2011 Offseason: New Orleans Saints

The Saints are not a young team, but they need to become more of one. They have a lot of older guys on the roster and many of them did not play particularly well this season. The defense played pretty well, as defenses generally do for Gregg Williams. But they weren’t the unit they were in 2009, and with age creeping up on many of them it is time to look for some young talent at several of those positions, including the secondary.

Brees is not getting any younger, meaning that the more hits he sustains the more prone to injury he is. That offensive line needs work, and fast. They also need to clear up their running back situation. Brees is forced to pass a lot more than he should because none of the running backs on the Saints’ roster were consistently available. They had five backs shuffling on and off the field during the season. This creates a lot of problems because the offensive line can’t keep track of the tendencies of all five backs. They need to find a way to have all the carries be taken by at most two people. Whether those backs are on the roster already remains to be seen. But I think they should go to either the draft or free agency to find at least one of them.

The defense is going to be the main thing to work on this offseason. Gregg Williams has a knack for getting the most out of his squad, but he has to have the right pieces. That needs to be at the top of the agenda for Mickey Loomis, the Saints GM.

Outside of the players, I did see an issue with the coaching. Sean Payton is a terrific coach, but his players weren’t playing very disciplined early in the season. They got better as the season progressed but there were times when it looked like they were on the verge of a major collapse that could have left out of the postseason all-together. Payton will have to find a way to instill that focus his team had in 2009. If he can do that, the Saints should be in a good position on the field next year.