I went back and counted all the 4th quarter comebacks and game winning drives by Drew Brees that were foiled by a Saints defense or kicker, and the answer is 16. That is a bunch. Happened again yesterday, not only once but twice.
I don't think Drew and his contract are the problem. Drew was able to win in the past when Loomis and Payton found quality on the cheap in free agency and the draft. Of course Drew wasn't making what he is now and he is older but think of all the talent they found, Ivory, Thomas, Colston, Bushrod, Moore, then the defense was made of veterans, that weren't lights out but were opportunistic. For some reason the Saints tend to strike out on high draft pick skill players. The NFL dealt the death blow to the Saints though with that bullshit ass bounty gate shit.
bounty gate set us in this death spiral. and payton will be gone next year because of it. who do the saints hire.
I'm not really one who buys into Bounty gate killing us. It for sure killed 2012, but what the hell would we have done with the 2 2nd round picks we lost anyway? It's not like we have drafted well anyhow. Our decision to build through high-priced free agents and bad scouting and drafting and bad coaching have killed us.
I'd say you are 99.9% spot on with this, only because I disagree that bountygate was the "death blow." It was a major contributor to the problem, as it disrupted the continuity of the program, cost us draft picks and cost us a good defensive coordinator. I think every problem you have pointed out here, and they are all major contributors, all stem indirectly from Brees' contract. The problem there is that in giving Brees that contract (and few would disagree that in the current finances of NFL stardom, he deserved every penny), the front office changed its mindset. IMO, the brain trust saw the 5-year contract as a 5-year window of opportunity to get back to the Super Bowl, and began trying to build a roster to get them back as quickly as possible. They starting trading up in drafts for impact players, costing us the middle and lower round picks that created the foundation of the SB44 team.
When will people ever learn? The 80's 49ers dynasty and now New England for the past 15 years have been built by trading down, not up. If you have enough draft picks and good scouting some of those late round picks are going to turn out to be impact players.
It started it and they have yet to recover. doesnt take much to disrupt the makeup of a team. this was the beginning of the end.
It started before Bountygate, with the change in philosophy that came with paying Brees. Before that they were working in a long-term team building mode through the draft. With the Brees contract came a change to a philosophy that said, we have until Brees' contract is up to win, so we have to get big hits in the draft. Bountygate disrupted the continuity because it took Payton out of the picture for a year and caused other changes in the staff. We were already out of a first round draft choice that season because we had foolishly traded it to move up and draft Ingram the previous yea, that being part of the new, swing for the fence in the draft philosophy. Goodell escalated the problem further by taking away the second round pick.
