I agree with your observation on the high level of character on the team during the Payton era. It seems like a group of good-natured, professional guys that we’re fielding these days. It is refreshing to have a whole team(almost) that you can admire for their efforts on and off the field. If Payton brought that to town, then Kudos. But as a coach, he is still emulating Jim Haslett’s career here. Brilliance and high hopes followed by mediocrity. I truly hope these boys break that cycle. The Houser thing is just a stupid, overblown “story” that illustrates that feeling. It doesn’t mean anything to the team. It may even help out to be rid of him. But it fits the Saints narrative, in a disappointing way.

Reggie may be a bit brittle for a running back, but if anyone in that squad has the heart to fill in for Deuce, it’s him. Also, he is a unique player in terms of what he brings to the game. My answer to your rhetorical question is no, I wouldn’t want him anywhere else.

I’m pretty new to this site. It’s been great reading and posting here during the offseason. I’m happy to have found a smart and funny gang of likeminded amateur Jimmy the Greeks, and I can’t wait to be here when the action actually starts.So for my part I’ll keep naysayin’, but I want victory as much as the next loudmouthed superfan, and it would be great if these guys could deliver it.

Don’t underestimate the power of positive thinking. 2007 Giants and even the 2008 Cards (pretty bad last quarter of the season) are models: Make the playoffs, play with confidence, and BELIEVE you can do it (Cards very nearly did it). I’m thinking 11-5, win the division, go to town.

Oh no you don’t…Saint Graal? Sorry but you are not taking my hopes that up on your optimistic ladder! What can I say, I’ve been heartbroken before and I’m sick of it. On a serious note, I think they’re still way too many question marks out there to drop my new “boose won’t make the pain go away” cautious attitude. For instance :

How will Bush, Porter, Shockey and Moore look after their medical issues? Can PT take a 16 games beating? Will the Saints improve WLB position before the season? Except from Jenkins, can all those youngster master a much complex defensive playbook than last year in a relatively short period of time? Who will start as our safeties?Less experienced youth or veteran missing a step? Should I blindly believe that some of the same players that were here last year are actually gonna get to the QB on Gregg’s blitz scheme? Will Stu stick around? What about kicking? Considering injuries will be inevitable (please Football Gods, not Brees) shouldn’t we be worried about a very thin depth chart? Wouldn’t it be kind of naive not to think that Shockey will yet again stir up some negative attention? Can I find a girlfriend who will actually let me focus on the game on Sundays? How do we prevent Ellis from surely being constantly double-teamed for the first 4 games? Can Payton’s ego tolerate all the attention Williams is gonna get, specially if our D lives up to expectations? Will Dave and Erin name an hypothetical first born male after me (Sly sounds pretty good, no?)? Will I ever be able to chase from my memory last year Minnesota game? Can somebody reassure me and confirm they’re ain’t a conspiracy against my Fleur De lys? Waiter, I’ll have a double bourbon and some effexor!

There, I’m now 20 minutes closer to opening day. As for asaints: by all means, keep trying man.

GEAUX Jenkins!

I have to say I agree with pretty much everything from, “Scooby Doo-fruits snacks” to “Reggie is a unique football player”.

I don’t have anything to say about Sean Payton. I guess I could copy and paste what asaint wrote but I might be able to be sued for that and I don’t want to take the risk.

I haven’t been on “Da Chronic” very long so I wasn’t on the same bandwagon that asaint built, but I liked Pierre Thomas from day one. I mean really, if you are the reason Rashard Mendenhaull (I may have misspelled his name) is picking splinters out his butt, than you are a heck of a running back. I was just hoping Deuce was going to be around to teach him how to swim before they threw him in the water. Don’t get me wrong I think he’ll do great. He has developed quicker than I initially thought.

As far as Reggie goes, of course I wouldn’t want him on another team. Whether he gets stats or not, which when he’s on the field he usually does in one way or another, we all know he changes a defense. And not just a part of the defense. The whole defense. Not only do they have to change the defensive game plan, the players have to adjust on the fly and that causes confusion which causes mismatches which moves the chains. You always hear people say, “Reggie Bush isn’t an everydown back”. I disagree. I’ll put him on the field everydown. You also hear them say, “He can’t run between the tackles”. Why would you expect him to? He never ran between the tackles at USC and if my memory serves me correctly he was a halfway decent player in college, right?

Here is where I have to disagree. It’s not that I don’t think we are good enough to win it all this year, but as I’m sure a lot of us have, I’ve been saying, “Wait til next year”, for far too long now. So at the end of last season I had to change it. I said, “Wait two years”. I know it’s a long time to wait but the next year thing was obviously not working. Now I said that not knowing the off-season moves we were going to make but I can’t change it now. I could jinx us all. But even if I could change it I wouldn’t. I like the moves we made this off-season but I’m not satisfied with our front 7. I can’t be the first person to have this idea but Grant and Shanle need to be replaced. How we didn’t pick up a solid atheletic outside iinebacker this season is beyond me. Maybe we still will. I don’t know. But these days you need an outside linebacker that can create some pressure. Our starters can’t do that. As far as Grant goes I think he should be required to send every Saints fan twenty bucks or a coupon or something. I would actually like to see McCray opposite Will Smith. Tell Grant to quit taking the diet pills and move him to DT. Will Smith is on the bubble for me this year. I’m chalking last year up to the injury. Even with the injury he still had a lot of tackles for a DE but not enough pressure.

So I hope I’m wrong and I hate to say it, but it won’t be this year. We will be back in the playoffs. I will even say we will be the first team in the NFC South to ever win back to back division championships but we won’t be celebrating a world championship until February of 2011.

But I do feel I must point out one thing I disagree with, and that’s about Reggie. I know I will be called a Reggie hater, but I am not. But, hypothetically, would I mind Reggie being on another team, if say, we were to be presented with the option of trading Reggie even up for a player.. let’s see… let’s just say a Lawrence Taylor, or a Reggie White, or a Pat Swilling or a Rickey Jackson in his prime. I think that would be a no brainer. Not because Reggie is not talented, but because we have many offensive weapons and a player of that caliber on defense would put us on another level. I don’t know who that 2009 defensive player is, but I would think you could see my point and it is that we could still be a top 5 offense without Reggie in my opinion, but we could also be a top 10 defense with one more impact player maybe a Julius Peppers if he got his head back on straight or someone like that. But, I also would like to say that two years is an eternity in football and we can’t even think about winning a championship in two years because so many changes can and will occur with injuries, free agency, firings and cuts and contracts that are too expensive not to mention players getting at or near 30 years old which for many NFL players is AARP status. No, we have the team to do it this year and we can’t bank on having a perennial top-rated offense- things change too fast at that level to think that way. And I think if you are an everydown back you have to be able to run between the tackles. You can’t let a defense only need to focus and cover from tackle to sideline and not worry about the most direct route to a first down or a touch down, they will eat you up.

You know I cant disagree with the Reggie part and I’m very optimistic about the D this year. Oh and Phil the crossing out is probably just a freudian slip, don’t worry about it.

I’ve only been a Saints fan since about ‘93, but that’s long enough to stop saying stupid stuff like “we’re goin’ all the way this year, baby!” BUT this year I like what I’ve been seeing in minicamps and in the draft/free agency. If Coach Greg can mold the defense into a decent (doesn’t have to be great) unit, we should go a long way. (Fingers crossed).

Putting Reggie in the position last year that he had to run between tackles was just a recipe for disaster. He’s just not a prototype RB and I had to get over that fact. Once I accepted what his exceptional talents were, I got to liking the guy more. But he’ll never be Deuce, so don’t make him try. I definitely don’t want to see him on another team, especially in the NFC South!

My prediction is 11-5. Playoffs. Anything past that I ain’t touchin’.

thanks for the kind words

Winning is everything and injuries hurt. One thing is clear, even Coach Belichick will tell you its hard to win in the NFL, that being said we were 1st in Offense and 26th in Def. last yr. If G Dub can bring that # down to 10-13th we’ll be fine and in good shape to win the NFC South. The rest is up to Payton, (i.e. no trick-plays w/the lead) .Can’t wait camps are cranking up, HoF game 2 wks, pre-season, then kick-off. Right now its baseball +lazy-boy = snooze fest, hey and i like baseball, but it ain’t The Saints…Who-Dat….

now we’ve tipped our hat to what the offense is doing. If Reggie is in, we are not going between the tackles. If PT is in, we are, if they both are in, there is no blocking back for PT. In the NFL, that little bit of tendency will do you in. And, I am not saying that Reggie is not an asset, he is an asset and we need to utilize him. But, if fans know that Reggie is not running between the tackles, Linebackers will know that also. Teams run between the tackles for several reasons, and they are not all to get massive yardage. It keeps the defense honest, it causes safeties to make quick decisions (which as we have seen in the past few seasons can sometimes be errant) it protects your QB, it opens up other running and passing plays, it makes defensive coordinators hesitate about blitzing, it allows OL to beat up on DL. Running between the tackles is the most unexciting things in the NFL and one of the most important. I can’t think of one top-level NFL back who didn’t run between the tackles as part of his repetoire. There is a reason for that. And the great ones were excellent at it. Westbrook has been excellent at it and can break a long run from there as well as any place on the field when he is healthy. Reggie will have to run between the tackles for him to be successful. Tiki Barber did, Edgerrin James did, Sean Alexander did, Fred Taylor, Brandon Jacobs, Turner, Gore, Dunn, Portis, Addai and on and on.