and he's also on of the best CBs against the run: According to Pro Football Focus, Lewis graded out as the 15h-best run defending CB out of 113 eligible players. also said that "Clearly he will be missed in Pittsburgh as (Bengals All-Pro and 2x Pro Bowl WR) A.J. Green is already salivating thinking about next year’s AFC North clashes (with the Steelers)"
reactions from Saints fans on Lewis to the Saints: Great News! Loomis strikes again! This was a perfect pick up for us! Sweet! yeah! Need #1 filled Yay! sweet Good news!!!! Awesome Can you hear my smile! Great signing. Oh Mickey, you so fine, you so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey. Hey Mickey. I'm happy Loomis, you sly fox. That is awesome! WOOHOO!!! he is a significant upgrade. Awesome. holy potatoes. loomis, i don't know what you're saying but keep saying it I love this guy already. This is exactly the kind of magic the Saints needed this offseason. Haven't been this happy about a player in a good while. Sweet, Championship!!! I love the fact that Steelers fans HATE that they lost him. I trust fans more than talking heads, and they definitely didn't want to see Lewis leave. That's awesome. He hasn't played a down yet and I already love the guy. YES! Steelers fans are REALLY ****** off about this. this is a tier 1 signing. Lewis is the real deal IMO. Outstanding signing by the Saints! Happy happy happy Awesome!! Mickey is a guru. Great pick up I am very excited. I guess he wanted to be in the REAL black and gold! Who dat! I love this signing The thing I like the most about this signing is that he comes from the NFL franchise who defined and still defines Tough Defense with Attitude. (last year, the Steelers were #1 overall defense yds/g, and #1 pass defense yds/g) I'm really excited Loomis made it happen! Who Dat! This is great. giddy up Boo-Yah Very good signing! we have added a talented young CB who brings a physical element to the table that we do not really have with our other cornerbacks. Sweet!!!! Excellent! its a party its a party its a party YES I'm excited Very happy about this! YES!!!! A great pick-up I think I like this better than the Assumaguaha signing. this is such a great deal from the steelers board..this says a lot: "You know, I always accept what the front office does during these free agency periods. I accepted the James Harrison, Santonio Holmes, and Joey porter releases, but the loss of Lewis just to me is one of the stupidest things we've done in a long time." Listening to WWL they had a reporter on from Pittsburg( Paul Alexander) that said Wallace had stated that Lewis was the only CB on there roster that could cover him. Sounds good to me!! I'm calling it right now. This guy will be a shut down corner for us, I'm takkng top 5 in the league, and will retire a Saint. It's not often you get talented players who grew up big fans of the team. I can't wait to see him in press coverage. Listening to him on wwl right now. Kid said this is his dream to be a saint. i have GOT to get a lewis jersey this guy is already a favorite of mine its great to have a player who loves this team an city like i do He will help us get our 2nd ring! WHO DAT!!!!
reactions from more Steeler fans on another forum to Lewis to the Saints: Losing him is insane to me. I'm devastated to lose him. F**k. We couldn't give him 5 / year? That's bullshit. oh well. Oh crap. this was a player we needed to resign This isn't happening. this makes me sick this is a big surprise. WTF is going on????? This release hurts me more than Harrison. Don't remember last time I was that excited about a cb playing here since (11-time Pro Bowl CB Rod) Woodson. We should have locked him up offseason not looking so great so far after hearing about losing lewis... Man are we screwing up. I can see passing on him for 8 million but this is insane. We're ssupposed to keep our good players. I like to be confident but this is getting insane I would of cut (Ike) Taylor to keep Lewis. I love Ike Taylor, but I would almost rather have cut ties with him and kept Lewis. We could have had 2 potentially good-to-great young corners for a few years. We could have gotten younger, faster, and more athletic in the secondary. CB instantly becomes the position Im hopping someone good falls to us in the draft..... This one hurts, he was the one player I was hoping to keep I can't believe this i am so pissed. Lewis wanted to play in New Orleans. We couldn't do anything about it The "LeBeau Way". Defense so complicated that no rookie starts. And by time they play extensively or start, they are in their last year of the contracts. That makes perfect sense! Yet the Pats can start 3 rookies in their D and do just fine. I also think it's as much Tomlin as it is Lebeau. Tomlin loves his veterans. I had to register (to this board) as soon as I saw the tweet about Lewis almost signed by the saints. ... You know, I always accept what the front office does during these free agency periods. I accepted the James Harrison, Santonio Holmes, and Joey porter releases, but the loss of Lewis just to me is one of the stupidest things we've done in a long time. Such a great up and comer that we molded into a nice future superstar in Dick's defense and to end it like this.... WOW is all I can say. To me, we are officially in the "We suck" rebuilding mode. Gay seems like a great pickup now. Such a waste of a future star that would be able to take Ike's spot when he leaves. While (our situation now) might not be (0-16) bad.....As far as getting to a SB goes, thats looking more and more like a dream....I'd hate to see what Manning, with his big 3 now with welker, would do to our secondary.........and the same goes for the Pats if they have both Gronk and Hernandez up and running
FINALLY get a big time defensive FA. I think we should also continue trying to pursue Asmagha or whatever his name is. The Falcons signed Steven Jackson today and have Gonzales coming back, so they're going to be tough to stop. They did get weaker defensively with the release of Abraham and Robinson, but we need to continue getting better on D. We still need a LT, but after that, I think all of the focus should be on D.
So, am I reading this right that a large majority are on-board w/ this being a good FA signing? Decent, good, really good, or great would be my next question. What say you? I admittedly didn't follow football all that closely in the NFL last year. After the aweful losses to SF and ATL, I didn't follow the Saints' games play-by-play like I usually do. I had the games on, but kinda drifted in and out of full attention when we started to lose. All in all, it was a year to forget for me in football last year. It all started with the gut wrenching losses to Bama and SF in the post-seasons and the Bounty bs and the Badger pulling a Ricky Williams. 2012, in football, was one of the most forgettable years since the start of the new millenium. Sure hope we don't have to go through another one of those, or worse, for a long, long, long, long, long time. Ever would be fine for me! Who Dat! Geaux Tigers! Lets bring home the crystal and the Lombardi to where they both belong....Louisiana!!!
Make no mistake, signing Lewis is a huge deal. He may not be a household name, like some other FAs, but he instantly makes the Saints better. And, he took less money to come here, so you know it's more about the team and winning then it is about the $$$.
Compare the night and day difference between Lewis and our starting CB, Patrick Robinson: CBS Sports: (per PFF stats,) Lewis was targeted 112 times on the season. On throws toward Lewis, quarterbacks finished with an 80.7 quarterback rating. Quarterbacks had much better success when challenging Robinson, finishing with a rating of 105.7. Robinson was only targeted three fewer times. When opposing quarterbacks targeted Lewis in 2012, the 6-0, 208 pound cornerback allowed 11.8 yards per catch according to Pro Football Focus. By comparison Patrick Robinson , who started 16 games for the Saints at left cornerback, allowed 17.6 yards per reception. The figure ranked Robinson last among cornerbacks who received 60 percent of their team's snaps, Pro Football Focus found. Saints cornerback Jabari Greer , who started 13 games at left cornerback, allowed 14.6 yards per catch. Lewis also led all corners with 16 passes defenses, one more than Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman.
Per PFF: The 1,071 yards given up by Saints CB Patrick Robinson last season was the most-ever in the PFF era (since 2008). Here's the only four CBs that have given up over 1,000 yards in a season in the PFF era: 1,071 - Patrick Robinson, 2012 1,045 - DeAngelo Hall, 2012 1,034 - Tramon Williams, 2011 1,004 - Devin McCourty, 2011 The 1,000 yards may sound really bad, but all it means is they were able to keep their starting jobs the whole season despite their poor play. Plenty of corners would give up that much yardage, they just weren’t given the snaps. For ex: Of the 115 CBs they graded for the 2012 season, Robinson was only 111-worst in yards per coverage snap given up. Tracy Porter, Aqib Talib, etc did worse in yards they gave up per coverage snap, they just didn't play as many snaps And Corey Webster (110-worst) did similar to Robinson (111-worst): Webster gave up 988 yards in 574 coverage snaps, which was the same rate as Robinson (1071 yards in 619 coverage snaps) As for the three best when it came to fewest yards allowed (min 500 coverage snaps) 1. Champ Bailey (479 yds in 587 snaps) 2. Leon Hall (508 yds in 455 snaps) 3. Antoine Winfield (611 yds in 575 snaps) And all three have been named All-Pro CBs before
