Collins has looked like a rookie. Doesn't play much...mostly just passing situations when he does play. Hopefully he develops. Would really like them to use him as a pass rusher, but seem to be using him as a coverage LB. Maybe he plays quite a bit Sunday.
How has Vaccaro been? Know he's a rookie but loved him coming out.
Our defense looks very good early...but Saints offense is one of the very best. Brees has just been loaded with weapons for years. Really wish Kraft and BB would give Brady those kinds of weapons. I'm not taking anything away from Brees as I believe he is a great player, great QB, great leader...but he is a guy who has had the luxury of A) playing in a dome for virtually his entire career and B) having ridiculous WR's who can go deep.
Brady on the other hand, with the exception of a few years (Moss era)...has mostly had scrubs at WR...and middle of the field TE's. Would have loved to see what Brady's career stats would look like if he had Brees' tools for all these years.
Collins will get better. It was already assumed it would take some development with him, which is why he was projected in the 2nd round.
Vaccaro has been awesome, very unrookie like. Saints coaching staff is notorious for waiting a long time before letting rookies get on the field, but he has played pretty much every snap on defense. The stat sheet doesnt really do him justice, he gives this defense great flexibility in formations and what it can do in coverage. He has been lined up pretty much everywhere, Deep half, in the box at SS, over the slot, on the outside WR, it inside LB, on the edge as a blitzer and he's been pretty effective at all spots. He can be had playing deep though I've noticed.
I have to disagree with you regarding Brees' weapons, I think him and Brady both make their guys look better. Outside of Graham and Sproles, Im not sure if any of our WR's would really be that special on any other team. Meachem already tried in San Diego and was a bust, came back to NOLA and looks like his old self. Sean Payton has a very impressive array of route combinations and concepts in the passing game. We have 2 rookies in Stills and Toon, who look promising but really seems to still be struggling picking up the nuances of the passing game similar to your guys. Cant disagree with you on the Dome though, that helps any offense.
BornNraisedWhoDat a quick question on the Saints run defense. They're giving up 5.4 YPC which puts them dead last in the league. I know numbers like this can be deceptive. Have they just given up some garbage time yards or perhaps one or two hugs gains that skew the average? Or have teams just not remained patient enough with the run? They're 18th in rush yards per game.
Saints run defensive is pretty misleading, I would love to ask Rob about it. It's simply strategy from what I can tell though. Put it like this, if they really want to stop the run, they can, but Rob would rather prevent the big play and give up 4 or 5 yards, try to force a team to 3rd and long, then send the heat after the QB. He likes to use that 4-2-5 defense with 3 safeties on the field, and it is suseptable to the run. The DL has done a good job, but if you can get he second level there are yards to be made. The defense gets pretty stout in the redzone. And if the offense is rolling and putting up points, it kind of forces teams to get out of running that ball.
Thanks for stopping by and providing some insight from the other sideline. I agree with, or can at least understand, everything you said except for the bolded statement above. I believe Dobson had ZERO drops his last season in college, he was known as a hands guy from everything I've seen.
Not sure, but from what I watched on Dobson when I studied him, he reminded me of Mario Manningham. Will make some of the most ridiculous catches you will ever see, but drop routine ones. He will get better though. Seems to me the biggest struggle WR's have with your system and Saints is picking up option route adjustments.
