Last offseason I made a mistake that I later promised I would never make again. It was in the heat of Marques Colston, Carl Nicks and Drew Brees approaching a free agency hit, which forced the Saints to franchise tag their star quarterback. At the time I accused Loomis of mismanaging the offseason, and my personal favorite quote from that time coming from yours truly was the following:
Ralph is joined by Dave and Andrew to discuss the Saints OTAs and the return of Sean Payton. Ralph could not be more excited for the Rob Ryan era. Andrew tries to figure out of Will Smith will be any good at linebacker. Are any linebackers worth more than a dollar? Dave is not pleased with the left tackle situation and all the options scare him. The guys make crazy predictions off one day of practices. Dave isn't sure we will see as much of Ben Watson as you might think but Andrew disagrees.
Oh and they make fun of the fact Kevin couldn't be on the show because he injured his ass learning how to do the suplex to a stuffed animal.
This is what I often refer to as the "dead zone" for a blogger of an NFL football team. Things tend to pick up a little bit with OTAs underway and you often get little nuggets of news around now, but this period between the draft and training camp is often brutal for most bloggers and we all suffer from "writer's block". Coming up with interesting material to talk about is a daunting task. Interestingly as a Saints blogger, though, this hasn't been a "dead zone" period in years, but I'm honestly not complaining for once. This marks the first "normal" and relatively quiet offseason the Saints have had since prior to the 2009 season.
There's a number of starting spots that I feel are up for grabs right now as OTAs are under way and there's a number of battles I'm incredibly intrigued by. The scheme switch to a 3-4 will create an enormous amount of competition, as will some changes on the offense with the departure of Devery Henderson and Jermon Bushrod. Here's positions that I'm going to be playing close attention to throughout, and you should too:
Quiet around these parts lately so I thought I'd hook you guys up with some Saints related material to read:
What the...? Nakia Hogan of the Times-Picayune broke the news with this tweet, following a press conference with Mickey Loomis:
Saints GM Mickey Loomis said Will Smith will play OLB in team's 3-4 defense
— nakia hogan (@nakiahogan) May 20, 2013
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I'm going to be discussing several bold predictions I have for the 2013 New Orleans Saints. I was mulling over the idea of doing this article last week, but decided to wait on it so I could try to piece together my thoughts better. Let's jump right in!
For the second consecutive year I'm taking a stab at ranking each team's trigger man starter going into the season. I was proud of my compilation last year looking back as so many of my assertions and predictions turned out to be true. There are a number of changes this year, with many quarterbacks moving down and some moving up. Matt Stafford doesn't belong in the top 4, that's for sure. Here's how I rank them:
The Saints landed another big body in Isaako Aaitui, who is 6'4" and 315lbs, to create depth behind Brodrick Bunkley and John Jenkins at nose tackle. He has signed a 2 year contract with the Saints for what I can only assume is the minimum. Aaitui has never played in a regular season NFL game after signing with the Dolphins as an undrafted rookie free agent out of UNLV.
Dave, Ralph, Andrew and Kevin debate the four greatest players in Saints history and the four greatest non-players. Marques Colston or Joe Horn? Does Deuce make it? Plus a surprise entry in the non player category. And hookers....lots and lots and hookers.
