Good M. Triplett evaluation of existing defensive talent

Believe it or not he has a pretty good fit in Rob Ryan's scheme, even though he's not worth near that much money.

He likes to employ his strong safety a lot like Williams used him, since both run defenses based around the Buddy Ryan 46, where the strong safety roams around down in the box and doesn't have to cover deep very much.

THey may just try to get him to rework the thing to save some cash instead of outright cutting him. He'll probably end up looking better next year if he's still on the team.

ryan's scheme also demands a better free safety for the strong safety to roam doesn't it?

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He'll probably end up looking better next year if he's still on the team.

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It wouldn't take much of an effort to accomplish that!

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I really want to see p-rob play his natural man coverage this year behind a potentially solid 3-4 pass rush, I think he and Harper significantly improve in Rob Ryan's scheme

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I agree. I wasn't ragging on Harper other than the money he's costing. He is what he is....I was mainly posting to draw attention to that article.I don't really know how much the team is over the cap now, especially if it is rising to 123 mil. I think they are presently about 12 million over...definitely could be wrong about that, though.

But when you look at some of the cap savings if some of the higher priced older guys were cut it doesn't appear nearly as dire. Let's you know if just three guys leave or else do a major reconstruction the team can get into positive cap territory just with those three.

If Tripp is right with his numbers and I'm close to right about what I think they are over, then if Vilma, Harper and Smith were cut outright we'd be about 9.5 million under the cap. Now I'm not advocating the release of these guys but it does make for interesting speculation, doesn't it? What I am advocating though is all three need to take some major pay cuts or leave.

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It wouldn't take much of an effort to accomplish that!

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Damn, that was cold!

Yeah I think Will Smith needs to go for sure. I cringed when I got an espn notification that they were trying to restructure him. I honestly just don't think he is that good at all in the first place, and definitely on the decline!

I would love to see Vilma stick around for a reasonable price and get fitted in the D somehow. I posted once before that Vilma is no doubt our best coverage LB, and is a very smart and instinctual football player. His size and durability are the ultimate factors keeping his name in limbo IMO.

And obviously I would like to see Harper restructured too, and I feel like he should be #1 priority for the saints. A vet who will thrive in Ryan's defense and still has something left in the tank. Pretty durable for the most part as well.