NoSaint

Yup. Seems both nature and nurture aspects would potentially help. In theory, they are at least halfway to nfl genetics, and if dads a good parent they end up being exposed to a ton of beneficial resources I couldn’t connect my son to

WE FOUND OUR QB oh wait, the other guys playing?

Those contested catches are in large part because of RIDCULOUS ball placement though. Threading an 18 inch window 30 yards down field in between double coverage makes for great catches but the throw is the star in this passing game. I agree that the teams playing well around him and Thomas/kamara are real players but the season he’s having is becoming one of the best of the generation at the most important position. It’s really something to see (-signed, long term season ticket holder who is very familiar with the 7-9 years)

The flip side is outside if thomas and kamara- their pass catchers are borderline horrific. Have you been watching what brees is actually doing with these guys? He’s making some insane throws regularly. Like several each week that would be the best of the bills entire season

Pretty much standard. Saints stay at the ritz canal street, for instance. Peter king did a nice write up about their pregame meetings and walkthrough All equal, maybe, but ultimately the team sources the rooms on their own with incredibly extensive requirements. They tend to go with the best combo of fit, rates and availability. Many times the type of hotels that have 15 conference rooms for position group meetings will have programs contracted years in advance so it’s not always 100% consistent at the same hotel (though preferred for routine sake)

Generally yea, though in this setting I was moreso directing that at the posters saying they couldn’t possibly fill the receiver role given all the holes. No, they traded a day to pick for one of the biggest busts on the team. It’s not that they couldn’t it’s that they went after a big slow guy with attitude issues instead of someone with some speed

I’m not even sure they slow them down... the saints might, arguably, have a better defense than us too playing with monster leads they are giving up more yards but less points (bend but don’t break to eat clock with 3-4 score leads) as opposed to us giving up more points and less yards while behind (opponents milking clock at some point and runs/short completions are priority, not risky shots downfield

That really is today’s formula. ID cornerstones and cycle the rest through. When you get a kamara/Thomas/lattimore or hill/hunt/mahomes on rookie contracts playing all pro ball you go from playoff contender to possible championships

I’d argue hard to judge crowd noise in tv. Some well placed mics, or a shift in the mix by the station can sway the perception greatly

Longevity was a fair concern at that point. He had a little but of a slow start to his career and then with the injury - how long would he last. The crazy thing is he might be playing his best ball ever. He’s making insane throws and outside of Thomas, it’s not a particularly good group of wr/te

Seemed the biggest non call was the early PI on the brees interception. From there a little back and forth of the needle but didn’t seem to skew far enough to erase that aaaand look like the saints had them in the pocket

Kb has shown up to camp at like 270 lbs before... with our gm and hc in attendance. Anyone that was super confident he would carry a bad group with his own motivation and Will was at best optimistic. The dude is a complimentary piece, not a cornerstone. When you lean on guys like him to be leaders in bad units, they often shrink in the moment and not grow. kB is worse than expected but, again, for months there were a few of us saying his work ethic, and motivation were huge risks in an offense that was very likely to be ugly.

In part because they are playing with big leads, but they’ve been among the top rushing defenses in the league ranking wise.

The saints defense is giving up fewer points per game the saints offense, on average, has outscored the bills points scored per game by about 5 mins into the second quarter

He was a Pittsburgh guy - and you look at how they built that team... big qb, FAST wr in the middle rounds and a physical run game. Excellent linebackers and a solid line.. Despite missing on EJ and the parade of coaches he seemed not to get to choose.... he went a long way towards assembling that type of roster.

Pay the qb and hope to replace one if not both of the others

Most Americans don’t own equipment and have regular access to frozen ponds, would be my guess. If all you needed was a ball and maybe a goal for 10-20 to participate you might see it shoot up in popularity.

Theyve done it every big play all season. Won’t lie, I’ve enjoyed it greatly Heres the tweet from shefter today: Falcons at Saints tonight. Saints averaging 37.8 PPG, the 5th-most through 10 games in NFL history. They’re scoring on 63% of their drives, the highest since NFL went to 16-game schedule in 1978. They’ve scored more points in last 3 games (144) than Bills have this season (137).

The stat coming into today was like 2 out of 3 drives end in points, the highest rate since the league went to 16 game seasons

Dollar for dollar, kamara has to be among the best values in the league.

Oh, of the reasons he wouldn’t be here, it wouldn’t be the most likely but in discussing how this team comes together ideally it’s a systematic built in risk that’s created with a defensive head coach

Thats of course the worry. If allen looks competent next year, Daboll gets offers and you are putting the kid in a new system halfway through the big window of a rookie qb contract you are starting fresh again, as opposed to the continuity of an offensive head coach seeing success with a young qb

Ultimately, in year one they prioritized bringing in benjamin and mike Tolbert, AND a full back - i don’t get why it’s controversial to say they created a speed deficit in a league that’s getting faster every day. As others pointed out - Carolina likewise had a slower offense at a lot of key positions too. they messed up. It was foreseeable the day the draft ended that our offense was going to be among the worst in quite some time. They had had a lot of holes to fill because they created them. they were cash strapped because they created dead money. hopefully, if they are here next offseason, they learned some stuff and spend on guys that you have to gameplan for I’d think the defense there is if all your guys are 4.4 guys that are talented and you have other good talent around them you are going to create stress on the defense. Benjamin doesn’t create stress. Pretty much no wr on our opening day depth chart did. Then we had no qb that could reliably distribute the ball but also gave very little to protecting those bad QBs. Even on Benjamin’s best days our plan was to have peterman throwing knuckleballs to a 4.6+ wr if he could even get to the 5th step of his drop. This offense shouldn’t surprise people and the team did very little to avoid it.

I’d hope they didn’t plan our offseason around propping up peterman but... maybe just me

Yup. Many mid round guys or mid tier free agents. They have taken a few shots poorly but certainly wasn’t a priority or they would’ve (hopefully) gotten it done. If they’ve truly wanted it and the best they could do was the week 1 roster- yikes. Several of us hypothesized that it would be the worst in the league by a wide margin. This shouldn’t have been a shocker. Some argued it would be above average though.