Pretty much since 2011, this team has been steadily fricking up in the offseason, a lot of being problems off the field with the coaching staff and players.

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our drafting was mediocre at best, and saved from bad/terrible due to drafting a few late gems. all 3 of those gems are off the team

Drafting has been puzzling to bad, with many people on this forum drafting better in mock drafts than paid professionals. Last year was so abysmal that thankfully some heads did rolls as a result of it, especially the scouting department.

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crippling our cap this year

Eh, our cap is crippled every year but Saints still make things happen. I can't say I disagreed with any of their offseason movies for this year, and there were some big arse moves to try to right this team.

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we have had to dump other productive players and eat dead money (a lot less than jimmy/junior) due to bad cap management. sproles, grubbs, etc fall into this category

Losing Sproles wasn't that big of a deal in the long run. He wasn't that great his last year with us, and then ended up getting hurt in Philly. Spiller is much better than Sproles and should be great in this offense. And Grubbs? He wasn't very good either his last year here. I expect our O-line to be much improved with Unger anchoring it down.

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we gave a huge deal to a safety who sucked and got hurt, and this, along with the other dead money, prevent us from addressing all the holes we face due to "cap cuts" and bad drafting.

The defense as a whole sucked last year, and Byrd was abysmal but I still have high hopes for him. He was a stud for many years in Buffalo and he didn't just stop becoming a stud. Also doesn't help the secondary when we generate absolutely zero pass rush and QB's have all time to sit back and pick us apart. We saw that on many last second drives where we lost.

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our receiving core is a combination of young, a mess, and completely unproven, with one ancient/expensive guy left

Pretty negative way of looking at it. I definitely agree it is unproven. Colston is Colston. Cooks should be a playmaker for us. Toon played well at the end of the season. A healthy Brees with a good o-line will make average receivers look like studs. He has done this his entire career.

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if we didn't completely nail our defensive drafting, and if they're not ready to contribute from day one, we may have a shite show on that side of the ball next year.

Agree here, but I do think we nailed it as we drafter high character players who were productive in college. Can only wait and see, and hope for the best.

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how hot is our management after this year if everything doesn't fall into place and we waste another of the very few years of brees that we have left?

My guess would be very hot if this team underperforms like it did last year. And not just on the field, but in the locker room as well. If this season is at all like last year, I see one more year for Payton and Loomis, and then blowing the entire thing up and praying there is a Luck-like QB waiting for us when we draft #1.

But then again, it's the NFL and this team could go on and win the Super Bowl this year. Anything can happen, and that's why you have to love the NFL