Seriously, who had the Saints in last place in the NFC South on their Bingo card at the start of the season? (1 Viewer)

[livefromDC]

It is absolutely a major contributing factor to our current issues. We lost our 2nd and 3rd most productive receivers and our 2nd most productive running back before the season started and replaced them all with undrafted players. Michael Thomas started on PUP and his loss of production was expected for nearly half of the season. On defense we lost some of our depth as well. Trey Hendrickson alone had 13.5 sacks last year and we replaced him with a rookie. We also lost Jackrabbit, Brown and Rankins and Onyemata was suspended for the first 6 weeks. Oh yeah, and our hall of fame QB retired.

Injuries absolutely sunk the ship we had left because it had a shallow hull to begin with, but please don’t pretend that this team was stacked to begin with. We have a few great players and a lot of marginal players. That is where my expectations came from.

Soooo...I was right. You have totally misplaced why this team is struggling to win games now. We're struggling because of the breadth of injuries. All of the things you named were present when this team started 5-2. It was when the uncharacteristically heavy amount of injuries started occurring did the team take a down turn. If you were right, and the preseason stuff was a major contributing factor, the Saints never would have seen 5-2. So it's safe to say, the injuries sustained during the season are the major contributing factor.

 

[savannahsaint]

Just looking forward to the offseason for a A+ Draft, Cutting lose some non-essential players, Getting healthy and more physically fit, and hopefully acquiring a new OC and a QB coach.

 

[CowtownSaint]

Ask me again Sunday evening when we aren’t

 

[Booker]

I was expecting 7-9 wins -- just wasn't sold on either Winston or Hill being any good, but figured that Payton and the defense would keep the team out of double digit loss territory. The injuries on offense have just been too much to overcome (I sure didn't expect Siemian to start multiple games).

But I was happy to see Winston surpass my expectations when he played. I thought his arrow was pointing up and he was playing well enough for us to get to double digit wins and make the playoffs when he went down. Hill and Siemian are what they are, though -- a great athlete with limited throwing skills and an emergency back up -- so I'm not at all shocked that we're 0-5 with the two of them starting games.

 

[Meachemdat]

I called it a couple weeks ago, I don't think we see Kamara or Davenport again this year, I think they'll shut them down as opposed to bringing them back for 5 meaningless games....if we miracle a win or two to put us in contention, maybe they'll bring 'em back, but I really don't see it.

Yep, exactly.

The crazy part is, if we win 3 more games, we're more than likely in the playoffs haha.
Especially if 2 of those three are against the Falcons and Panthers.

So what do we do?

 

[Bill]

It happens...but now we get to sit back and for some of us pretend that injuries had nothing to do with it because they all are professionals and "collect a paycheck" and somehow attribute our record to Brees not being here anymore as the only reason why we're in last.

You are absolutely right. There is no way we were going to be as effective on offense as would have been with our starters in place. Yes, I know that all teams deal with injuries, but I can dare say that if any other team is dealing with the sheer number of lost starters as we have experienced, then they are equally hamstrung at trying to have a successful season.

The fact is that if we knew in advance that we were going to have this level of attrition to our squad, no one would have been thinking the postseason was even a possibility... much less an expectation. We just got a bad deck of Bingo cards this year.

 

[Bill]

The premise of the thread is not right now, it was before the season did you expect this result.

This is correct. As the OP here, I did want everyone to reflect on what their thoughts were prior to the start of the season. This is why I changed up the title a bit to help clarify the premise of this thread.

Obviously it would be foolish at this stage to assume that the injuries should have nothing to do with our mid-season collapse. There's no way we can be successful with a sideline full of 'third string starters' having to play real football games. We can't even find a consistent kicker to keep on this roster.

 

[Icon]

I dunno about projecting them for last place......but I had a feeling that going 8-0 against the division in the regular season last year (combined with also winning the division the previous 3 years, and Brees retiring) was going to result in a pretty quick "regression to the mean". It started with losing to Tampa in the playoffs..