re: Do we resign Mark Ingram?

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The bigger question is, will Mark Ingram seriously consider re-signing here? I say no, he is ready to breakout and become a star and that won't happen here as long as the offense is tailored around taking shots down the field in the passing game. Expect Mark Ingram to be playing elsewhere next year. The only way I see him coming back is if the Saints franchise him but I don't think they can really afford to do that.

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Chad says you're wrong. He thinks Ingram will stay for 4 million a year and no other team would offer him that much. And Ingram wants to stay in New Orleans because he's so well liked. So you're wrong. Sorry.

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and 1 by 1 we've elected to pay position players over keeping these guys

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Jahri has been our biggest issue.

Our guards are not living up to their pay grades

Totally agree. Jahri and Grubbs has been very disappointing.

Definitely makes you wonder If Krohmer leaving had that big of an impact.

I know grubbs came after Kromer left, he has just been a disappointing signing in general.

Doesn't really make sense in context.

Why would we sign an established free agent for a backup role? How is that a situation?

You're back tracking

Also, we've invested in our interior. Jahri feel off a cliff

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That gaping hole behind him, most teams have a gaping hole behind their starting tackles. How much do you want to allocate in 'finding' another tackle? Because it shouldn't be coming from free agency, maybe a mid-late round flyer pick. Which we have invested heavily in every damned year in trying to find a serviceable backup in the draft.

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Yea, and what I mean by established is someone who can step in and hold his own in case of injury, not looking for a pro-bowler.

is where you're half wrong. We did address those issues when we lost players. 2nd round Charlie Brown to replace Bushrod. Bushrod replaced Jammal Brown. Grubbs (pro-bowl caliber) replaced Nicks. Kreutz to replace Goodwin. DLP to replace Kreutz. Lelito and Goodwin to replace DLP. Some of those moves were patchwork, but most of them were right moves. You can't keep every pro-bowl/all-pro player that you produce on your roster. If we did, we'd have 30+mil allocated to 5 lineman.

Again, I understand that you can't keep them all, and that the problem is compounded by the fact that they did keep Evans and he's played like shite. Just seems that the FO places more value on skill players than the beef up front. My opinion is you keep the beef up front and skill position players will work themselves out. Brees can make a subpar WR look pretty damn good when hes got time in the pocket.

We have 6th best rushing and top 3 passing and people act like our o line is horrible

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and that the problem is compounded by the fact that they did keep Evans and he's played like shite. 

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This is the first year he's played like shite

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Obviously, the front office knows what they're doing, hence the 8 years of sustained success. I just think the staple of our best teams has been the O-line and we've gotten away from that recently.

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Bad drafting, untimely underperformances, and loss of coaches is what is "gotten away". You have to consider who and how much we allocated to certein players. We signed two top guards to a combined 15.3mil average salary, so we shouldn't expect to draft more guards. We had a cheap RT for years until we gave him a 4yr/20mil contract this past year, so don't expect to see many RTs drafted.

2010: 2nd round Tackle Charles Brown, 5th round Center Matt Tennant
2012: 6th round Guard Andrew Tiller, 7th round Tackle Marcel Jones
2013: 3rd round Tackle Terron Armstead, UDFA C/G Tim Lelito
2014: 6th round Tackle Tavon Rooks.

In the same span WR/TE/RB offensive skills position:
2010: 3rd round TE Jimmy Graham, UDFA RB Chris Ivory
2011: 1st round RB Mark Ingram
2012: 2nd round for Mark Ingram, 4th round WR Nick Toon
2013: 5th round WR Kenny Stills, UDFA TE Josh Hill, UDFA RB Khiry Robinson
2014: 1st round/3rd round WR Brandin Cooks

In that same span, we've replaced every LT we had with drafties. 2nd round Charles Brown, 3rd round Terron Armstead. We replaced Goodwin with two UDFA in DLP and Lelito.

Up until last year, it worked fine and Brees was one of the least pressured QBs in the league. As we restocked and retooled our OL, we didn't fiddle much with receivers. Lance Moore played for us since 2006, Marques Colston played for us since 2006, Robert Meachem played for us since 2007 (and left in 2012), and PT played for us since 2007.

Skills position players get "old" at a faster rate than OL do and you have to consider how many WR/RB/TEs you have to carry into a game compared to lineman.

This is a year where a 1st round Guard should be considered. We need to get younger at guard and to reduce some cap strain.

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Do we resign Mark Ingram?

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As I understand the NFL's rules, I believe he would have to resign, we would consider not signing him to a new contract or trading him to another team.