Does anybody feel this team is gonna be any better?

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Don't seem to be any improvements, huh?

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I know, right?

Can you believe we let Von Miller out of the state?!

Part of being a fan is thinking every year is your team's year. All 32 fan bases are excited to see their team take the field with a clean slate.

The Saints finished 8-8 the year before their Super Bowl and no one was picking them to win it all except the fans who always say "this year is our year."

You can be cautious and guarded going into a season if you truly believe the team won't deliver. Sometimes it's best to be pleasantly surprised.

Ding ding ding.

The defense will undoubtedly be better...knock on wood.

The offense over performed IMO. We were a top 5 offense with Snead, Watson, Hightower, etc. However I think that had more to do with volume attempts to accumulate stats due to chasing leads and is a bit misleading to drive efficiency which is the more important offensive stat.

ST I expect more of the same. Scobee or Dobby could very well be the difference between sneaking in as a WC or 3 straight postseason misses. This is not a promising area.

Overall under the assumption our promising 2nd year guys don't have sophomore slumps, we don't bomb our draft, and Coby can near Watson's production we will be better talent wise however we are in a division that top to bottom is still improving whereas other divisions have teams moving the wrong way like Denver, Philly, Cleveland.

We could be a more balanced and complete team with a worse record. We still have unaddressed needs so I will wait till everything is set before making any predictions for our season.

Consider me hopelessly optimistic

Not like we could even afford any of those guards or DLineman.

Is there any reason to think this team will be worse?

Offense: Health determines this more than anything. Cooks, Snead, and Coleman are all solid players and will continue to improve with experience. Fleener may or may not match Watson's numbers, but I think he'll be at minimum roughly around that area. Ingram will continue to do Ingram things until he breaks a bone, hand, or turf toe. Spiller healthy > Spiller hurt so I can only imagine better things. Hightower + Cadet will continue their play from last year in limited snaps.

OL can't get worse, or I hope not.

IMO, the one guy who will make a leap this year is Hoomanawanui. He didn't have much time to learn the playbook to improve his passing game, but a few catches and routes he ran showed me he has at least potential to be a solid contributor as a blocker and receiver. I expect him to reach 3-400 yards and 3-4TDs.

Defense: Not like we lost anything, once again truthfully health will determine this. Lose Ellerbe, Lewis, or Breaux for extended time and we're gonna be SOL with no depth.

Up front we're a mess, but working back we improve. The DT we draft will make or break this defense from being either average or worst in the league.

Special Teams: Chad will disagree, but Morstead will be important on kickoff duty as none of our kickers can even do that simple job. Kicker for me is always a coin toss. Could be from 20 yards or 50 yards, I'll never feel comfortable.

Good teams routinely retain their own players while adding role players in free agency and building through the draft.

I'm not crazy about the Fleener contract, but I like the player. Hopefully the other free agent signings are modest.

Like others have said it's too early to tell, but you can see that they're trying to be more patient in FA. Before 2011 that's how they operated for the most part. I think Payton wanted that to change in conjunction with the culture change.

Yes I do. Before last year, I knew we were in for a rough season, but not that bad. This year, I feel surprisingly optimistic and it might be because we just landed a decent TE to replace Watson, the offense will do it's thing yet again and truth be told, our defense can only go up from last year. We've got a great draft pick that should hopefully land us an immediate contributor on the defense.