Something special brought Courtney Roby back to the Saints (1 Viewer)

[saintsfan26]

Something special brought Courtney Roby back to Saints | Sports | The Advocate

BY BRIAN ALLEE-WALSH
Special to The Advocate
June 02, 2013

At this stage of Courtney Roby’s career with the New Orleans Saints, his job description probably needs to be rewritten.

On paper, he is listed as a wide receiver/kick returner. And while he performs both duties well when pressed into action, his real value comes as the unquestioned captain for special teams coordinator Greg McMahon.

Arguably, no one does it better than Roby, which is why the Saints re-signed him to a one-year, $905,000 contract in March.

“I had visits set up in free agency,’’ said Roby, a third-round draft pick of the Tennessee Titans in 2005 out of Indiana University. “I talked to different teams personally, and my agent was talking to teams as well. But once I was able to get everything squared away with New Orleans, once we reached common ground, it was definitely the place I wanted to be.

This off season has been filled with some great articles about our Saints. Courtney Roby is a leader. Just check out some of his quotes in the article. What a great guy to have on this team. I'd pretty much consider him a lock to make the team just based on this article alone. Jeez where do we find these guys? Heaven? This dude is a Saint!

 

[SuperRemo]

he's really a great ST player...as a gunner always in the middle of the action...

 

[TheRealJRad]

Roby has some great versatility. Jack of all trades, master of none, but in the NFL that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[MarkIngramfan16]

If only he could prove himself as a WR..... he would have such a better job description on the team...but Im a fan of him

 

[Prodigy]

Seems like he embraced his Special teams role. I love him as a gunner.

favorite quotes:

Naturally, Roby’s best chance to make the team comes on special teams. Regarded as a consummate team player, his teammates have voted him special teams captain the past two seasons.

“I play wide receiver as well, but special teams is my group, and that’s an honor I don’t take lightly,’’ he said. “It means a lot to me — I mean a lot — to have the respect of my peers and my coaches. I take great pride in my job.

What a team player!

 

[whosyadaddy]

Roby has some great versatility. Jack of all trades, master of none, but in the NFL that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

He is THE master on special teams my friend

 

[SaintFan26]

I like Roby a lot. However, WR could potentially be a strong position on the team. I would like to see Roby transition into a coaching role at the end of the season freeing up his roster spot for one of the WRs who will actually play WR.

 

[saintsfan26]

I like Roby a lot. However, WR could potentially be a strong position on the team. I would like to see Roby transition into a coaching role at the end of the season freeing up his roster spot for one of the WRs who will actually play WR.

how often does a #6 wr see the field in our offense though? We dont really need our #6 wr to be great at receiving. His strength is in special teams but he can play wr in emergency situations when needed. So since he is rarely ever used as a wr, he can focus mostly on ST. He is basically a full-time STer and his value to the special teams is by far greater than any #6 receiver's value would ever be, on any team. The fact that our #6 receiver is also a team captain just proves how valuable he is to the ST. Most special teamers dont always get alot of time to focus solely on special teams because they have other duties as well on either offense or defense. They are like part timers. You gotta have a full timer like Roby as a captain to be able to help McMahon guide the part timers in the right direction. So Roby is basically a lock to make the team. He has that #6 wr position on lockdown and he will be a team captain once again. Name another #6 wr in this league who is a team captain

 

[cki3915]

He re-signed for 2 reasons...the Saints wanted him at 1 year, $905,000, and no one else indicated that they would significantly beat that deal.

I have no doubt he likes it here and wants to be here. But you have to remember these guys (and their agents) are under enormous pressure from the NFLPA to never turn down money. They will look the other way if a player takes a little hometown discount, but if some team had indicated in those preliminary discussions that they would be willing to give him a multi year deal worth tens or hundreds of thousands more in value, he would have been under huge pressure from the players and the union to take it regardless of where he wanted to play, because every dollar a guy makes is a dollar that the next guy can also make. The NFLPA is not as draconian on this as the MLBPA, but the pressure is still there.

Also remember that Roby just doesn't have the political power to buck that pressure that a higher profile guy might have, such as Tom Brady who gave the Pats a pretty big hometown discount. I have no doubt that the NFLPA was not thrilled at that deal. Had Brady taken more money, then the Peyton deal would have been bigger, and the Brees deal, and the Flacco deal, and the Rogers deal, and the upcoming Ryan deal. The MLBPA can pressure its top guys not to take discounted deals (See Rodriguez, Alex), but the NFLPA doesn't have that kind of phenominal cosmic power. But, it can pressure the smaller guys.

Take Chase Daniel. Had he turned down the Chiefs deal he got to stay as Drew Brees' backup at a much cheaper price, his fellow players and the union would have just been all over him. Once KC offered that much money, he really had no choice but to take it regardless of whether he wanted to back up Alex Smith or not. I'm not saying that he didn't want to go to KC, i'm just saying it is irrelevant.

So, make no mistake, Roby is still a Saint because no other team was willing to pay him a lot more than the Saints.

 

[SaintsMan209]

Before I call him a 'master' I will cite his fumble in the Super Bowl (luckily a Saints player recovered it and the Refs missed it.) and I also must mention the fumble in the 49ers game of the divisional playoffs. That is unacceptable for a 'master'.

 

[Saint Kamara]

People keep writing him off, but he will once again be part of this 53 man roster. Special teams cannot be overlooked and when you are as effective a gunner as he is, you make the team.

 

[gumbotron]

Props to Roby, but this McMahon guy ....

 

[jmood88]

I love Roby, he's one of the few guys on special teams who can be counted on to make plays and when he has been injured, the coverage suffers tremendously.

 

[bergeaux]

I recently rewatched the superbowl (yes I do that sometimes) and Roby's contribution on kick/punt coverage and kick returns jumped out at me. I actually thought "I wish we still had that guy on ST."

Low and behold, wish granted!

 

[Quiet Storm]

I like the guy.

I like to see him back returning kicks, I just think he hits the hole with a burst of speed. Keep Sproles on PR and put Roby back on KR.

Dude, is awesome as a gunner as well.