Perhaps no higher compliment was paid to this organization than the collective silence that ensued after the Saints traded a 2012 first-round pick and a 2011 second-rounder to move up and draft Alabama running back Mark Ingram 28th over all. This was a move that seemed to make little sense. The Saints already had two good runners in Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory. The former had just signed a four-year, $12 million contract and the latter was an undrafted second-year pro with a sub-$500,000 salary each of the next two years.
Some thought the Ingram pick was a sign that New Orleans would be cutting ties with Reggie Bush (Bush himself posted a goodbye on Twitter right after the pick). But equating Ingram to Bush is like equating South Dakota to Hawaii: they’re both states, but the similarities end there. Ingram is a bowling-ball-like inside runner; Bush is essentially a gadget player who sometimes takes handoffs.
Indeed, Bush was later let go. But lightning bug playmaker Darren Sproles was quickly signed to fill his shoes, which left the Saints once again with three good running backs plus their new first-rounder. Teams trade future first-round picks all the time. But it’s almost always done to correct a glaring weakness. The Saints, on the other hand, did it to make a luxury pick. That’s the football equivalent of taking out a second mortgage to buy another speedboat.
Maybe the Saints think Ingram is a once-in-a-generation-type talent. (They’d be about the only team that feels this strongly.) Or, more likely, they’re concerned about the durability of their other running backs. Whatever, it’s not important for this discussion. The point is to understand why General Manager Mickey Loomis and Coach Sean Payton could make such a perplexing pick and not hear more than a murmur about it.
This uncommon benefit of the doubt was earned mainly by winning a Super Bowl two years ago. But in the more immediate present, the Saints have emerged as one of the most well-operated clubs in pro football – right up there with the the Steelers, Colts, Patriots, Eagles and Packers
The Eagles certainly won this year’s N.F.C. off-season championship, but the Saints, who had fewer holes to fill, quietly ran away with second place. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, a sought-after head coaching candidate, was retained. Top offensive free agent Lance Moore and top defensive free agent Roman Harper re-signed in long-term deals. Before the lockout, the Saints snatched former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Shaun Rogers for one year at $4 million. During the lockout, they spent their own first-round draft choice (No. 24 over all) on Cal defensive end Cameron Jordan. And, shortly after the lockout, they added star nose tackle Aubrayo Franklin (one year, terms undisclosed). Suddenly, their very average defensive line might be the best in the N.F.C.
From this example, it’s easy to see why so few criticized the Saints for splurging on Ingram. As a well-managed team with no major holes to fill, the Saints seem to know what they’re doing. Nothing wrong with another speedboat if you can afford it.
The new faces will be joining a cohesive lineup that figures to benefit magnificently from the lockout. The Saints’ success has been predicated on generating big plays through means of confusion. Offensively, Payton uses more formations and personnel packages than defenses have time to prepare for. Defensively, Williams relies on creating bewilderment and turnovers through high-risk pass-rush concepts out of chaotic presnap looks.
The Saints’ big-play proficiency dropped on both sides of the ball last season; consequently, so did their win total. But with the drastically limited practice schedules brought about by the lockout, teams with the biggest playbooks may rule the day in 2011. Or sheer talent will just rise to the top. Either way, the Saints look as golden as the helmets they wear.
Offense
The reason Sean Payton can design copious plays out of copious formations is because he has a maestro under center in Drew Brees. Supreme accuracy and deft pocket mobility are enough to make Brees a star; preternatural abilities to diagnose a defense and race through progressions are what propel him to superstar status. The much-ballyhooed nebulous characteristics that have come to define Brees – leadership, poise under pressure – are merely symptoms of his intelligence and preparation.
Because of Brees’s brilliance, all five of New Orleans’s eligible receivers are legitimate weapons on any given play. Therein lies the difference between an elite offense and an ordinary one.
Another difference worth noting is New Orleans’s clever use of route combinations. Most of the route combinations center on some form of deep seam pattern – a tactic that creates confusion in double teams and makes life miserable on opposing safeties (especially when they’re in zone coverage).
New Orleans’s personnel executing these routes is good, not great – but in this system “good” is good enough. Marques Colston is a dominant possession target, particularly out of the slot. Robert Meachem is a straight-line deep threat who has recently learned the other routes on the tree but must still improve at snagging passes while running off diagonal breaks (slants, posts, etc.). Devery Henderson is a speedy playmaker but has fallen behind the more reliable Lance Moore (one of the best deep-intermediary route runners in the game).
The only other N.F.C. offense that is comparable to New Orleans’s when it comes to route combinations is Green Bay’s, though Payton uses tight ends and running backs as ball-handlers more than Mike McCarthy does. This is what made Reggie Bush so valuable. The Saints will miss Bush as a decoy, though newcomer Darren Sproles, while not the slot receiver Bush was, is still a comparable enough threat in the flats. Also, Pierre Thomas is one of the most underrated pass-catching backs in the game.
There is palpable excitement about athletic second-year tight end Jimmy Graham, a former basketball player at Miami who is learning the nuances of professional football quickly enough for the team to have released veteran Jeremy Shockey. A dynamic tight end is a toy Payton has not gotten to play with in New Orleans. (By the way, can we all agree that it’s time to just start mentioning when a tight end is not a former basketball player?)
Majestic as the passing game is, this is still an offense that thrives on balance. In their ’09 Super Bowl season, the Saints ranked fourth in passing and sixth in rushing. Last season, the pass game ranked third but the run game dropped to 28th. A slew of injuries at the tailback position turned an uneasy Payton into a one-dimensional play-caller. Perhaps it was this experience that prompted the splurge on Mark Ingram. After all, the powers that be were not happy that it took Pierre Thomas 10 weeks to recover from a sprained ankle last season. Thomas, one of the smoother runners in the game when it comes to timing and accelerating off lead blocks, is healthy now, but his reputation is a bit dented. Not completely healthy is the bruising Chris Ivory, who is rebounding slowly from a Lisfranc (foot) operation he had more than six months ago.
Ingram will undoubtedly have a role on the team, but it probably doesn’t take a stud to move the chains when running behind perhaps the best two guards in football. Carl Nicks (left guard) is practically a carbon copy of a MINI Cooper, both in terms of size and movement skills. Jahri Evans (right guard) didn’t have his best season in ’10 (penalties were a bit of a problem), but his pair of first-team All-Pro awards speak much louder than a few flags. Evans is outstanding at disengaging from defeated defensive linemen to quickly reach a linebacker.
Unfortunately, New Orleans’s tackles are as terrible as the guards are great. Because Brees is too efficient to sack, there’s a widespread misperception that Jermon Bushrod is a rising young left tackle. Bushrod has decent mobility in the ground game but is a poor pass-blocker. Recognition of blitzes has also been a problem at times. The reason Bushrod was re-signed to a two-year, $9.5 million deal in the off-season is because coaches didn’t get a chance to work closely with last year’s second-round pick, Charles Brown, this past off-season. There’s a chance Brown could still see action in 2011, as sloppy right tackle Jon Stinchcomb slipped to Bushrod’s level last season. Also, free agent pickup Alex Barron, though penalty prone, is an experienced option.
The usually reliable center Jonathan Goodwin became somewhat of a liability down the stretch in ’10, which is why the Saints brought in longtime Bear Olin Kreutz. Respected as he is around the N.F.L., the six-time Pro Bowler has lost more than a few steps and can no longer be counted on to win every one-on-one matchup. The Saints would be wise to keep a close eye on last year’s fifth-round pick, Matt Tennant. Over all, three question marks along the offensive line might seem like a problem, but keep in mind, these are question marks the Saints have overcome the past two years.
Defense
It will be interesting to see what Gregg Williams does with so much talent along the defensive line. His aggressive defensive play calls in recent years have been a form of compensation. But with the arrival of first-round defensive end Cameron Jordan and the return of tireless veteran Will Smith, Williams theoretically should be able to rely on natural pressure off both edges. And keep in mind, third defensive end Alex Brown brings additional quickness to the rotation.
Inside, if ex-Brown/Lion Shaun Rogers stays healthy and motivated, Williams will have one of the pre-eminent interior pass-rushers in all the land. At his best, Rogers is arguably the best. Even if Rogers tanks, there’s still Aubrayo Franklin eating up blocks, which spells one-on-one matchups for underwhelming but respectable former first-round pick Sedrick Ellis. Franklin plays with tremendous leverage and is nearly peerless when it comes to moving laterally while stalemating two offensive linemen.
The Saints rely on hefty defensive tackles even more than most teams, as undersized middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma is a prolific hunter when kept clean from blockers. This is vital because the Saints can’t bank on big plays from smart but limited outside linebackers Scott Shanle and Danny Clark.
Their limitations are one reason you can expect Williams to keep being aggressive schematically. Another reason is the Saints have had too much in their 3-3-5 nickel personnel sets to start settling for predictable four-man rushes at this point (even if the four rushers are so talented).
Strong safety Roman Harper is the secret ingredient in many of New Orleans’s blitz packages. His versatility in the box allows him to align all over the field, and his explosive physicality after the snap disrupts the timing of pass plays. Disrupted timing leads to turnovers, which is what this defense is built on (it forced 39 in ’09 but just 25 in ’10).
Another reason Harper regularly aligns in the box is because he’s a liability in coverage (we all saw his train wreck in the wild card loss at Seattle). Fortunately, cornerbacks Tracy Porter and Jabari Greer are both sound on-ball defenders, and free safety Malcolm Jenkins is as rangy as they come in coverage. Jenkins can also defend the slot, which affords Williams even more options in presnap disguise. As soon as Jenkins, an ’09 first-round pick from Ohio State, learns to play more in control, he’ll be the premier safety of the N.F.C.
If Jenkins continues to cover the slot in passing downs, the Saints will call on Pierson Prioleau, a serviceable veteran who has followed Williams around the N.F.L. for most of his 13 years in the league, to fill the deep safety spot that the departed Darren Sharper handled last season. More preferable would be for last year’s first-round pick, Patrick Robinson, to mature and become the slot corner. Veteran Randall Gay is gone, so Robinson will get every chance at playing time, though he’ll have to fend off free agent pickup Fabian Washington, who started eight games in Baltimore last season. Washington struggled with press coverage but that’s not a factor when it comes to defending the slot. The Saints also invested a third-round pick in Louisville’s Johnny Patrick.
Special Teams
Garrett Hartley has looked like both goat and G.O.A.T. over the past two years. Over all, the Saints like him enough to have signed him to a five-year contract in March. Thomas Morstead is the punter (that’s enough analysis for a Saints punter). If he can stay on the field, Courtney Roby can be one of the more consistent kick return threats in the league. Expect Roby to get a chance at replacing Bush on punt returns. If it doesn’t work out, the Saints can always fall back on reliable Lance Moore.
Bottom Line
The issues that kept this team from playing deep into January last season – lack of run game offensively, absence of manufactured big plays defensively – have been corrected. This team has great continuity and operates out of comprehensive offensive and defensive playbooks – two distinct advantages in this hastened post lockout season.
Bottom Line: 1st N.F.C. South
Andy Benoit is the founder of NFLTouchdown.com and covers the N.F.L. for CBSsports.com. He can be reached at andy.benoit@NFLtouchdown.com.
