With Jeremy Shockey gone, Jimmy Graham is poised for a breakout season as the unquestioned starter at the tight end position for the Saints.

Per Jeff Duncan's twitter account:

"Jimmy Graham just said he's up to 265 pounds from 255 last season. "That's all I've been doing is working out," he said. "It's all muscle."

"Here's a shot of the bulked-up Graham. http://lockerz.com/s/110943992"

This sounds eerily familiar to Pierre Thomas' offseason a year ago when he bulked up to make him more durable. Ironically, after all that work in the weight room, Thomas had his worst season from an injury perspective by wrecking his ankle this past year. Graham himself suffered an ankle injury towards the end of the year that cost him some time. In general, I'm all for him bulking up because increased reps as a starting tight end will require him to be more durable, and his ability to stay healthy over an entire season is an unknown at this point because he's got such limited football history having only played the sports seriously for the past two years.

At the end of the day...

I know the title of this post alone has many of you jumping for joy. CBS Sports has reported that labor negotiations are now 80 to 85% complete and a deal could be reached "within days" to end the NFL lockout and start free agency immediately. The fact that we're not really privy to the negotiations and that it's being all done in private, to me, is a really good sign. The less mud slinging that's going on in public and in the media, the more they must be agreeing, or at least working things out. Details for now of the deal are being kept very hush-hush, so there's no telling where the two sides stand on some of the major issues (profit split, 18 games vs. 16 games, rookie contracts, restricted free agency etc...). At the end of the day the recent developments leave more room for optimism than ever before in the ongoing CBA saga.

Because of the egos and burned bridges involved, though, tread lightly in your faith of things getting resolved quickly because I still believe these are highly volatile discussions and any progress can implode quickly if there's a sticking point, which could potentially lead to a new lawsuit and/or things getting pushed back to square one. Still, we all have to be encouraged for now that things seem to be moving in the right direction. Fingers crossed a deal gets done before the end of the month!

Every year I try to identify 5 young players on the roster that I think seem poised for a prominent role and breakout season. I need to make amends for the atrocious piece I did last year which did not pan out well at all. Of the 5 guys I picked that were poised to have a breakout year, only one (Garrett Hartley) had what most of us would deem an acceptable season... although even he had struggles. Two of the five ended up on IR before the season even started (Hamilton, Casillas), one didn't even make the team (Rod Harper) and one regressed significantly from the previous year (Hargrove). Hopefully this year's installment won't doom the players I name!

Here's my 5 player watch list for 2011:

After Carl Nicks and Marques Colston coming in at #55 and #53, respectively, Jonathan Vilma and Jahri Evans are the next two Saints to appear on NFL Network's top 100 NFL players list. Vilma was listed at #37 and Evans came in at #34 overall.

Drew Brees is the final Saint set to appear in the NFL's top 100 NFL players list, so he'll be the 5th Saint overall when that happens. The top 30 is still to be announced, so all we know at this point is that Brees falls somewhere in there. My guess is he'll be in the lower half of the top 10, but I'm hoping he cracks the top 5.

Congrats to both Vilma and Evans who are both very deserving of the recognition!

While a 1st round pick is someone you've invested enough in that you want him to eventually contribute in a starting capacity, most teams would prefer in an ideal scenario to work that player into the lineup. The Saints may not have that luxury with Mark Ingram. But what about Reggie Bush, Chris Ivory, and Pierre Thomas, you ask? Well, let's identify why those three players aren't very likely to begin the season getting the bulk of the carries one by one.

Reggie Bush: He was never going to get the bulk of the carries regardless. Even if he returns to the Saints, which is still in question, Bush wasn't the lead back in the playoffs when the Saints only had Julius Jones as their other option. He's just not built to take that kind of punishment, and the organization and fans have all come to terms with that.

Pierre Thomas:

Scroll about the quarter of the way down and you'll notice that ESPN.com posted a link to one of my stories on CSC and even lists my name. It's under "NFC South links: Barber supports Talib" in the "New Orleans Saints" links. Pretty cool!

Here is the link!

Former Saints' head coach Jim Haslett threw one of his current players under this bus this week. Now granted, Albert Haynesworth has been labelled universally as a bad character problem and he's on his way out as getting suspended by the team last season. Once Haynesworth got paid that $100 million contract, he made it clear that things were going to go on his terms and he was done putting in effort. Haynesworth is the classic case of a horrific football investment where you get an extremely talented player that stops working hard the very minute he "makes it" financially. As much as I love football, there's a big reason I've always had a ton of respect for tennis players and golfers. Less manly, maybe, but those guys go out and earn every penny they make. Their pay is completely based on performance. Play well, you get paid, play poorly you don't. In football, as we all know, investments are a huge gamble. You're banking on a guy performing and you hope he doesn't get hurt. The amount you pay them and the length of the contracts is complete arbitrary and there's no exact science to it. In Haynesworth's case, it was a collosal failure, but that's entirely consistent with how the Redskins do business. They pay top dollar for proven veteran players with talent regardless of their mental makeup. That's come back to bite them countless times. There's something about that Redskins model that completely absorbs their players of any hunger to succeed. Too much money is the culprit. But I digress, back to Haslett... there's two things I want to make note of here.

#1 What if Haynesworth's issues were partly due to the fact that Jim Haslett does a poor job of commanding the respect of his players?

#2 Regardless of how egregious Haynesworth's character is, I contend that Haslett going public like this exposes his character as well.

Regarding #1:

Every year I start the season with the list of my top 10 "most valuable" Saints entering a season. It's a lot of fun to see how this changes from year to year. You can check out my top 10 "most valuable" players on the team for 2009 by clicking here and for 2010 by clicking here. A few interesting tidbits: Reggie Bush is not on this list even though he was listed at #9 both of the last two years. Pierre Thomas suffered a significant drop after being #4 in 2009 and #5 in 2010. Carl Nicks not only makes his first appearance in the top 10, he's all the way up to #2.

Without further ado I present you my list for 2011 with the top 10 "most valuable" Saints players.

1. Drew Brees: This is the third consecutive year he's atop of these standings. There's no need to defend this pick. (2010 pick: Drew Brees)

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Malcolm Jenkins. I think he embodies every quality you want to have in a pro athlete. He's strong, he's extremely intelligent, he's selfless, he's physically gifted and he's got terrific character. He's an easy guy to root for, and he's the kind of guy that makes everyone around him better. The consumate teammate. Jenkins has been doing a little resident blogging on NOLA.com and this latest entry is an interesting take on his relationship with Darren Sharper and how the veteran has helped him progress in his recent move to the free safety position.

The NFL Lockout has been a challenging situation for all NFL players and teams. All players are getting creative trying to find ways they can keep their fitness level without access to the team facilities. While not all of the Saints' roster is practicing over at Tulane, the school deserves a huge hand and credit for the help they've given the Saints players. When it comes to our beloved Who Dats, our local school is doing their part in making sure they stay on schedule during these tumultuous times.

I came across a terrific article that discusses the union between Tulane and the Saints players that's definitely worth the read. Check it out by CLICKING HERE.

Not only are the Saints taking advantage of the facilities, they're also benefiting from...