Da Chronic's Got Talent: Candidate Part Deux

…as though they were posts, rather than auditions?

Because I thought this was unusually thorough, well-thought out, clearly expressed…a winner in every way. I just disagree with some of the points made.

A lot of information here. These kinds of posts always start some quality discussions. I vote yes even though I disagree with some of the points made.

or an intro paragraph summarizing what’s about to be analyzed. Other than that, it’s good and very informative.

Anytime you talk about roster possibilities I think you stir the pot a little. Everyone is going to have their own opinions and sometimes they clash.I can remember arguing with someone over the CSC Fantasy Roster Draft this summer! It was fantasy and we were arguing! Anyway, I think it’s tough to judge from this article. I would love to see a follow up article.

Also – I might add that this new roster doesn’t have Mark Ingram on it!!!!! He is going to be a stud next year I think.

But then again, Dizzy Dean was the CBS baseball announcer for a looooong time.

The discussion says keep all 4 running backs, the depth chart omits Ingram.

RIP Stujo

cannot go unchallenged.. it would be a waste of intellect..

i liked the way it was written.. to the point & the figures were pretty accurate, to the best of my knowledge.. although there were some omissions on the roster and some unsigned free agents’ situations were not disclosed..

that being said.. i can’t agree with some ideas that i’m confident will come to pass with our new direction on defense.. the most glaring are:

harper will not remain in the same role.. he cannot.. don’t know what we’ll do with him.. but we will need to find a 2nd safety to play along jenkins.. in spags world, the safeties are inter-changeable.. they shell-cover, help outside & take the deep routes in the middle of the field..

getting a free agent LB for 7 mill after cutting the 6.5 mill leader of your defense doesn’t make any sense.. drafting a prospect would be a more reasonable approach.. we are going to need LBs than can zone cover a TE.. zone being one takes him 1st with a press cover & passes him to the next LB.. not easy to do.. these LB will have to be responsible for run gaps, too.. so they can’t be just converted defensive backs (chiao harper..)

the defensive tackle needs to be 1st and foremost stout against the run.. it does not do you any good to improve you passing defense if you are going to compromise the run front.. the guys that the writer is proposing are smallish.. & not true run gobblers.. we will need to re-evaluate aubrayo or get a guy(s) to get the job done..

I wouldn’t necessarily say that Jed Collins had a very good year. He had his moments fighting for yardage and blocking but I think his multi game streak of penalties overshadowed his minor successes.

I think Colston will want more money than the post suggested. Teams will overpay for him and he has to sign one last big deal before his career goes into the twilight era. He already has a championship ring so I believe he will take more money over playing for a championship caliber team.

I have no idea who wrote this. It was very well-written. No doubt whomever wrote it is a dedicated fan, a nice person overall, probably a very intelligent person in general, and a solid commenter on the site.

But the article also was, unfortunately, completely baseless, totally inaccurate, and ludicrously pointless.

You simply can NOT discuss who you are going to keep or cut or get outside in free agency with this person’s apparent complete lack of understanding of the cap. Nor can you do it without some clue about what kind of offers to make to free agents. Nor can you do it without even bothering to do the simplest level of research as to how much money would be saved on the cap by releasing a player.

Now you don’t need to be Mickey Loomis or some sort of expert. (Although I’d love some help in educating the rest of y’all about it. Maybe you can find somebody to help me Dave?) But at a bare minimum you do have to realize that the first year contract is NEVER going to have the same cap number as their actual average, thanks to the way the prorating of signing bonuses works. Last night I eviscerated Yasinkas for his ludicrous thinking that Drew’s salary cap number on an actual contract (not just the tag) would be 15 million… when the tag is 14.4. Yeah, Loomis is going to be stupid enough to sign Drew to a contract that raises his cap number. Right. Whatever. Drew may well make 17 or even 18+ million a year, but he won’t have a cap number remotely that high. List me if you want pizza, I’ll flat out guarantee that if they can’t get it down to 12 (and extremely likely 10 or less) there won’t be a long-term contract. It will either be franchise tag, trade, or bye-bye.

And you have to understand that the odds of a 26-year-old player looking for his first free agency contract leaving his old team for barely a 50% raise are practically nonexistent, unless he’s such garbage that his old team simply doesn’t want him anymore. You simply can not pretend there is any chance of luring Avril form Detroit for $4 million a year. He’s one of the top DEs on the market, easily at least top-5 and arguably #2 or #3. At the very least he is an A player, maybe even an A+, certainly at least as a pass rusher (he is considered a liability against the run though). Still, considering how desperate nearly everybody is for pass rushers, and considering that a 27-year old only slightly above average DE (Smith) got 10 million a year, I will flat guarantee there is no way he makes less than 7 million a year on his new contract, and I would be flat shocked if it’s less than 10. Now his first year cap number might be as low as 4 or close, but his average salary will be WAY more.

I would love if we could get Avril or Williams or some other A+ player, and with a properly structured contract it’s at least theoretically possible. But to think we could offer them or anybody like them 3yr/$12mil is just ludicrous.

As for freeing money on the cap, it’s impossible to be completely precise unless you are a lawyer who knows how to read the contract (and has access to them as well), but you can at least be in the vicinity. Rotoworld, wikipedia, and multiple other places have usually very accurate contract info available for everybody to peruse. This person needs to look this stuff up. Smith at absolute most will save us $7 million, and that’s assuming there isn’t a single penny of prorated signing bonus left to worry about. In reality, he’d probably only save us $3 million… or perhaps even less.

If the person involved wants to try again after having learned these critical lessons, I would welcome it. As I said at the start, its also obvious this is a dedicated fan who — despite his abysmal understanding of the cap and free agency — is no doubt otherwise probably quite smart and cares deeply about the Saints. But right now, this is Bleacher Report material. It’s total manure with no basis in reality and no educational potential for its readers.

really NEVER..

Judging by the response, I think you just entered into the contest…lol.

don’t think so.

S/he left Mark Ingram off of the depth chart and the discussion – a big content miss in my opinion.

I would have liked to see better grammar editing, but the content was good. A little bit more research and fact finding and it would have been an excellent article.

but I agree with some other posters, fanpost material at best on this one due to the lack of knowledge of the topic and/or research/facts to back up the talking points. That being said, again it wasn’t a bad opinion read. I think that just about everyone is trying to predict what the lineup will be next season and it’s very possible that one of those big guards up front is gone and we suddenly have a 1st round pick. I voted need to see more.

I agree with most ofthe content. It was fairly well written, maybe needs a tiny bit of polish here and there. Not sure if Amaya is good enough as a backup. But that’s a small issue. Also, I would love to see Dave Thomas back if he gets baack to the 2009 level, but it is true he may not be back if Higginsd has pronmise. When Thomas is on his game he adds a lot.

Cam Jordan inside- maybe not quite big enough. Cliff Avriil and Calais Campbell? Is that really better than Smith/ Jordan? Maybe with Spags it could be.

But where is Ingram on the depth chart
I think Ivory gets traded