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As we all know, SP, Ireland and Loomis take care of major needs in Free Agency and try to go Best Player Available in draft.
imho, the FO has done a great job with limited cap space so far this offseason:
1) DT with Rankins hurt for part of next year and Onyemata suspended for the beginning of the season. Once Rankins returns, the DT's will be better than last year. The FO made 2 solid FA moves with the Manster Malcom Brown signing potentially being a serious upgrade over Davidson. Brown put up his numbers as a Nose in a 3-4 which guarantees he is double teamed on almost every play. When he moves into the Saints 4-3, he will not have to fight a large number of double teams, especially when Rankins returns. We know how good he is against the run and without double teams in the 4-3, he could be a Manster at collapsing the pockets also.
2) Nearly all returning critical players have been rapped up so far including Lutz, Bridge, Etc... Our Backup QB and potentially future QB behind Brees was retained without breaking the cap bank.
3) The new Center/Guard from Minny is not Unger, but between him, Clapp and Tom and our superb O-line coach, we likely have a competent Center with O-line depth
4) Yes we all will miss Ingram, but Murray is being under-rated by many. Plus the growth of Washington this year and the Ingram loss will not be a significant a loss to offensive production, especially if SP plans to showcase Kamara more this year
5) With Hendrickson in his 3rd year, the coaches may be confident that he and Davenport, recovered with a full year under pro training and learning the defensive playbook so the game will slow down for him, the coaches may not be that concerned with the loss of Okafor. And the FO still appears to be looking for an experienced DE
6) There is high probability that the super stars from the 2017 draft who experienced the sophomore slump will come back at a much higher level of performance. You can bet Glenn will be all over Lattimore's offseason conditioning this year. Plus another year of learning the system for Latt and Marcus Williams will help their confidence and slowing down the game
7) There is a good chance that Meredith heals. He will be huge in our offense and along with MT and Ginn, we will have quality WRs, especially with the likely offseason improvement of TQS and Kirkwood and maybe a return of Dez. You know Curtis will be all over TQS this offseason
8) So we still need a TE, unless they think Arnold can improve with a full offseason. Trade or getting Cook could fill that need.
Loss of key players is the price paid for being elite. We were a couple of plays away from playing in both of the last 2 SBs. Nearly all of us thought that the our schedule was so brutal last year, we would have a hard time reaching the previous year 11-5. Yet we went 13-3, really 13-2 with that brutal schedule and a ton of second half key injuries. Relax all. This is an elite team with an elite FO and coaches. The loss of Unger and Ingram's leadership is a concern, but SP apparently feels this will not be a problem as younger players are likely ready to step up. We are going to the SB this year. We will likely get the most favorable officiating this team has ever received. Nearly all bad calls against the Saints will get national media attention that the NFL does not want.
I nailed 2017 exactly at predicting 11-5. Last year I predicted 12-4 with the possibility of 13-3 before the draft. I'm predicting 12-4 this year. This is Brees last year and every player and coach will be filled with determination to to get Brees his 2nd SB and I'll betcha SP uses the officiating raping last year as revenge motivation for this year.
imho, the FO has done a great job with limited cap space so far this offseason:
1) DT with Rankins hurt for part of next year and Onyemata suspended for the beginning of the season. Once Rankins returns, the DT's will be better than last year. The FO made 2 solid FA moves with the Manster Malcom Brown signing potentially being a serious upgrade over Davidson. Brown put up his numbers as a Nose in a 3-4 which guarantees he is double teamed on almost every play. When he moves into the Saints 4-3, he will not have to fight a large number of double teams, especially when Rankins returns. We know how good he is against the run and without double teams in the 4-3, he could be a Manster at collapsing the pockets also.
2) Nearly all returning critical players have been rapped up so far including Lutz, Bridge, Etc... Our Backup QB and potentially future QB behind Brees was retained without breaking the cap bank.
3) The new Center/Guard from Minny is not Unger, but between him, Clapp and Tom and our superb O-line coach, we likely have a competent Center with O-line depth
4) Yes we all will miss Ingram, but Murray is being under-rated by many. Plus the growth of Washington this year and the Ingram loss will not be a significant a loss to offensive production, especially if SP plans to showcase Kamara more this year
5) With Hendrickson in his 3rd year, the coaches may be confident that he and Davenport, recovered with a full year under pro training and learning the defensive playbook so the game will slow down for him, the coaches may not be that concerned with the loss of Okafor. And the FO still appears to be looking for an experienced DE
6) There is high probability that the super stars from the 2017 draft who experienced the sophomore slump will come back at a much higher level of performance. You can bet Glenn will be all over Lattimore's offseason conditioning this year. Plus another year of learning the system for Latt and Marcus Williams will help their confidence and slowing down the game
7) There is a good chance that Meredith heals. He will be huge in our offense and along with MT and Ginn, we will have quality WRs, especially with the likely offseason improvement of TQS and Kirkwood and maybe a return of Dez. You know Curtis will be all over TQS this offseason
8) So we still need a TE, unless they think Arnold can improve with a full offseason. Trade or getting Cook could fill that need.
Loss of key players is the price paid for being elite. We were a couple of plays away from playing in both of the last 2 SBs. Nearly all of us thought that the our schedule was so brutal last year, we would have a hard time reaching the previous year 11-5. Yet we went 13-3, really 13-2 with that brutal schedule and a ton of second half key injuries. Relax all. This is an elite team with an elite FO and coaches. The loss of Unger and Ingram's leadership is a concern, but SP apparently feels this will not be a problem as younger players are likely ready to step up. We are going to the SB this year. We will likely get the most favorable officiating this team has ever received. Nearly all bad calls against the Saints will get national media attention that the NFL does not want.
I nailed 2017 exactly at predicting 11-5. Last year I predicted 12-4 with the possibility of 13-3 before the draft. I'm predicting 12-4 this year. This is Brees last year and every player and coach will be filled with determination to to get Brees his 2nd SB and I'll betcha SP uses the officiating raping last year as revenge motivation for this year.
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