SetfreexX

I agree with you, but I'm not ready to say ''contenders'' just yet, the Dallas game should be a good measuring stick. Saints put up TD's on short fields versus GB but not yards. I will say I was surprised to see how well we got after Jameis, but being able to play man and pressure is a far cry from the soft zone, and 7 to 10 yard cushions we lived in for a decade under Rivera.

With no tape on him, imagine if we could have actually game-planned a bit and if the offense hadn't stalled out to make it a closer game than what it was.

Said team would have to be WILLING to give up said kicker. You're not gonna trade for a Gano, Butker, or a Tucker. Prior and even current management screwed the pooch at this position. If memory serves, Gano was cut in favor of Slye under Rhule / Marty as a cap casualty so there may not have been a choice. Rivera / Marty lost Butker off the PS, they should have assigned a ghost injury and set him on the IR (see Fletcher).

That's why you draft a Jaycee, and sign a Bouye to have alongside Jackson, with Chinn / Burris as the single high with the other in the box to help versus the run or blitzt off the edge. It was a thing of beauty to see us in press outside, and all the bodies mugging the LOS with a Safety ALSO coming off the EDGE. Wasn't none of that sit back poo, and give them the easy 3-5 yard dumps + YAC. I know you can't do that every snap, or versus every team, the point is we FINALLY have this as apart of the defensive arsenal, we can play coverage, and get AGGRESSIVE.

3 down in a 3 point stance is an Odd front. 4 down is an even front. 3 is an odd number. 4 is an even number. So yes, odd fronts.

This, I hate those dumb lazy assessments, Darnold >

It was an antiquated way of thinking for sure, the best teams have their core guys, but the teams with a core AND DEPTH always got he furthest. That's why I am happy to see the emphasis placed on talent at the 2nd and 3rd string positions. I wasn't happy with the Horn pick / Darnold trade. HOWEVER I'm not stupid either, I could see what they were attempting to do -- BUILD A FULL TEAM. See SF, and if the current QB isn't it, then we can always trade up IF we have a FULL TEAM in place. To this I can tip my hat as it is also a solid plan, and so far it's paying dividends.

There's nothing wrong with a 4-3 defense, the issue is it's HARDER to find fits for it based off the players colleges provide. Look back at 2013, we had dominant EDGE rush with Hardy and Johnson and a top defense. Johnson eventually got old / injured; and we never replaced Hardy as the young up and comer (Kony Ealy / Jared Allen). Part of the reason for the change was to have better need / draft fit since there are more talented 3-4 EDGE guys versus traditional 4-3 DEs.

He's young why wouldn't he, he obviously has aspirations, and the trend in the NFL is YOUNG offensive minded prospects. Is he ready...no I don't think so, I'd say 2-3 years including the current.

He coached a 3-4 for the San Diego Chargers and they were one of the best in the league at the time, then he went to CHI and coached a 4-3, also another year of high end production. The issue was in our 3-4 was injuries / age / and talent drop off showed it's ugly head. We had no young talent on defense, and it never saw the field, we also relied on a heavy zone scheme, that veterans picked apart because after Bradberry, and rookie Donte' we didn't have any corners, I think Mike Adams was still around at Safety as well and he was like 37 ish. Just an old slow team in key spots man.

Most times the first year of a transition is tough, it also hurts when you have a BAD defensive coordinator. If memory serves Eric Washington at the time. At the time the personnel was interesting: 3-4 DE - Short and McCoy, traditional 3t DT's seemed to make sense as 3-4 DE's (Size with relative athleticism for the position requirement) -- Short gets hurt EARLY DT - Dontari Poe -- fell off a cliff as he was a true 3-4 NT, and had played it for KC, backed up by Butler, who is more a 3t than a NT, but was 6'4'' / 325 OLB - Bruce Irvin / Mario Addison / Rookie Burns & Miller -- Burns had the wrist and was a ST's gunner and still managed 7.5 sacks, I think Mario was around 9, and Irvin around 7 ILB - Kuechly and Thompson, since the DL couldn't eat up space we saw Luke look human for the first time in our lives, and he eventually retired. _______________________________________ More than ANYTHING under Rivera we RELIED on veterans too much, and we got OLD, and fast, there were no succession plans in place, so once we were old and slow like we were in key spots on defense it showed.

Snow gives off Dick LeBeau vibes from the 2000's Steelers.

To add, Bouye is the nickel, his return won't impact Jackson, this was a point of emphasis in some of the coach press conferences. Now will we see him inside / outside sure, and it will be game-plan specific I'd imagine, just like we saw Jaycee in the slot vs NO.

Noticed this a lot in pre-season and across Weeks 1 & 2, I know we've all heard the 4-3 Under talk, but I've been seeing odd fronts regularly from the defense, and I LOVE IT! With buys like -- Burns / Haynes / Reddick / Luvu able to stand and move, drop, and rush it's been nice to see what we've been able to do when you pair that with -- Brown / Jones / Fox / Gross-Matos / Roy Nixon on the DL Below is our pre-season, starting defense versus PIT in game #3 Left to Right DL - Brown / Jones / Fox EDEGE / OLB - Burns / Reddick ILB - Thompson / Carter Jr Secondary - Horn / Jackson Safety - Chinn / Burris ___________________________________________________________________________ Below from the 2nd quarter versus NO, this actually looks to be a sub package for Nickel (3-3-5 alignment) another Odd front variant In this one looks to be from left to right... DL - Nixon / Jones / Fox EDGE / OLB - Reddick / Burns MLB - Shaq Secondary - Horn / Jackson / Melvin Safeties - Chinn / Burris _____________________________________________________________ It's nice to see the athleticism, and versatility we are starting to employ after years of the heavy zone, and static alignments under Rivera. Anyone else notice this, what are your thoughts?

For those that didn't notice this, Jaycee played several snaps in the nickel position, not sure if it was due to man assignment, or keep Melvin on the perimeter with Jackson in zone. Either way having Bouye back, allows us to feature our FULL compliment of secondary starters at the cornerback position. I fully expect the coverage to improve, and facing a back up QB, on what is likely to be a bad team overall is a good point to return. I want to keep seeing us beat the teams we should beat, if it's not a playoff QB on the teams we face, I feel like our roster overall is as good, or better than most.

He was limited in practice this past week, and left the game with a hamstring.

To have a chance at a 2nd round pick we would have to trade back, as the 2022 2nd is the current starting QB on our team. So I FULLY expect us to trade down a time or two in the 2022 draft in an attempt to replace the 2nd we traded. I wouldn't call that cute, I'd call it the smart thing to do.

Running behind Miller and Moton has been fine, I don't even recall Miller's name being brought up, it's the LG position that was PITIFUL. Almost every run off the LG was stuffed, I'd like to see Brown there, stop the ''versatility'' talk and put in a road grader at that spot.

Or maybe handling teams worse, or worse off is a sign of a solid team. Win the games you're SUPPOSED TO WIN. Under Rivera we often played down to the competition and lost as a result.

This, his value NOW is as a spell back, and gaining experience, he has the ability. No reason to be worried about his stats.

Good damn poo

Have you ever watched the Saints offense, this is a variant of that. Force them to respect the short to intermediate, and when they creep up dial up the shot down field. The 2nd quarter is a perfect culmination of that, DJ had two catches 20+, and then there was Robbie's 57 yard TD. If you pay attention our OL was not going to hold up LONG ENOUGH to take shots all game, what's important is that the shots we did take weren't grossly underthrown. Sam overall looked very good, and his release is much quicker having a chance to watch him. He made those throws under duress as well. It was good to see a QB stand tall, there was not a lot of that with T2G.

Snap counts had him in on about 89% of the total snaps, that's roughly a 9 - 10% decrease from the Rivera days where he hovered around 97 - 99% of the snaps. I do believe the goal was to lower his snaps, while maximizing his usage when on the field. I think I saw a quote from Rhule earlier that said two things: 1) Chuba missed a blitz pick-up during the game, and that the rookies can't afford to play like rookies 2) They need to get Royce Freeman up to speed A good example is BAL last night, as decimated as they were, and with Bell and Freeman being there roughly a week, they still were not dressed. You can't put guys on the field that either aren't ready, or up to speed, Chuba and Freeman should be a bigger part of things as the season moves forward.

He would've had the INT or PBU f Shaq hadn't gotten that pick.

Deeeeeeep cut....