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The Knives are Out
By Mike Detillier
For the past couple of years when anyone in the media mentioned any “turbulence” between New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton and former defensive coordinator Rob Ryan some people outside the football loop considered it “sensationalized reporting.”
It’s funny those same folks today are backing Saints head coach Sean Payton when last week Ryan lashed out at the Saints organization and they are saying it is sour grapes on the part of Ryan.
I have always felt the problem that lay between Payton and Ryan was not about defensive philosophy, but personnel moves and Payton who was the architect of a top-5 offense was staring at one of the worst defenses in the league the past two seasons.
Ryan pointed out a different defensive outlook on the part of Payton after the 2013 season in which the Saints defense finished fourth in the league in defensive yardage after giving up the most yards in NFL history in 2012 under then-Saints defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
Many say the Saints defense under Ryan was too complicated the past few years, but why was the defense not so complicated in 2013?
Somewhere between the war of words is the truth.
There is no debating the decision to bring in Buffalo Bills free safety Jarius Byrd and making him at that time the highest paid safety in NFL history was the decision of Sean Payton.
Payton has long considered Byrd as a signature player in the NFL and he was with the Bills, but injuries (back and knee) and his play last season looked like a very disinterested football player.
And guess who is injured and rehabbing an injury again?
In making that decision the Saints let Malcolm Jenkins leave via free agency to the Philadelphia Eagles and the former Ohio State All-American has developed into a Pro Bowl performer with the Eagles.
Money was the main issue regarding strong safety Roman Harper. Harper was a leader defensively for the Saints and a force in run support, but he was back then and still is today a liability in the coverage part of the game.
When the Saints selected Kenny Vaccaro from Texas in the 1st round of the 2013 draft he was picked to be the heir-apparent to Harper at strong safety. Both Payton and Ryan praised Vaccaro’s coverage skills, but in many ways the former Longhorn All-American is a more athletic version of Harper and a slightly better coverage safety.
Vaccaro is better closer to the line of scrimmage and in run support. Last season he recorded 104 tackles and he also had a career high 3 quarterback sacks.
But Ryan had a major say in the drafting of Vaccaro and it was not just Payton’s decision.
Where this breaks in Payton’s corner is that Ryan did have a major say in signing veteran cornerback Champ Bailey when everyone in the NFL knew the former Washington Redskins/Denver Broncos future NFL Hall of Fame cornerback had long played his best football.
It was Ryan who brought in numerous guys with ties to his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, in outside linebacker Victor Butler, defensive end Baraka Atkins, defensive end/tackle Kenyon Coleman and safety Jim Leonhard, who his brother Rex, coached with the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets.
Bailey, Butler, Atkins, Coleman and Leonhard never played a down with the New Orleans Saints in the regular season.
When the Saints selected Nebraska cornerback Stanley Jean Baptiste in the second round of the 2014 draft Sean Payton was really eyeing LSU halfback Jeremy Hill in Round 2, but the Bengals beat the Saints to the draft punch and selected the hard-charging Tiger back.
Scouts that were with the Saints at that time say that it was Ryan who really wanted the developmental cornerback.
After just one season with the team with virtually no playing time Jean-Bapitste was released. He has bounced around since being cut in early September of last year, he signed with the Detroit Lions-was released and then signed on to the Seattle Seahawks practice squad late in 2015.
What would Ryan say about those personnel moves in which he had a major hand in?
The comment from Ryan concerning the Saints wanting a “Seattle Seahawks type defense” was in reference to the team signing former Seahawks cornerback Brandon Browner.
That move I put in the hand of Sean Payton. Ryan had lost any sense of personnel power at that point with numerous whiffs on veteran players and Jean Baptiste, and Payton wanted that real big, physical, veteran cornerback who could intimidate receivers and throw them off their routes, like Browner did for a few years with the Seahawks.
The problem with that thinking is that the Saints didn’t and still don’t have a pass rush in the area code of the Seattle Seahawks and the NFL rules on hitting, bumping and grabbing receivers beyond five yards are being enforced at a higher rate today.
The two years prior to signing Browner he was the most penalized player in the NFL on two really good defenses in Seattle and New England. On the 2015 version of the Saints Browner won the crown again for the third straight year on penalties in a convincing manner. And he got his wish to return to Seattle after being released by the Saints.
The one trait Rob Ryan inherited from his dad, Buddy Ryan-who should be in the NFL Hall of Fame for his defensive changes in the game with the Chicago Bears (the 46 pressure defense) as the defensive coordinator in the 1980’s, was that he will never take the blame for the negatives out on the field.
Even when his dad Buddy Ryan was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals he would praise his defensive schemes and always put the blame on the team’s lack of success on the offense. He forgot at that time he was the head coach of the entire team, not just one side of the ball.
With Rob Ryan he will never take any blame for anything wrong on defense and it’s always someone else’s fault for their lack of success. But like his dad it is part of his football DNA to blame someone else.
On the current New Orleans Saints there is plenty of blame to go around on why this team has missed the playoffs the last two seasons. And Ryan was a part of it.
To almost completely disregard his actions in the Saints continual slump on defense would be ridiculous. He was indeed part of the “crew” that could not turn it around.
There is always a sense of truth in every lie or exaggeration.
You are now hearing it now from both sides.
But the real issue is that the Saints have had numerous changes coaching-wise defensively and in the scouting department and they are still trying to rebuild a defense to get it to even the middle of the road while the offense is still a top-5 unit.
And the clock continues to tick for Drew Brees.
Everyone Watching for Cutrer
Former Nicholls State assistant football coach and current Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson selected Middle Tennessee safety Kevin Byard in Round 3 (64th overall pick) of the 2016 NFL draft, but the Blue Raiders have another top defensive back prospect and someone with local ties that has NFL scouts flocking to the Middle Tennessee campus.
Former Jewel Sumner High School in Kentwood, Louisiana and a former LSU verbal commitment in cornerback Jeremy Cutrer has NFL scouts talking loudly about the talented cover man.
Cutrer started out his college career at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College and was regarded as the #2 safety prospect in the junior college ranks. But the dual-purpose athlete who also played wide receiver and halfback, didn’t have a high enough math score to attend LSU after verbally committing to the Tigers and he ended up signing last summer with Middle Tennessee.
Last season the 6-2, 175 pounder was a second team All-Conference USA honoree after starting 9 games and totaling 31 tackles, 3 tackles for losses, a team-high 13 pass deflections and 3 pass interceptions.
The talented defensive back also excelled on special teams and blocked two kicks last season.
Former Nicholls State defensive coordinator and current Middle Tennessee co-defensive coordinator Steve Ellis says the sky is the limit for Cutrer in 2016.
“We just got him in August of last year and he was outstanding”, said Ellis. “We had a few weeks to work with him, but you could tell quickly Jeremy had all the skills in the world to not only be good, but eventually to be great. This was a young man LSU signed coming out of high school and then they signed him again when he came out of Mississippi Gulf Coast College. That’s pretty high praise for anyone. He has the size, length, foot speed and ball skills the NFL covets. By the end of the 2016 season Cutrer could be up for being the best cover cornerback in the nation.”
Currently I have Cutrer rated as a late 1st or early second round pick for the 2017 NFL draft.
GM on Saints
I had an opportunity to talk to an AFC general manager this past week and he was frank about the additions to the New Orleans Saints and the weaknesses still for the Black and Gold.
“I really think the draft pickups of defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins and safety Vonn Bell will help the Saints and very quickly, “ said the AFC general manager. “We had both players rated very highly and they are two very motivated young men. To be honest we had given Bell a first round pick grade. The Bell addition is the sign that it is basically over for Jarius Byrd in New Orleans. The Saints still don’t have a signature pass rusher off the edge and their depth along the defensive line and in the secondary are razor-thin. All those years of not hitting on draft days are catching up with them. Everyone in this league deals with dead money issues and some more than others, but this team really has not drafted well and even the 2015 crop is an up-in-the-air unit.”
“Delvin Breaux was a great pick-up for them at cornerback and he looks like an extra first round pick the way he plays. He has a chance to be a signature player in the NFL. The real key defensively will be the development of Stephone Anthony and Hau’oli Kikaha. Both sort of flashed it last year. The one thing I can say is that (defensive coordinator) Dennis Allen will find the right spots for them in his defense. Allen is a very good coach, but you work it better on the field with better personnel. Both young men are athletic, can run the field and are playmakers. And both really struggled to cover folks downfield last year. The kid I liked was the young man from Georgia (Damien) Swann. If the concussion issues are behind him and that’s serious, he’s a really good “nickel” cornerback.”
“Offensively Drew Brees is still one of the very best players in the game today and he will make those receivers and tight ends look better, but I worry about their running game and the play upfront. Terron (Armstead) is a monster player and one of the best in the business at left tackle and I really like Max Unger. The guards they have are below average, but my main concern would be at right tackle. Zach Strief is getting up in age and has lost some of his quickness and agility to respond to the hard edge pass rushers in the NFL. I was very disappointed in Andrus Peat-who looked as stiff as a board last year in the games I saw. We had him a mid-20’s pick in Round One last year, but everyone’s board is different. He has got to come through for them. And he can’t play guard, Peat is a tackle.”
“I always worry about an older quarterback with major protection issues and a team that has trouble running the ball when they really need to. The Saints problems offensively are upfront along the offensive line and not much added this off-season. That part I don’t get. I think the world of Sean Payton. I truly believe he is one of the top five head coaches in the league today. But his really good teams were the ones with the best offensive lines. I look at 2006 and then the run from 2009 through 2011. The Saints offensive line those years were outstanding. The veteran personnel decisions and financial issues for the club have bogged them down, but nothing like those terrible drafts following the Super Bowl win.”
Louisiana Cultural Vistas
Brian Boyles, the author of New Orleans Boom & Blackout, is also the publisher for Louisiana Cultural Vistas Magazine and in June they will dedicate the magazine to Louisiana sports history.
Louisiana Cultural Vistas is a quarterly print magazine about Louisiana history and culture and the upcoming issue will be out this coming week. Boyles and Louisiana Cultural Vistas have also partnered with the Smithsonian on an exhibit about sports which is being featured across the state.
“What we tried to do with this issue is showcase the great amount of talent and the impact of athletes and sports from the state of Louisiana,” Boyles said. “It’s a great heritage we have here in our state that we are so proud of. People from outside the state and even from folks here sometimes don’t realize how large an impact athletes and sports events in our state had on shaping sports as we look at it today.”
In the June issue Boyles and Louisiana Cultural Vistas will have articles on Evangeline Downs, high school basketball in the state and an article done by Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland on NBA standout P.J. Brown and former Michigan and NFL star halfback Anthony “A-Train” Thomas-who are both being inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame this summer.
Brown-who played for the New Orleans Hornets and Thomas both starred at Winnfield High School in rural Winn Parish, and are only the second unrelated pair of athletes from the same high school to be enshrined in the same induction class for the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
In the Class of 1998, football standout John Petitbon and golfing great Pat Browne were alumni of Jesuit High School in New Orleans.
Also in the issue is a one-on-one interview with award winning Fox Sports journalist Jennifer Hale on her preparation for NFL and NBA games.
It’s a great read….
Mora on Jack
UCLA head coach Jim Mora had some interesting comments on the Rich Eisen Show last week. The former New Orleans Saints assistant coach and former NFL head coach said that he has been on staffs with 19 former NFL Pro Bowl players and he lists former Bruins linebacker Myles Jack, who the Jacksonville Jaguars took in Round 2 of the 2016 NFL draft, as one of the three best football players/athletes he has ever been around.
“Myles dropping from a top-10 pick in Round One until the second round had nothing to do with short term status as a player, but everything to do with what medical staffs feel might happen down the road with Myles,” Mora said. “I have coached and been around some great players and Myles Jack along with Julius Peppers and Mike Vick are the three best football player/athletes I have ever been around. I predict that Myles Jack will be the NFL Rookie of the Year in 2016.”
Follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeDetillier