No, I'm not talking about whether they will move or not. That cloud quickly evaporated after Saints fans totally sold out all season tickets for the entire season. We can thank Charley Casserly for that (I hear he likes fruitcakes as an xmas gift). Are we looking at an NFL dominance on the order of the Dallas Cowboys in the early to mid 90s? You decide. Brees signed to a 6 year contract: http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/NO/9307604 Bush signed to a 6 year contract: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2006/...ints-deal.html Deuce signed to a 7 year extension in 2005: http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/8684741 Horn signed to a 6 year extension in 2005: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2054686 Colston signed to a 3 year contract: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?...nfl&id=2519874 Henderson signed to a 4 year contract: http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/NO/7558203 Karney signed to a 4 year extension in 2006: http://www.pfcritics.com/news101/Ful...gns4-YearE.php Horn, Deuce, Bush and Brees under contract thru 2011. Karney thru 2010, Colston thru 2008, Henderson thru 2007. The Saints have masterfully extended contracts of Deuce, Horn and Karney BEFORE becoming actual free agents, preventing a bidding war that the Saints would more than likely have lost out on or be forced to overpay for these players. Karney is quickly becoming noticed as the next Mike Alstott, and rightfully so. Look for the Saints to renegotiate Henderson's contract this off-season, looking to secure our home run threat to another 4 years or so (thru 2011). The same thing for Colston after the 2007 season, probably signed to a 6 or 7 year contract extension depending on how he fares in his sophomore campaign. Look for superb draft day selections over the next couple of years by Payton to sure up the defensive side of the ball, if the 2006 draft is any indication of his brilliance of player evaluation (and it is). Given what he has done with this defense without having great talent beyond our D-line, a couple of impact players in the linebacking corp will go a long way in making the Saints a very formidable defense to compliment the best offense in the NFL.
I guess the fear is a repeat of what happened after the 2000 season for me. I would say the Saints are in better position now because no one in the division is really in a place to dominate for the next few years except for the Panthers. And even then they have their own issues. I certainly hope the Saints will be playoff contenders for the next few years.
This is fair. So let's take snapshots of the 2 teams: Haslett vs. Payton - I remember thinking the same things about Haslett as I currently do about Payton. But something happened along the way and Haslett lost his fiery competitiveness. I think a lot of that had to do with his heartless QB. It eventually rubbed off. Payton won't allow a cancer such as Brooks to pervade the clubhouse. Brees vs. Brooks - Brooks thought he was at a comedy club every time he threw an interception. He didn't try to get better, instead relying on his physical abilities to get him over the top. Brees is one of the hardest working players in the entire NFL. Deuce vs. Williams - Williams led the NFL in smoking blunts after the 2000 season. Deuce is a great team player, you won't ever hear a single complaint out of him. When he was told that we were drafting Bush, he was on board and knew that was only good news allowing him to be that much more effective as a pure runner. Ric Venturi vs. Gary Gibbs - Ric Venturi didn't deserve to be a linebacker's coach much less the DC. That was so laughable and actually caused me personally to stop following the Saints the last 2 seasons. I boycotted the team due to this clueless and overmatched coach. Gary Gibbs was extremely successful as the Oklahoma Sooners DC during in the 80s under Switzer. He was a fantastic linebackers coach for the Dallas Cowboys the past 4 seasons, having players excel such as Dat Nguyen, Greg Ellis, DeMarcus Ware and Bradie James. I hope you take some comfort in this post.
I think this was the most encouraging thing with the last house cleaning. I've for a very long time thought that Venturi was a terrible coach, but for some reason, through every mass coaching change, he hung around like a cockroach. It's like he had naked pictures of Benson or something. I'm so glad he was finally shown the door.
We always joked about Carl Smith the very same way. Never could understand why Mora was so loyal to him when it quite obvious he was the only thing holding us back from winning a SB. I know you would agree with the right OC, the 91 and 92 teams could have won back to back SBs.
Another thing I did not like about Williams was that he was out for #1 and not the team. It was mentioned on TV the other week that when Deuce joined the team Williams made sure McAllister knew that Williams was the man, and Williams on a number of occassions really put Deuce down in front of the team members. Deuce remembered that when Bush joined the team, and really went out of his way to help him and make him feel at home. Williams had absolutely no class at all. A far cry from Deuce.
Shivers are going through my spine thinking of next year....just think....all we had this year with a stellar defense!
6 draft choices in the first 4 rounds last year we traded down cuz we needed players look for the brain trust of Payton/Loomis to trade up this time
