More options we can start discussing for the Draft. I'll list some draft prospects For DT/DE. Some of these are listed as 1st or 2nd round draft prospects.Some are 3rd round or later. Let the conversation be whether or not, they will available at our 2nd round pick or later, as well as should they be considered. I used NFL DRAFT SCOUT to get this list. Also list and discuss any others you feel may be available, that we should target. For this post let's keep it to the Defensive side of the field. Went a little further in round projections with this post, because I'm hoping LB'er is a higher priority.

DT:

Brando Thompson, DT Clemson projected 2nd Round

Josh Chapman DT Alabama projected 2nd round

Kendal Reeves DT Connecticut projected 2nd/3rd round

DaJohn HarrisDT So Cal projected 3rd round

Kheeston Randall DT Texas projected 3rd round

Alameda Ta"amu DT Washington projected 3rd/4th round

Mike Martin DT Michigan projected 4th round

Derek Wolfe DT Cincinnati projected 5th/6th round

Mike Daniels DT Iowa projected 6th round

Jaye Howard DT Florida projected 6th/7th round

Nicolas Jean-Baptiste DT Baylor projected 7th Round

DE

Andre Branch DE Clemson projected 1st/2nd round

Jared Crick DE Nebraska projected 2nd round injury concerns...out 2011 Pectorial, coming off knee injury

Billy Winn Boise St. projected 2nd round

Chandler Jones DE Syracuse projected 2nd round

Vinny Curry DE Marshall projected 2nd/3rd round limited last 4 games with knee injury

Cam johnson DE Virginia projected 2nd/3rd round also played LB'er in 3-4 scheme

Trevor Guyton DE California projected 3rd round

Malik Jackson DE Tennessee projected 3rd/4th round

Shea McClellin DE Boise St. projected 4th round

Jake Bequette DE Arkansas projected 4th/5th round

Jack Crawford DE Penn St. projected 5th round

Once again, I have nothing better to do then rant about a subject I hardly understand, but I attempt to fake knowledge of the subject. In other words, I transformed into a blogger. Check out my idiotic ramblings after the jump!

Continue reading this post »

I think we can start discussing our options for the Draft. I'll list some draft prospects For LB'er. Some of these are listed as 1st or 2nd round draft prospects.Some are 3rd round or no projected round. Let the conversation be whether or not, they will available at our 2nd round pick, as well as should they be considered. I used NFL DRAFT SCOUT, and a few others to get this list. Also list and discuss any others you feel may be available, that we should target in the 2nd round. For this post let's keep it to the Defensive side of the field.

LB'ers:

Zach Brown, Outside Linebacker, North Carolina. Projected 1st or 2nd round.

Chandler Jones, Outside Linebacker, Syracuse. No current round projection.

Whitney Mercilus, Outside Linebacker, Illinois. No current round projection.

Vontaze Burfict, Inside Linebacker, Arizona State. Projected 3rd round.

Nick Perry, Outside Linebacker, USC. Projected late 1st, to middle 2nd round. DE prospect as well as OLB

Dont'a Hightower, Inside Linebacker, Alabama. Probably 1st round but Injury concerns could cause a drop

Lavonte David, OLB Nebraska. Projected 2nd Round.

Sean Spence,OLB Miami. Projected 2nd to 3rd Round.

I love football but I follow all sports in general. I can't say that I follow baseball or basketball as much as I do the NFL but I do follow them. That being said, I lost faith in baseball years ago mainly due to what the Yankees have done to the sport. The Yankees have used every MLB team as their farm team for years. It has gotten beyond laughable to watch them attempt to outbid and sign every free agent star player from the small market teams. The formula has worked for them for years as they are the clear favorites every year to win a championship. The NBA has recently tried to copy the Yankees formula beginning with the Boston Celtics "Big 3" and had immediate results. The Heat were the next in line signing Wade, James, and Bosh, who all decided to take less money in order to put together a quick championship caliber team. The Heat also had immediate success going to the finals in their first year with their big free agent signings. Now every big market team in the NBA are trying to follow the same formula and put together their own "super teams."

Salary Caps were supposed to fix the one major "flaw" in the idea of free agency.....that teams wouldn't be able to afford to put these kind of teams together. The foundation that free agency stands upon is that players will always sign with the team that offers them the most money. So what happens when a star player decides to take less money and would rather trade those extra millions for a championship? This is the dilemma that the NFL now faces. The Philadelphia Eagles organization decided to try the "dream team" strategy out this year although the results were less than expected. Free agents flocked to the Eagles and the media quickly dubbed them Super Bowl favorites almost to the point that we shouldn't even bother playing a regular season. Luckily we did.

I highly doubt the Eagles will be the last team to try and buy their way into a championship. I see that this may become a problem in the NFL in the coming years and I must admit it scares me. Star players sometimes make even more money signing endorsement deals and investing in non-sports related financial ventures than they do playing sports. Those extra millions they could make by signing with a bad or rebuilding team might not seem as important as it once was. I hope I'm wrong and it doesn't end up being like this because this strategy has seriously ruined baseball and basketball. In my opinion, the NFL is the last major sport that has the ability to go from worst to first in any given season and I would like to keep it that way.

via ts4.mm.bing.net

via ts3.mm.bing.net

Let me stress the need to keep things civil, or this thread will soon go the way of other good intentions. I advise everyone to read all the rules. Particularly the ones involving profanity and treating each other with respect.

What's a Perpetually Open Thread? I'll tell you! This is a thread dedicated to all off topic conversations. If there's something that you want to talk about that isn't really relevant to Saints football, can be discussed here. Think about this as a bar/hangout place for people who just want to have some fun with other Saints/football fans.

The whole reason for this thread is to help bring people together and help them get to know other fans on a more personal basis. If this turns out to be a popular activity, we hope to continue this concept as long as possible. However, there are some rules/constraints we have to put on some conversations in order to make sure everyone has an enjoyable experience.

• The other SBN and CSC rules still apply. No racist, sexist, or personal attacks on anyone. It's vulgar in other venues, it's still vulgar here.
• As well, no politics or religion talk. Nothing good can come from it.
• If you think something is Not Safe For Work, don't post it, link it instead.
• Just because this is an Off-Topic thread, does not mean football talk is off limits! Just remember, keep arguments rational, and don't get personal. If you feel things are getting too heated, step away and take a breath.
  
• No trolling. We don't want it, no need for it.
• On that same vein as the previous rule, you may see some inside jokes. Don't assume you know what's what, make sure to find out what's going on before getting upset.
• Please rec this thread to make sure this thread stays up until we are ready to dispose of it.
• No swearing

If you have any troubles with anything going on with this thread, feel free to email me with any concerns about these threads. So long as you come with a mentality of having a good time, and plan on being friendly, we can have all have fun and not have to have mods come in and clean up.

Have fun!

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Hope our Pat's Friends can appreciate the irony and humor.

Hey guys, I'm going to be posting a question like this on all the SB Sites so I can create a giant, fan made, NFL prediction thing.I'm doing it by division so whatever team is in what ever division will get their post accordingly. I'm going to leave a prediction for all the divisions but I'm counting what you guys say. There will be a poll at the bottom and the poll will have every single possible record for your team, please participate and choose what you think. Please also leave a comment saying what you think the division standings will be. Thank you all and please participate, Falcoholic, CSC, Cat Scratch, and Bucs Nation.

Thank you,

Matt

Oh yeah, and the only letter I changed was yours. I really enjoyed this picture who ever made it, thanks for the laughs.

I made my own...(Just so you know I'm not trying to make you mad, just for laughs)

I thought I would try to add a little cheer to a very frustrating end to the season. It sucked, no doubt about it. And, let me tell you, there is nothing worse than sitting in a Patriots bar and being the only one around to be cheering (to the point I lost my voice for most of this week - I was louder than all of the opponents fans put together ;~)) for the Saints. I may have mentioned before that, even here (god help me), I found some cheer. The reason the Pats fans, two weeks in a row, were cheering for our opponent, was that the last team in the lists that they wanted to face was the Saints. Cheery thought #1.

More importantly, what struck me, was that, after years and years of never getting near the playoffs, we took a step and occasionally got into the playoffs over the last couple of decades or so. Now, though, we have consistently been playoff contenders for five years. I also believe, what I wished for the most happened this year. We put our stamp on the division. I don't think anyone relishes the thought of facing us. No, of course, that doesn't mean we will make it to the playoffs every year but I'd put our odds way above 50%. Cheery thought #2.

I am hoping like crazy that SpagNOLA is the last key ingredient. And, yes, it may be more hope than anything else. I promise you, you've never seen anybody with a better ability to look at the bright side, even at midnight on a cloudy, moonless night. Anyways, one of the things that I think was missing is something that Spaggs can bring, which is a little more of a team spirit on the defense. I don't know, maybe GW had this, to some extent, but it sounds like part of Spagg's signature. I like our players, I think we have some of the best around on defense. We have a not-to-be-ignored defense, already. Now, maybe we can take that step to utterly-feared defense. Cheery thought #3

Anyways, we are in a division that is becoming waaaay potent on offense, so a rock-hard defense that doesn't blow it at the oddest times, would certainly be a great help. I still cannot argue that GW was a terrible DC by any stretch of the imagination. We didn't have the best defense, for sure. But, if you look at opponents P.O.M.P., we weren't that bad. Certainly better than anyone in the division and better than all but three within the conference. Cheery thought #4.

So, though it would have been great to win the Superbowl, maybe (wow! is this a stretch! even for me!! but, I'll go there, anyways) it worked out best in that I would like to crush our opponents week in and week out on both offense and defense. Maybe Spaggs brings us that last little piece. Maybe just being premier in our division can be supplanted by premier within the conference and, often, owner of that nice shiny football. Final cheery thought.

So decided to cruise over to the NFL's site to do a little comparison on stats/ranks for two certain defenses. ours and Da' Rams. Sorry couldn't resist(And yes wrong team) so here we go

Saints------------Rams

Stat/Rank

Pts/G: 21.2/13--------25.4/26

Yrds/G: 368.4/24-----358.4/22

Pass: 4157/30---------3301/7

Rush: 1738/12---------2433/31

Int: 9/28-------12/23

FF:(forced Fum.) 17/Tied-7th---------16/10

Fum Rec: 7/Tied 26th-----------6/Tied 28th

Sacks: 33.0/Tied-------------19th 39.0/Tied 15th

(Sorry the formatting did not like me)

The main idea behind this is to try to evaluate our past vs a potential future. While the stats may not be telling due to personnel defensively we were in the neighborhood of the Rams this season. Now I just wanted to get everyones thoughts on this.

Is it too soon to start talking about the draft? Here's a couple questions, also feel free to insert your own:

1. Who would you like to see us take with the 59th (?) pick in the draft?

2. Do you think we'll trade up/down?

3. If the Saints had the number 1 pick in the draft what would you do with it?

It sucks that we don't have a first rounder, I look forward the draft because of it.

With Gregg Williams gone, the defense will likely turn into a "traditional style" defense instead of a blitzing team. This likely will bring upon a change within players as they might not be as helpful due to weakness in coverage. In my preference, I would like Jack del Rio to take over as the DC but Spagnuolo would seem like a good fit too. What do y'all think? And which free agents would you like to see return to the team?