re: We traded Cooks for a college OL

Should of traded up for Barnett or Foster later. Y'all forget how atrocious our defense is.

With a dominant O line we could get three or four years out of Brees, Peterson, and Ingram.

A dominant O line made Prescott look good, and he was just above average at Miss St.

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Y'all forget how atrocious our defense is.

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I don't think anyone has forgotten anything, they addressed the defense by taking the top CB in the draft, and tomorrow I'm sure they will continue to address their defensive deficiencies with more good players on the defensive side. But they had an opportunity to strengthen another weak area and that's the OLine, and they did by taking the best OT in the draft once Pittsburgh and especially SF got the best 2 defenders they probably could have taken. Now they have another solid OLineman that could give them a really strong OLine finally.

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Cooks is a damn midget I was tired of seeing Brees overthrow him 12 times a year.

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Always outjumped and rarely worked to come back to balls when Drew under pressure. We need better, more consistancy, and depth in OL.

Dude, Cooks was developing an attitude and he didn't want to be here anymore. Cooks was a budding problem, not a promising solution, for the Saints. We will get another WR. What we got was a cheap OL with no attitude problem who can contribute from day one and help keep our #1 player upright.

How does not having Ramcyzk qualify as "similar oline potential"?

He was the #1 T on their board. Where do they get a T with "similar potential"?

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We traded Cooks for a college OL

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So what if we did?

Look at the receiving corps- Thomas, Snead, Cook. Which player is Brees going to target first? Who is Brees going to look for on 3rd downs? Whose hands do you feel are best, down to worst?

You know Cook comes in 3rd on those questions. He isn't the consistent, sure-handed, keep the chains moving type of guy. He doesn't like catching in traffic.

Brees is great. Brees finds everyone. Brees will pass for probably almost 300 yds a game, again. What's Brees' biggest weakness?
**ok, you might have said his height, but we can't do anything about that**
Huh, what?
You say he's 38 and his deep ball is starting to fade a bit (not much)?
Or did you say he's 38 and maybe more fragile than he used to be?
Maybe you agree, both are true?

Ok, so we traded a good one-trick pony (speedy deep-ball threat that really doesn't contribute to the possession game, and is not Brees' primary target), for a low 1st rd pick, and still managed to turn that into the top OT prospect in the draft.
We did that while keeping the best hands/route guy (Snead) who might be Brees' go-to guy, and another strong hands guy with big play potential who seems to be turning into Brees' new go-to guy (Thomas).

Along with upgrading the line, we also changed the RB combo from Ingram/Hightower to Peterson/Ingram.

It seems very much that there is a change in philosophy, we're trying to cut back on the 4 play, 1:30 drives, and aiming for longer, more methodical, time-consuming drives. We can do that, because out of all the QBs in the NFL, Brees is probably the #1 at taking what the defense gives, instead of keying on a certain player.

Doing this would make Cook a luxury, less valuable than another possible starting lineman. It would also ease the pressure on the defense, because they won't have to trot right back out there, 2 minutes after they get off the field, every time.