This season was neither all bad, nor all good. But was 100% necessary. (1 Viewer)

[liveoakh]

It is very hard to make "necessary" changes (players, coaches, philosophies) when we are just good enough to not look bad yet. But, 4,5 game loosing streak, you have to face up to being a bad football team. "Pain" erases the luxury of thinking, we are a good football team, that's just down on it's luck. Who can just place the blame on the QB, player, coach, GM....your piñata of choice. The truth to be told, there is just to many new faces every week in starter roles, and we have failed to get them prepared to play on Sunday. Yes, that is a seemingly impossible task, day in and day out. But that is what we have to do.

We will get our starters back and move on. The rest of this season, will be about finding ourselves as a team. So, if we are going to loose games, let's loose them because were not the better team that day. Not because we were a panicking, undisciplined mess of a football team and fan base, feeling sorry for ourselves. We still have so much to be thankful for, and FA $$$$ and draft choices are all that stands between us and a play off run next year.

No one person (FA) hired or (coach) fired would have made any difference in our record today.

My musings about where we stand with personnel.

QB:

Whether it is Jameis, Trevor,Taysom or Book starting. QB play is not the reason we are losing these games.

Offensive line:

We are losing on offense, because a good O line can mitigate a WR core that can't easily get separation. Conversely, a good QB and savvy WR core can mitigate a soft O line. We did a lot of this with Drew. Right now we don't have either.

RB:
However, both can be mitigated by a bruising running game. I think we have to many eggs in the AK basket. Ingram was a nice addition of Talent/Leadership, but we really need a (JK Dobbins) type RB in the draft to go with AK. That is why we had the great skid after AK got hurt. When healthy, is our O line top 10?

WRs:

Calloway, Harris are the only ones worth keeping, But neither are #1WRs. FA $$$ and draft picks solve this problem.

TE: We just need more productive TEs.

D line: We have the best coach here, but we are just now starting to get him players. I think we should give him a 1# pick DT/DE in the draft to coach up rather than what we have been giving him. I don't think Cam is ever going to get more than 7 sacks a yr. Is that, and his run stopping ability going to be enough? Some mid range FA pass rushers would help also.

DBs:
I think the secondary has been one of the lone bright spots this season. We started out the year kind of a mess, but we brought in some FA and coached up Adebo. It looks pretty good going into 2022. The new DB coach did pretty good.

Special Teams:
We found a great punter this year.
We should get back our pro bowl kicker, next year.

 

[Saint Droopy]

But seriously... our problem is our depth (or lack of). We had to get rid of a lot of real good players because of our cap situation, and the guys that replaced them are not as good. I've punted on this season already I have no expectations from this team for the rest of the year. I wouldn't be upset if we lose the remainder of the games because we can use a good draft position (to draft an unknown lineman in the 1st).

 

[BayouSAINTJoe]

I wouldn't be upset if we lose the remainder of the games because we can use a good draft position (to draft an unknown lineman in the 1st).

That'll be the only part of this year football wise that'll truly piss me off...other than that TH contract...we better not waste a 1st on either an obscure offensive lineman or a reach on one of these mediocre QBs coming out.

 

[Bill]

What everyone will get from this season is the importance of never taking success for granted. Players and fans alike will come to realize that a lot has to go right to have winning seasons and championships.

And great players don't last forever. You need to have good depth and a lot of luck to stay relevant in this league. The big question now is where will we go from here? Can we find the team leaders we need to make us legitimate again AND can stay healthy?

It may take a while to find that mix once again.

 

[liveoakh]

But seriously... our problem is our depth (or lack of). We had to get rid of a lot of real good players because of our cap situation, and the guys that replaced them are not as good. I've punted on this season already I have no expectations from this team for the rest of the year. I wouldn't be upset if we lose the remainder of the games because we can use a good draft position (to draft an unknown lineman in the 1st).

I feel you, kind of like minded myself. But, it is important that this team be playing better at the end of the season. Going into next yr.

 

[jasonsw]

That'll be the only part of this year football wise that'll truly piss me off...other than that TH contract...we better not waste a 1st on either an obscure offensive lineman or a reach on one of these mediocre QBs coming out.

I want a qb that throws pretty floaters. Recievers with butter on thier fingertips, Armless Offensive Linemen and D-line with concrete boots.

 

[liveoakh]

That'll be the only part of this year football wise that'll truly piss me off...other than that TH contract...we better not waste a 1st on either an obscure offensive lineman or a reach on one of these mediocre QBs coming out.

I looked up the top ten defensive linemen. All but three were taken at the top of the draft. It is a position you have to get at the top half of the 1st round. I feel a pass rush up grade, would make our already stacked back end even better. I want to dip again D line with the #1 pick. I feel there is no can't miss pick at WR, and the 2nd round is littered with WR starters. The same with TE, 2nd, 3rd round is full of talent.

Correction: All but, three were not drafted in the 1st round.

 

[No2DC]

I looked up the top ten defensive linemen. All but one was taken at the top of the draft. It is a position you have to get at the top half of the 1st round. I feel a pass rush up grade, would make our already stacked back end even better. I want to dip again D line with the #1 pick. I feel there is no can't miss pick at WR, and the 2nd round is littered with WR starters. The same with TE, 2nd, 3rd round is full of talent.

It's still a gamble. I think McCoy and Suh came in at the same time and Suh is the only one playing. If you recall, one year we had a top 10 pick and we chose Sully of the top 2 DTs and he was average at best. I trust Ireland and I like how after years of missing on LBs it seems like we have some up-and-coming guys after focusing on the position for 2 years. If we focus on WR/TE for a couple of years I think we will hit on someone but the days of relying on URFA at WR need to end. At the bare minimum, we know what we need going forward.

 

[melman]

For me as a fan since season 1, I feel like I lived thru a piece of history that makes me happy n proud. The excitement now lies in watching a talented coaching staff hurriedly put back missing pieces to the puzzle. Most missing are injuries but many upgrades are needed. Gonna take some patience, not expect any miracles this year, look forward to seeing our punter in a game don’t feel right but kinda does… always a WhoDat…

 

[Sailorsaint]

At this point, even if we win the 4 games that I think we have a shot at and finish 9-8, we probably wouldn't get a Wildcard because of tie breakers. I would still like to see us finish with a winning record though.

 

[meily]

We all knew we were in transition after Brees left and with Thomas being injured the offense would look worse than a year before because even with Brees we weren't putting up much in terms of passing yards.

All the money has been invested on defense as we have drafted really well on that side of the ball building a unit that could compliment Brees and the offense.

Brees is gone and the offense has fallen off a cliff as expected but you can't rebuild a unit in one off season but you can out together a unit good enough to field in anticipation of rebuilding the unit and that's what we did. Winston was a good edition to help with the transition and build back up his stick but he was lost to injury. Thomas still recovering from his injury did not help in that matter as he would of been Winston's go to guy, his security blanket so to speak

I think we as Saints fans have a somewhat blind loyalty because we think anyone who suits up or signs with us are going to make a name for themselves when they come here because despite our success under Payton we still embrace the underdog role being Saints fans, but the reality is for every Marques Colston or Pierre Thomas there are dozens of Onome Ojo's and Ray Zellars and we've depended to much on cheap labor hoping to strike gold again and we haven't, we may need to really do what we did on defense and that's go after offensive talent in the early rounds and build this offense back up.

 

[FrenchieATX]

WR talent is where we’ve underspent most clearly; but overpaying Peat makes little sense either. Plus mediocre drafts after 2017.

Any one of those individually can be overcome with a HOF quarterback until the playoffs. We did that in 2019 and 20.

We could’ve done it with a clearly improving-each-week Jameis who has a tremendously high ceiling, but for the injury. He was sustaining drives and not handing the ball over.

Trevor can’t cover up all the holes, he’s a journeyman for a reason.

The fact is we are seeing now not only life after Drew, but we are spoiled by Jameis getting this group to 5-2.

And yes a massive pile of injuries.

 

[saintsmarchin]

The people we rely on are injured.
MT completely changes our WR core and puts it on the map
Oline decimated with injuries
RB group... decimated with injuries
Defense ... looking kind of pedestrian without the enforcer CJGJ out there

kicker............ lol

 

[liveoakh]

It's still a gamble. I think McCoy and Suh came in at the same time and Suh is the only one playing. If you recall, one year we had a top 10 pick and we chose Sully of the top 2 DTs and he was average at best. I trust Ireland and I like how after years of missing on LBs it seems like we have some up-and-coming guys after focusing on the position for 2 years. If we focus on WR/TE for a couple of years I think we will hit on someone but the days of relying on URFA at WR need to end. At the bare minimum, we know what we need going forward.

Yes, but we have to draft players in the Draft we have, not the draft we want. This draft there is no real can't miss WRs/TEs worth going up and getting, so the value is in the 2nd round. But, if you want good DT/NT, you can't stray to far from the 1st or 2nd round. DT, and Edge rushers come off the board quickly. Taking a DT or edge rushers in the 1st round is a force multiplayer, as we have a DB crew thats picked off almost every QB we played, and the best D line coach in the biz. Look what the Patts did with their D last yr. That's what we want to do.

 

[Stew 2.0]

D line: We have the best coach here, but we are just now starting to get him players. I think we should give him a 1# pick DT/DE in the draft to coach up rather than what we have been giving him.

He has 2 recent #1 draft picks at DE now, one can’t stay out the training room and the other looks to be headed down the same road. Jordan is not elite anymore but still way above average. Onyemata is a beast and just realizing his potential. He had Rankins who again could not stay healthy and was a #1. He has plenty to work with there. Maybe a mid round pick on a DT this year but all high picks need to be WR, TE or OL