphere that most players are looking for. Afterall most NFL players are family men who really want a good locker room and a chance to succeed. In NO they are getting both.
Remember hearing Williams say that he considered trading for Vilma while he was with 2 different teams. He also said that in the 08 draft he had Sed Ellis rated higher than Dorsey. My point is he didn't have anything to do with either aquisistion, but he probably would of done what our scouting dept. did.
We have got some very good coaches and top quality talent scouts who are all on the same page when it comes to who we bring to NO and players are leaving other more successfull teams or teams in bigger markets to become a part of this.
I beleive we have seen a change in the character of this team. I always read post on this site about it being NO year this year. I'm not disputing that, but I beleive we are seing a transformation to a team that others will soon expect to be in contention year in and year out.
All good teams start out because of good decisions in all areas of the organization. This ain't no one night stand.
Sorry I ran on so much, but I'm hyped about this whole organization right now.
mb
Last edited:
Hey Ronnie says we are on for the game.We can leave about 12:15 if you want.
