what's killing the Saints right now is lack of talented depth (1 Viewer)

[EvilMike]

Poor coaching, and never-ending cap drama means quality backups can't be signed and the ones we can afford are not being coached properly.

 

[Saint Greg]

The way our line has played with the injuries, no rookie would have a shot.

The one drive he had against the broncos was better. Then we had our full line except McCoy against the chargers. Haener isn’t a rookie and is clearly more decisive and more accurate than Rattler at this point. He at least went deep once in his short time against the chargers. I don’t think rattler attempted to stretch the field at all.

 

[livefromDC]

Nope, incompetent front office and coaching. We are not the only team that is dealing with injuries. The FO addresses depth and coaching ensures the backups are ready to go. Please stop with excuses, is that you Mick?

Agreed. If Mike Tomlin had this same team to start the season, would the Saints have a losing record. The answer is a resounding, "no".

Yes, Tomlin is one of the best coaches in the league, but the Saints should be shooting for that type of consistency. If you can unequivocally say another coach would be more successful with the same resources your current coach has, then it's indicative of a coaching issue and you shouldn't settle. The Saints are settling for this and that's why it's frustrating.

 

[St. Geezy]

Every team in the league is top heavy, salary allocation wise. We lack depth because we have been bad at drafting depth, and more importantly, we have an inordinate amount of depth pieces being exposed due to our inordinate amount of injuries.

Salary cap “can-kicking,” a term I hate and think gets misused, is not something that would effect our depth to this degree.

No team has spent tons of dollars on backups.

Coaching is a problem also…we aren’t developing anyone, at all. You’re either good when you get here and MAYBE stay good, or you’re average to below average and stay that way. We aren’t making enough players better.

 

[HouseCall]

First two games with all the starters in - we scored 91 points.

In the beginning of the third game McCoy went down and the string of injuries began. Since then we've averaged 15 points per game, while giving up more points.

The problem isn't necessarily coaching, strategy, or scheme. The problem is we have no quality depth. And the reason we have no quality depth is we've been kicking the can on the salary cap for too many years.

Agreed. The Saints week 1 starters could match up with any team in the league. Sadly, the NFL is more about health and roster management over the marathon of 17 brutal games.

The 2024 Saints were never equipped for the long haul. They were a mesh of talented starters who were able to mask some of the deficiencies of the less talented guys. Once the top guys started to go down - we not only lost their skill but their ability to cover for the less talented guys next to them - not just behind them.

 

[St. Geezy]

Can’t remember what old coach said this, but the quote was something to the effect of “If you have too much of your depth on the field at once then you will feel like you have bad depth.”

Teams have good depth for an injury here and there, but when half your lineup is a mash unit, there is no fixing that.

No one is trotting out an entire second team of seasoned vets.

Depth pieces are less exposed when sprinkled in among mostly starters.

 

[St. Geezy]

Agreed. The Saints week 1 starters could match up with any team in the league. Sadly, the NFL is more about health and roster management over the marathon of 17 brutal games.

The 2024 Saints were never equipped for the long haul. They were a mesh of talented starters who were able to mask some of the deficiencies of the less talented guys. Once the top guys started to go down - we not only lost their skill but their ability to cover for the less talented guys next to them - not just behind them.

What team is surviving an injury report as long as ours in terms of DNPs, including at QB and C specifically?

 

[livefromDC]

Can’t remember what old coach said this, but the quote was something to the effect of “If you have too much of your depth on the field at once then you will feel like you have bad depth.”

Teams have good depth for an injury here and there, but when half your lineup is a mash unit, there is no fixing that.

No one is trotting out an entire second team of seasoned vets.

Depth pieces are less exposed when sprinkled in among mostly starters.

Every team has injuries.

Official Latest NFL Injury Report for Players - Week 1 of the 2024 Season | NFL.com

 

[St. Geezy]

Every team has injuries.

Official Latest NFL Injury Report for Players - Week 1 of the 2024 Season | NFL.com

Of course they do. But not as many DNPs to starter types and not at QB and C.

Sending me a link to an injury report with teams with guys mostly playing, injuries to no-name backups, or teams with lots of injuries who are just as bad as us doesn’t change anything.

 

[3ParStillDriver]

Lack of depth is a coaching issue. Injuries are a common problem in the NFL. The 49ers were wrecked with injuries for starters and still won, and nearly beat the only undefeated team in the NFL that completely annihilated the saints and embarrassed them on national TV. The Chiefs lost their starting WR's, starting RB at the beginning of the year and many other players for a game or two since, and are still undefeated.

Lack of depth wasn't an issue for Sean Payton. Its not an issue for any of the top 10 coaches in the league. Its only an issue for a very specific head coach, who happens to have one of the worst NFL records for coaches who have coached over 80 games. Dennis Allen.

Good coaches bring in depth that can be coached up. And should any of those players have to start, the coach game plans around it. Dennis Allen over the course of 3 years has proven incapable of doing either. Our depth has steadily declined over 3 years, as has our starters.

You're talking about trying to band-aid a disease.

 

[RJS]

Of course they do. But not as many DNPs to starter types and not at QB and C.

Sending me a link to an injury report with teams with guys mostly playing, injuries to no-name backups, or teams with lots of injuries who are just as bad as us doesn’t change anything.

I'll go one step farther. At a quick glance of the standings, no team that has had a starting QB miss time (injury or performance) has more than two wins on the season.

Dolphins, Patriots, Titans, Browns, Raiders, Saints and Panthers.

Edit to add that the Packers lost Jordan Love for a couple of games and were able to go 2-0 with Malik Willis which is pretty impressive. They are an example of good, young depth and Matt LaFleur has done a great job there. Indy is another example of being able to stay at .500 with some QB issues.

 

[St. Geezy]

This is why we have no depth and why our team is where it’s at, and I’ll also add we had veteran lineman not listed here in James Hurst abruptly retire in addition to our All-pro RT. I don’t care how you manage your salary cap…no team is going to survive this.

















And sadly, that last photo, this week’s initial injury report, is as good as it has looked in weeks.

 

[St. Geezy]

I'll go one step farther. At a quick glance of the standings, no team that has had a starting QB miss time (injury or performance) has more than two wins on the season.

Dolphins, Patriots, Titans, Browns, Raiders, Saints and Panthers.

Exactly.

Everyone is looking for a boogeyman to point the finger at, including the owner and here, the accounting ledger.

Draft better, stay healthy, coach and develop better or find someone that can coach and develop better = win football games.

No accounting ledger management style is going to remedy clear deficiencies in those three areas. It's a deathly combination that will sink any franchise.

 

[3ParStillDriver]

I'll go one step farther. At a quick glance of the standings, no team that has had a starting QB miss time (injury or performance) has more than two wins on the season.

Dolphins, Patriots, Titans, Browns, Raiders, Saints and Panthers.

The Bengals wrecked the league with Browning for 7 or so games last year. The Chiefs still found major success with Henne when Mahomes was injured, once or twice even in playoffs. Payton still went 9-8 with Drew Brees missing many, many, many games.

All the teams you listed with the exception of the Dolphins have coaching issues, the Saints just being the worst. The scenarios I listed all have good coaches.

The difference, coaching.

 

[St. Geezy]

The Bengals wrecked the league with Browning for 7 or so games last year. The Chiefs still found major success with Henne when Mahomes was injured, once or twice even in playoffs. Payton still went 9-8 with Drew Brees missing many, many, many games.

All the teams you listed with the exception of the Dolphins have coaching issues, the Saints just being the worst. The scenarios I listed all have good coaches.

The difference, coaching.

Are we seriously using the Chiefs as a standard here or categorizing a Bengals team that finished 9-8 with Browning going 4-3 as a starter as wrecking the league?