re: Bill Barnwell of ESPN doesn't really like the Saints offseason moves...

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Exactly. It's been years since the Saints offense really scared other teams regardless of stats. Not to mention that, even in our best years (2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011), we were a team with a high end offense and an average at best defense. So as far as I'm concerned at least while Brees and Payton are here, our best chance at winning big is to have an elite offense.

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we won it all with a turnover happy defense, but the one thing that stayed true through the best years was an efficient offense in both aspects: running and passing.

It isn't some new discovery that we suck when we can't create a balanced attack either.

Our top 5 needs going into the offseason were:
DT > G > WR/TE > LB > DB

DT: nobody could create a push, we went and signed Fairley who creates pressure, but can never finish. Drafted Rankins who was arguably the best pure DT in the draft

G: We didn't address this much outside of our own guys and UDFA who may-may not pan out at all.

WR/TE: "Brees makes weapons" but that doesn't mean you don't get him weapons to ease his burden. Watson and Colston are gone/old, Hill and Coleman may never be much in their careers, so we went and got Fleener. Next, we drafted Michael Thomas...a player who's biggest asset is his ability to make contested catches and high pointing the ball (i.e. red zone target).

LB: We made Ellerbe's contract more manageable, we shifted Anthony to OLB since it was obvious he was struggling with being the "QB" of the defense, and we still had a couple of voids at 3rd and 4th linebackers. Went and signed Laurinaitis, arguably the smartest and healthiest ILB on the market to come in and teach Anthony and run the defense while Anthony can transition to playing instinctively as opposed to trying to do too many things at once. We also signed one of the more underrated coverage LBs in Stupar and shifted Kikaha to a more pass-rush DE/OLB role instead of dropping back.

DB: We get back Lewis, Williams, and Swann. We kept a decent nickel in Wilson. On paper, it is loaded with cornerbacks, where we lack is safeties. We lost Bush, we cut oft-injured honkey badger, and we went and got arguably the #1 coverage safety in the draft.

We didn't overpay for pass rush help at DT/DE who were a product of the system (Malik Jackson) nor did we overpay for inconsistent "potential" pass rushers (Olivier Vernon) defensively.

We did "overpay" (IMO at least) for TE help, but the guy has talent and had to split it with another TE in Indy's system. We got bargain players who can make a difference instead of swinging for home runs as well. Completely different offseason in terms of mindset..

Names we can be optimistic about as fans, but they have to perform.


Laurenitis, Byrd, Vaccaro, Ellerbe and Fairley cannot be the bad version of themselves (healthy too)

Breaux has to follow up

Rankins holds his own

Jordan gets help rushing the passer

Anthony and Kikaha get acclimated

at least 1 of Edebali or richardson "break out"



What's the constant on D we can count on? Jordan has a 4 year track record of being above average. I know this will be viewed as being negative, but that's all we can count on. the talent is there for the others but which version will we get?

That said, I do like the shape the offense is in. This is a 9 win team in vegas without that questionable D

Realistic expectations are somewhere in that mediocre 7-9 to 9-7 range. It's about where we have been stuck the last couple of years with even horrible defenses. Even if there aren't any real improvements that's where I expect to be. If the defense is marginally improved, which isn't a given, then we can hope to push for at least 9 wins. If it shows real improvement, which I'm really not holding my breath for, then 10 wins should be possible.

People expecting this to be a 4 or 5 win team, which I have seen predicted recently are being beyond the pail pessimistic. I can't see that happening with a healthy Brees.

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Realistic expectations are somewhere in that mediocre 7-9 to 9-7 range. It's about where we have been stuck the last couple of years with even horrible defenses. Even if there aren't any real improvements that's where I expect to be. If the defense is marginally improved, which isn't a given, then we can hope to push for at least 9 wins. If it shows real improvement, which I'm really not holding my breath for, then 10 wins should be possible.

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I tend to agree as a healthy Brees can clearly take a 3-13 team to 7-9.

I keep hearing that the schedule is tougher this year and that the Saints can be greatly improved and still only go 7-9.

There's also a lot of luck involved. A couple of bonces here and there can make the difference for a couple of games.

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People expecting this to be a 4 or 5 win team, which I have seen predicted recently are being beyond the pail pessimistic. I can't see that happening with a healthy Brees.

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The funny thing is, the past two seasons most of our losses happened in the 4th quarters. We were in almost every game competitively minus a few that were just not our day. Hell, the Carolina game came down to the last play on a corner TD to Cooks that was picked off with McCown under center.

So with horrible defenses, we are losing no more than 9 games that could have easily been 5 or 6 given some breaks. This defense WILL be better. We will improve on that side of the ball. I also believe the offense will improve. I can see 9-12 wins if everything clicks and we stay healthy with great play and better schemes on D. It's also possible we have another 7-9 season before this VERY young team finds themselves. I predict the year it happens for us to be 2017. I hope we have a good season this year, and it will be fun to watch this you team develop it's next crop of fan favorites. But it's gonna take 3 or 4 years to field another championship caliber team IF we start hitting on draft picks. So far, things are looking pretty optimistic from my standpoint. But I'm an idiot homer, so my opinion is pretty worthless.

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I keep hearing that the schedule is tougher this year and that the Saints can be greatly improved and still only go 7-9.

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If we were playing last year's teams with this year's schedule, but nobody knows how difficult it really will be until the season has already been played.

Strength of schedule based on the year before is about as useful as espn's power rankings anytime of year.