The 2017 Byrd Conundrum (1 Viewer)

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What are we going to do with him next year? Byrd has played in every game so far this season, registering 67 total tackles and one pass defensed.


Passes Defended:

Saints career - 6

Byrd 2011 - 8
Byrd 2012 - 6
Byrd 2013 - 6


If we release him, we incur 8M in dead money as opposed to 3.7 in cap savings. He's proven to be a decent (at best), albeit non-impact player when he's on the field. Will the dead money be worth the savings? Or will we keep him as the stable, veteran presence on the back end? I hate to say it, but for some reason, with the amount of 3-safety we run, I feel like we'll bring him back for one last season.


He will certainly be cut in 2018 when we can save 7.6M as opposed to 4.6M dead $. He's the biggest free agent bust in Saints history and when you consider the corresponding moves, a huge reason we're in the situation we have been since signing him.
 
I'd be shocked if he isn't here next year. He's played much better since Vonn Bell and the pass rush have stepped up. If we get 1 year of the old Byrd, it was all worth it.
 
There is a funny highlight reel of him of all his accomplishments as a Saint somewhere on Youtube. Very inspirational!
 
Some of those tackles have lead to goaline stands IIRC. Haves ended up in defensive stops. He's whiffed on tackles and made some. Not a bunch of glaring mistakes in coverage. He's been available for one. Playing in all 13 games. We saw what happens when you break up guys on the back end. He's in the system he knows the system.

The entire D would benefit from a consistent passrusher + another ballhawk/playmaker somewhere in the back 7. Pref CB or LB.

I think you keep him on a paycut. Byrd may be average but bringing someone else in could possibly end up with like going from average to Kevin Kaesviharn. He's graded out at least Top 4-5 via PFF more than a handful of times this year (or I could be exaggerating not sure)


With that being said we've been quick to cut ties so it's a toss up
 
I think you keep him on a paycut. Byrd may be average but bringing someone else in could possibly end up with like going from average to Kevin Kaesviharn. He's graded out at least Top 4-5 via PFF more than a handful of times this year (or I could be exaggerating not sure)

That's the thing: He has the leverage, so theres no way he'd take a cut unless he has a real come to Jesus moment over the amount of money he's stolen these past three years. I think it's either stay or cut.
 
He's the biggest free agent bust in Saints history and when you consider the corresponding moves, a huge reason we're in the situation we have been since signing him.

worse than jason david? or tesucky jones?
I guess tesucky wasn't a free agent. they traded a 3rd, a 4th and 7th rd for him :jpshakehead:
 
I would guess we keep him for at least another year. We're running out of seasons in Drew's career. You can only spend so many of them with obscene amounts of dead money. Just because a guy is overpaid, doesn't mean he's awful.
 
worse than jason david? or tesucky jones?
I guess tesucky wasn't a free agent. they traded a 3rd, a 4th and 7th rd for him :jpshakehead:

And he is 3rd on the team in tackles after finishing 4th last year.

He clearly hasn't been the ball hawk in our defense that he was in Buffalo's, but he's been serviceable at worst and solid at best. He didn't play up to the contract, but isn't anywhere near as bad as most people on this board give him credit for.
 
And he is 3rd on the team in tackles after finishing 4th last year.

He clearly hasn't been the ball hawk in our defense that he was in Buffalo's, but he's been serviceable at worst and solid at best. He didn't play up to the contract, but isn't anywhere near as bad as most people on this board give him credit for.

Right. His progression as a player has coincided with the progression of the Defense in these later weeks. Just to confirm my comment above about his PFF grades I went back and checked. Results are below.

*When i say 5th or 4th best player i mean on the Defense just for our team


week 2 Byrd had a 80.9 grade. Good for 3rd overall on defense.
Week 9 he was the Highest Graded player on D. ended up with a 79.2 Grade
Week 11 he was the 5th highest graded player with a 77.6 grade
Week 12 against the Rams he was the 5th highest grade dplayer with an 81.5. Also joining him were Vonn/Vaccaro
Ranked 2nd and 3rd with 83.4 and 82.9 grades respectively
Week 13 Against the Lions he was ranked as the 3rd beset plyaer with a 81.1 grade
Week 14 Against the Bucs he was ranked as the 4th Best player wth a 77.9 Grade


As you can see since about week 9 he's been playing pretty good ball. Also its been about that time that we've gone on this little stretch run of good defense. So they obviously figured something out...and the 3 safety set is part of that.


You do not move on from him...makes little to no sense. Especially since he's playing. We talk about consistency and keeping guys together, and not changing schemes? Well we know 1st hand what can happen when you remove guys on the backend to insert new guys as in 2014.

You keep Byrd and you maybe add in 1 corner so only 1 guy is having to learn the ropes then you double down on that 3 S set and add a passrusher.



There is a legit argument that the Injury he suffered + just being on a bad defense has been what's made him look so terrible as a Saint. Now he seems to be somewhat over the injury along with the D around him being better and Boom...he's not so bad a Safety. He had his gaffes earlier in the year but then entire D did and he was suffering from that Malcolm Jenkins syndrome where everyone blames him for missing a tackle when it was the 4 other guys in front that missed the tackle b4 it got to him.


He's actually made more of those last man to get him down tackles than hes missed by a large #.
 
Two words. Pay cut. He stays. He has really stepped up his game especially back half of the season. Our S are in a good spot with KV, Bell and Byrd. He doesnt need to do too much and play center field with Bell. He has played closer to the line and that has helped him. We need to bulid from the front back. DE and LB in the draft hopefully
 
He takes a pay cut or they cut him. I definitely would not keep him at $9 million plus a season. He's not even worth 1/3 of that salary based on his performance and availability here.
 
He was once again one of PFF's top defensive grades for us this week.

The dynamic we have with the 3 safeties is working well and we'd be remiss to not try to keep that together next year.

With that said, he has to take a pay cut. And I think everyone involved probably knows that, including Byrd. We've had other guys take pay cuts in the past, so it shouldn't be out of the question here.

From a financial and on the field standpoint, it benefits everyone to keep him, work out a pay cut (he'd probably still make more here than if he hit the open market, so we have leverage), and keep him another year. Then, in 2018, he'll be cuttable if you want to do that.
 

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