"The Introduction to the End in New Orleans" Grantland Piece

did you read the whole article or just my snipet?

isn't that his 1 redeeming quality? do you still think he is a master?

I cant argue with most of that argument. Id like to think the organization has turned the corner this offseason by getting rid of these guys and biting the bullet now, but i guess we wont know until we see the next few moves.

quote:

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It also makes Loomis’s offseason that much more curious. You can certainly understand his decision to go after help in the secondary, and the addition of Brandon Browner should plug New Orleans’s hole at corner. The trade for Ellerbe, a free-agent bust in Miami, was a way to find a replacement for the departed Lofton. Loomis did little to upgrade the depth behind New Orleans’s embattled defensive line, though, adding only 34-year-old veteran Kevin Williams to aid the league’s worst run defense.

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I thought Loomis only did the contracts. Pretty sure it was Jeff Ireland who wanted to get Ellerbe in New Orleans, right?

i'm tired of writers giving Loomis all the credit good or bad in personnel decisions. He's drawn up some terrible contracts sure, but he doesn't do that unless he has other personnel egging him on I'd imagine.

the part about the Saints doing little to add to the D-line depth... well... okay we basically lost Tyrunn Walker up front. That sucks but we probably could have done worse than replacing him with Kevin Williams, don't you think? We also used a 5th round pick on a interior lineman but I have to say, I was surprised that was all we did in the draft considering the number of picks.

quote:

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Instead, most of the money he did have went to … running backs? With Mark Ingram showing his first sustained signs of life as a pro, the Saints continued to buy in on one of Loomis’s worst decisions as general manager and gave Ingram a four-year, $16 million deal. And after dumping Darren Sproles to save cap room last year, only to see him star in Philadelphia, the Saints went after a new Sproles by signing C.J. Spiller to a four-year, $16 million deal of his own. The team needed a receiving back, but given its massive needs elsewhere, you have to wonder whether it could have gone after a cheaper option like Jacquizz Rodgers or drafted one this spring.

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tired of hearing about this too. All of that talk died down after Sproles got hurt and missed a few games for the Eagles. I did think it was odd they gave Spiller and Ingram about the same contracts though which would be a Loomis decision. Don't get that one at all.

but I'm eager to see what Spiller will do here. We've usually had success on offense with elusive backs like Reggie Bush and Sproles.

it sort of seemed like Sproles role in the offense had started to become a little stagnant. I mean he was still productive but teams keyed on him and usually knew a pass was coming when he was in the game. And he's 32 now so Barnwell can frick right off at hinting at anything having to do with Sproles.

The part I found interesting was selling Brees off to rebuild the team. The teams that could afford his salary made me laugh, Oakland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, and Washingon.

quote:

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New Orleans has more than $27 million of its cap space — nearly 19 percent of the $143.3 million it has to work with — tied up in players who are no longer on the roster. That’s the highest figure in the league by a wide margin, as second-place Miami is more than $5 million behind

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Is that really a wide margin? That's only a 3% difference. Either way, I think the only person on that list that could be argued as a bad move was trading Graham. I agree with the trade and think it will benefit us a lot more than keeping Graham, but I get that people can make the argument for keeping him. But, we can all agree Junior had to go, and Grubbs & Lofton were not living up to their contracts. IMO, those moves had to be made, but they were definitely worth the risk when we signed them.

I do think it's funny that the writer hinted at ML trading/cutting Brees after the season. I think everything that came out of the facility about Brees was that they would work on an extension next year (which will help next year's cap); yet, every single reporter that talks about the Saints refuses to acknowledge those comments from ML, SP & DB.

This article was basically just a way to bash ML for trying to be proactive and signing some of our bigger FAs so we do not have to worry about using tags. Had they let Cam & Junior play out their contracts (and Junior doesn't get in trouble), then this writer probably would have written an article about how poorly ML managed the FAs and allowed some of our top young talent get to the end of their contracts and/or hit the market.

Yesssss, it's happpppeennnnniiinnngggggg.
MWHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Loomis is a genius!!!

How does loomis still have apologists like you ?