Ranking the Rosters, 1-32

LINK

This is an insider's post on ESPN so I've copied the list and what they say about our beloved Saints below:
1. Seattle
2. San Fran
3. Denver
4. New Orleans
5. Philly
6. New England
7. Cinncy
8. Green Bay
9. Arizona
10. Kansas City
11. Detroit
12. Indy
13. Miami
14. San Diego
15. Chicago
16. Baltimore
17. Tampa
18. Dallas
19. NY Giants
20. Buffalo
21. Tennessee
22. Carolina
23. NY Jets
24. Cleveland
25. Houston
26. Washington
27. Pittsburg
28. Oakland
29. Minnesota
30. Atlanta
31. St. Louis
32. Jacksonville

quote:

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4. New Orleans Saints

For years, the Saints had an offense that could hang with anybody while their defense consistently let them down. The year they won the Super Bowl, the defense still wasn't stellar, but it had a stellar run of generating turnovers.

This year, however, the D has some legit talent of its own. Jairus Byrd joins Kenny Vaccaro to give the Saints a safety tandem that should rival Seattle's for the best in football, and Byrd is the kind of free safety who allows you to change the coverages you run on the back end. The front seven has been slowly retooled and now has some legitimate talent and depth.

As always, the offense has plenty of weapons without any superstars among the receivers and backs. The offensive line could be stronger, but Drew Brees is well capable of making them look better than they really are.

By the numbers: The Saints are tied for the league lead with three starters (12.5 percent) as elite and they have five more players (20.8 percent) following closely behind as high-quality starters. The linebacker corps is the weak link, with both David Hawthorne and Curtis Lofton grading out below average, but both have had seasons of high-quality play earlier in their careers.

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They have a ranking system of:
Elite
High Quality
Good Starter
Average Starter
Below Average Starter
Poor Starter
Not Enough Information
Rookie

They've broken down our starters as such:
Offense:
QB - Drew Brees (Elite)
HB - Mark Ingram (Average)
HB2 - Pierre Thomas (High Quality)
TE - Jimmy Graham (Elite)
WR1 - Colston (High Quality)
WR2 - Brandin Cooks (Rookie)
WR3 - Kenny Stills (Average)
LT - Armstead (NEI)
LG - Grubbs (Good Starter)
C - Tim Lelito (NEI)
RG - Jahri (Good Starter)
RT - Strief (High Quality)

Defense:
LE - Akiem Hicks (Good Starter)
NT - Brod Brunk (Good Starter)
RE - Cam Jordan (High Quality)
LOLB - JR Galette (Good Starter)
LILB - David Hawthorne (Below Average)
RILB - Curtis Lofton (Below Average)
ROLB - Victor Butler (Average)
LCB - Champ Bailey (Good Starter)
RCB - Keenan Lewis (High Quality)
NCB - Corey White (Average)
SS - Kenny Vaccaro (Good Starter)
FS - Jarius Byrd (Elite)