Announcement: Saints fans, please do not panic. Silly of us to ever think that our favorite team is among the upper echelon of the National Football League. We were hoodwinked and bamboozled into believing in paper champions. They were calling our beloved New Orleans Saints, “The New America’s Team,” and we bought into it.

There are many reasons for the unintentional deception. They should have left well-enough alone, however our psyche got screwed in the process. Here we are one quarter of the 2007 football season in and it is 2001 all over again. This is definitely our father’s Saints team and there will be no quick turnaround. If we can take off the black and gold colored glasses for a second, let’s be real. We are two years behind the rest of the NFC South. Last year’s success really put us further away than we think. In reality, I enjoyed going for the ride last year but it will get worse before we take a turn for the better.

When the announcement came in January of 2006 that Sean Payton was going to be our head coach, my first reaction was one of “huh?” After all this was the same guy that had his play calling duties stripped on a couple of occasions. Case in point, we are now near the bottom of every offensive statistic there is. On another note, the Saints defense is just what it is. There are absolutely no playmakers on the defense and we tied up a boatload of money in a defensive end who is good for nothing but turning a play back inside. Our marquee free agent signees can’t even sniff the field, and our two greatest needs from last offseason have not been addressed efficiently.

I found a couple of mock drafts that I composed for this past year’s draft and found guys names that we could’ve made plays for. Tanard Jackson, Sabby Piscatelli, Gaines Adams are all contributing heavily to the Buccaneers. Chris Houston, Jamaal Anderson, David Irons, Stephen Nicholas, Laurent Robinson are all getting valuable playing time with the Falcons. Jon Beason will be a monster for the Panthers. Exactly what do the Saints have to offer from the 2007 draft. We drafted a one year wonder in Robert Meachem who is still inactive, another small school enigma in Usama Young, gave away 1 early round pick for a 5’8 cornerback who doesn’t even play our scheme. We gave away another early round pick to draft a running back who didn’t even make the team. David Jones and Marvin Mitchell played two positions of need for us and we didn’t fill those needs with playmakers in the first two rounds. We gave up our sure footed kicker and a draft pick for Olinda Mare, who struggles with extra points. Decisions like this leave Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton on the hook. They should be taken to task for not putting this organization in the best possible position to succeed.

Here are my thoughts on personnel moves. Josh Bullocks should have been gone a long time ago. Fred Thomas should have been gone the day after the NFC Championship game. Mark Simoneau, Scott Shanle are not NFL starters. Danny Clark should have been retained. Charles Grant should have been on the trading block on draft day. Jon Stinchcomb needs to be moved before next season. Jamal Brown should be move back to the right side. Promote Jermon Bushrod to starter at left tackle. Robert Meachem and Devery Henderson need to be moved. (Stay tuned for part two of this series)

Nathan T. Rideaux

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 7:34 am and is filed under Who Dat's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.