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NFL Draft 2013: Kenny Vaccaro is Everything that the New Orleans Saints Need at Safety | Pre Snap Reads
Undoubtedly, the Saints’ most prized target is Texas safety Vaccaro though.
According to esteemed draft analyst Sigmund Bloom,the 22-year-old defensive back has the potential to be one of the best safeties in the league. For the New Orleans Saints, a team that ranked 31st in points allowed last season giving up 28.4 per game, Vaccaro could fill a massive need. The Saints fired Steve Spagnuolo after a desperately disappointing season, replacing him with former Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, but in reality, the Saints’ biggest issue last year was their lack of talent rather than their coaching.
Ryan is going to bring a very aggressive approach to Louisiana. He may have slackened off from his blitzing with the Cowboys last season, but his overall philosophy is one of pressure and creating pressure from different areas of the field. Ryan isn’t being welcomed by high-quality pass-rushers in New Orleans, like he had in Dallas with DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer. Instead he will find a variety of different skill-sets and contributors who he will need to craft into a front seven capable of allowing his unit to compete.
Even though they could desperately use an outside linebacker to rush the passer or a three-down inside linebacker, the priority for the Saints is to re-tool and overrun and outmatched secondary. That process has already begun with the addition of Keenan Lewis, a former starter of the Pittsburgh Steelers who arrived in free agency. Lewis gives the Saints a leading cornerback, which will allow them to flip Jabari Greer to the second spot or mix-and-match him and Patrick Robinson depending on who they are trying to cover.
With the cornerback position improved, the Saints will be desperate to replace strong safety Roman Harper with a better player in space. Harper is an in-the-box safety who is awful in coverage. He is simply too slow to play in Ryan’s scheme and would be forced to blitz more often than is ideal. Even in Spagnuolo’s more passive approach, Harper rushed the passer 69 times last year, more than three times more than any other defensive back on the roster. With a player like that on the field, the Saints not only have a major liability in coverage, but they would be too predictable in an defense based on it’s unpredictability.
Having Harper on the field limits what the versatile Malcolm Jenkins is able to do. Jenkins is talented enough to move around the field and cover different types of receivers playing different coverages, but so long as Harper is on the field, he has to be the deep-lying safety because the team’s cornerbacks are not good enough to be left in single coverage.
Undoubtedly, the Saints’ most prized target is Texas safety Vaccaro though.
According to esteemed draft analyst Sigmund Bloom,the 22-year-old defensive back has the potential to be one of the best safeties in the league. For the New Orleans Saints, a team that ranked 31st in points allowed last season giving up 28.4 per game, Vaccaro could fill a massive need. The Saints fired Steve Spagnuolo after a desperately disappointing season, replacing him with former Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, but in reality, the Saints’ biggest issue last year was their lack of talent rather than their coaching.
Ryan is going to bring a very aggressive approach to Louisiana. He may have slackened off from his blitzing with the Cowboys last season, but his overall philosophy is one of pressure and creating pressure from different areas of the field. Ryan isn’t being welcomed by high-quality pass-rushers in New Orleans, like he had in Dallas with DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer. Instead he will find a variety of different skill-sets and contributors who he will need to craft into a front seven capable of allowing his unit to compete.
Even though they could desperately use an outside linebacker to rush the passer or a three-down inside linebacker, the priority for the Saints is to re-tool and overrun and outmatched secondary. That process has already begun with the addition of Keenan Lewis, a former starter of the Pittsburgh Steelers who arrived in free agency. Lewis gives the Saints a leading cornerback, which will allow them to flip Jabari Greer to the second spot or mix-and-match him and Patrick Robinson depending on who they are trying to cover.
With the cornerback position improved, the Saints will be desperate to replace strong safety Roman Harper with a better player in space. Harper is an in-the-box safety who is awful in coverage. He is simply too slow to play in Ryan’s scheme and would be forced to blitz more often than is ideal. Even in Spagnuolo’s more passive approach, Harper rushed the passer 69 times last year, more than three times more than any other defensive back on the roster. With a player like that on the field, the Saints not only have a major liability in coverage, but they would be too predictable in an defense based on it’s unpredictability.
Having Harper on the field limits what the versatile Malcolm Jenkins is able to do. Jenkins is talented enough to move around the field and cover different types of receivers playing different coverages, but so long as Harper is on the field, he has to be the deep-lying safety because the team’s cornerbacks are not good enough to be left in single coverage.
