bc of how much the defense slipped when he went down. of course, if vilma went down i cant imagine we would do much better. goes to show how much of a team effort it is to play good d. if a reciever takes a play off, it can be overcome. if a corner takes a play off, youre in trouble.

i know im going to run this into the ground but, thanks again for these great post. prob my favorite thing about this site is reading your player breakdowns and performance reviews. what a great season!!

but would prefer a Sharper/ Vilma tie as co – winners

I would have included Greer, but Sharper Vilma had no injuries – whether or not that makes sense, but I think because they played more games they had a larger impact, but Greer and Porter were HUGE!

Without Greer and Porter, Williams’ defense simply doesn’t work. It’s predicated on having corners who can handle man coverage, freeing up the safeties for other duties.

But it’s impossible to choose between Greer and Porter—which one had a better year, and which one is more important? The answer is, we need both of them; and if one of them is gone, the losses are interchangable. Jenkins for Greer is as bad as Jenkins for Porter.

That leaves the man in the position that Greer and Porter are meant to free up: Darren Sharper. There are other good cornerbacks who could fill those positions (not that I’m complaining); but who could play like Sharper did in the first half of the year, when our corners were healthy and holding down the fort? Ed Reed, and…? Polamalu is a strong safety, or I’d include him. Fact is, Sharper was the executioner of our defense when it was hitting on all cylinders (now THERE’s a mixed metaphor for you).

Vilma’s played great, and did more to hold down the fort when we lost our corners; but I still pick Sharper for his play on our REAL defense, not the crippled version.

again, I am very thankful for this effort and the work that goes into it. But, IF (and I preface this by if) the defensive players mostly have lower grades than the offense- it could be for reason a or b. Reason a) they are not as good
b) defensive errors lead often to glaring game changing plays such as a missed tackle or blown assignment =TD or first down or 66 yd gain. On offense, sometimes an error is (partially?) overlooked i.e a dropped pass is a dropped pass not a failure to have that 66 yd gain that might have occurred. Or a fumble by Hamilton recovered by Goodwin doesn’t get headlines. An incomplete pass thrown behind Shockey is just an incomplete, a CB just behind his WR may be a big gain and a large story. Last example, Stinchcomb misses a block on a pass play and Drew steps up in pocket and prevents a sack, gets a completion- not much of a story. Just my 2 cents I think defensive errors often get more attention than offensive.

He is always there making game winning tackles and inteceptions
He can be counted on to hold his part of the field and help make up for our short comming’s in OLB
And he’s a team leader doing it by example

Great post- very good points. As usual your stuff is well thought out and you approach it respectfully. I’m sticking to my vote (but my real preference as I said is a tie between Vilma-Sharper) because I think Vilma did a lot of “hard to recognize” work and “under the radar” performance in the trenches where I think defensive football is the most difficult and most physical. Today’s LBs have to be so tough to shed OL blocks and tackle huge backs and then run like the wind. Tough position to excel at.

on vilma+sharper but feel vilma takes more punishment weekly.

greatest body of work. Sharper has been HUGE. Tracy Porter is our superstar corner. And if we ever see Greer again it’s going to be awesome.

to look at this list of defensive players that have had what seemed like a great year for the Saints, then consider they’re ranked lower in yards than last year’s group. Either my standards for defensive achievement have been tenderized the past few years, or we’re truly like two pieces away from defensive domination. Seriously, we have what I would consider to be solid starters throughout the defense(D-line, LB, DB), yet we’re hemorrhaging yards.

Based on the 3 times he was voted as Defensive MVP of the game, versus only once for Greer. But having 3 or 4 defensive stars to try to choose from for MVP is a great change from the past few seasons.

Shilma

no

Varper

oh, I can’t decide – is it ok if I just say that I like them both A LOT?

by Andrew, or Mr. Nation, if he prefers the more formal joke about his name.

I have enjoyed reading your weekly posts on player grades and your other writing this year – you have been a fantastic addition this season and hopefully will forever continue being a frequent offensive coordinator/contributor to CSC…

Do you tivo/DVR/videotape the games and then just re-watch them with a burned out pause/rewind button and furious note-taking actions that may lead to carpal tunnel down the road? I’m very curious as to how you gather the info for your grades (and please don’t take this question as a question of the validity or quality of your assessments, I’m just an information-seeker and process-oriented person who likes to know how stuff is done…). I want to ask Jeff Duncan the same thing in regards to his weekly “flim study” column…I would kill to have a job like that as my full-time gig…maybe I need to camp outside of NFL Network or ESPN until they hire me…

my initial grade after first glance is almost always changed after watching the game tape, but usually not much. Occasionally, I’ll realize I missed something massive and change a player’s grade by more than a letter. Usually the change is a + here or a – there.

I must go with Vilma, because he gets the good grades AND he leads the others to play better, too. That extra leadership role is no small burden. The same goes for Brees, to an even larger extent, because he is even more of a leader to the whole team, but I digress.