Who Dat Say Reader Questions

Throughout the week email your questions to whodatsayteam@gmail.com. Remember, there are no stupid questions -- just stupid people that ask them. Those people will be ignored.

This weeks questions courtesy of Glenn Becnel -- Harahan, La.

Glenn: It seems that there are many boom or bust selections by the Saints in the draft. Based on your initial reports, who will be a boom and who will be a bust?

WhoDaySay (Vern): First off, let me say that I really like what the Saints did this year. I feel the front office had a more basic approach this year than in past drafts, and I believe it will prove beneficial. They still went after the best available player; this time, those players just happened to fit a desperate need. As for the "boom" of the class, I think that will end up being Sedrick Ellis. Although, I was tempted to say Carl Nicks because of his draft position and early impressions, I believe it's Ellis who has the pro-bowl ability and professional maturity to be one of the more successful defensive tackles in the league. And, he plays the position that will most positively affect our defense. He should instantaneously make Will Smith and Charles Grant better, which in turn affects the quarterback, which in turn helps the secondary. His ability to prevent opposing centers and guards from reaching the second level should allow Vilma, Fujita, and Morgan (or Shanle) to flourish. Adrian Arrington may be the sexy pick, but Ellis (as his top 10 selection should indicate) will be the monster of this class. For the "bust" of this class, I look at the other defensive tackle we brought in, DeMario Pressley. My only reason for this is that Sean Payton went out of his way in his post mini-camp press conference to commend every rookie but Pressley. Call it the poker player in me, but I tend to read in to these little hints, as right now it's our only clue. When asked if there were any players who have turned some heads, Payton responded, "Nicks has done a good job of stepping in and when you look at Ellis, he's been a pain in the rear for a couple days now with splitting some double-teams and getting in the backfield. Porter has showed some of the cover skills that we were anticipating that we'd see and (Adrian) Arrington has done a good job of handling the assignments. He's a pretty sharp kid. Overall, I've been encouraged. With Pressley, it's just the consistency and staying healthy and some of those things. He's going to be able to get stronger in our program and I think that's going to be important for him. I think he can improve in that area and we talked a little bit about that yesterday." Yeah, right now the bust is definitely Pressley.

Glenn: When the 2008 season starts, what will be our starting defensive lineup or will we even field a defense in 2008?

WhoDatSay (Vern): My projected starting eleven on defense right now:

RE – Will Smith
DT – Sedrick Ellis (nose)
DT – Bryan Young (3-tech)
LE – Charles Grant
SLB – Scott Fujita
MLB – Jonathan Vilma
WLB – Dan Morgan*
RCB – Jason David*
LCB – Mike McKenzie*
FS – Josh Bullocks
SS – Roman Harper

*If McKenzie is not ready to open the season as a starter, then Randall Gay will get the nod over Usama Young.
*I don't really like putting Jason David in the starting eleven, but based on Mickey Loomis' most recent comments -- "Jason had a tough year, a tough transition period, going from the [Cover 2] defense that the Colts played to the defense that we played. What we asked him to do, in terms of being out on an island and covering guys man-for-man more often than he did with the Colts, it took an adjustment period for him. But he's got the ability to be a good corner for us, and that's what we expect." — based upon that statement, I believe he will be the starter come opening day.
*The last uncertainty is Morgan starting over Shanle, but I think if Morgan is healthy, it's his job to lose.

Glenn: Would you rather have the gum chewing Sean Peyton as coach or nice guy (big brass ones) Les Miles as Saints coach?

WhoDatSay (The Dowg): Sean Payton. This Football Coach is the right guy at the right time for the Black and Gold. Make no mistake about it. He's tough, he's smart, and he's a winner. For a town and team that's been sorely lacking that throughout its history, I'm not sure we could have found a better fit than the Football Coach. And he will win, don't you worry about that. Not to take anything away from Miles in Baton Rouge. Les is doing quite a bang-up job 60 miles up-river. And, as you point out, he is very nice. He's the Nice Guy. And that counts for something. In fact, word out of Baton Rouge is that his favorite part of the game is the halftime interview with his dear friend Jordy Hultberg. His favorite off-the-field activity? The Wednesday night love-fest with Jim Hawthorne live from Walk-On's. A distant third? The speeches to the kiddies at Mainieri's summer baseball camps. I'm nice, you're nice, we're all nice.

Miles is a great fit in Baton Rouge. Payton is a great fit here in the Big Easy. I think they both belong just where they are.

Who Dat News: Ellis to Compete With Thomas for Starting Spot

News: According to the SunHerald.com, Sedrick Ellis and Hollis Thomas are expected to compete for a defensive tackle starting job during training camp. Thomas has consistently reported to camp overweight and out of shape, and if he does so again this season, Ellis should have the inside track to the starting job.

Who Dat Say: Payton's mentality has always been that the guys who work hardest and produce are the guys who see the field on Sunday, and that mentality is certainly not going to change for Sedrick Ellis - Ellis isn't going to be handed anything. At the same time, the Saints surely didn't draft Sedrick Ellis with the #7 overall pick so that he could ride the bench, ala Jonathan Sullivan. Although Ellis will likely be the starter on opening day, Hollis Thomas is a proven player who can rotate with Ellis in order to keep both players fresh. There is also a very good chance that both space-eaters will be on the field at the same time depending on the down and distance (i.e. obvious running plays). Both players should benefit from each other's presence, as Ellis will have a veteran to learn from, and Thomas will have a young player eager to take his playing time. Not to mention, when you weigh well over 300 pounds like Thomas does, you need to take frequent breaks. One way or another, we should see less Hollis Thomas doubled over and panting in between plays this season.

Standing up for the Boys in Black and Gold

Who Dat Say hereby issues a challenge to all the Panthers fans that visit our site.

We bet the Saints go 2-0 against your Panthers this season. If the series is split, team that goes further in the playoffs wins. Please email us to discuss terms at whodatsayteam@gmail.com and set the value of the bet. Pertinent information to be exchanged.

Further, because we feel Deangleo Williams is a complete bust, we are willing to wager that Reggie Bush has more total yardage than Williams this season.

Who's standing up for the Panthers?

Carolina Call Out

Dear Panthers Fans,

Please drop by tomorrow for a special offer from us.

Sincerely,

The Whodatsay Staff

Who Dat News: David Roach at Saints Minicamp

News: Safety David Roach (now # 37 on the saints roster) admitted that he felt the pressure to make it through the summer's final roster cuts during rookie minicamp this past weekend, according to reporternews.com. Roach said, "There is pressure all the time. You're being evaluated every time you step on the field, every time you step into the facility. But you can't focus on that pressure. If you do, you're gonna break. You're gonna bust." Despite appreciating the opportunity to compete with other big name pros, Roach made it clear that he's here for one reason: to make this team and contribute right away. "You can't stand in awe of any player," he said. "You can't say, 'Oh, my gosh, that's (running back) Reggie Bush!' You have to understand, 'I'm a professional athlete now. That's what I do.' As cocky as it sounds, you have to tell yourself, 'I'm the best at what I do,' go out there and get the job done."

Who Dat Say: Roach is a small school kid from TCU and the very definition of a long-shot to make the final roster, despite the fact that he plays a position of dire need for the Saints, safety. As a testament to just how bad our safeties are, Chris Reis, brought in to be a training camp body last season, ended up seeing playing time toward the end of the year. However, Reis is the exception, and the reality is that there are hundreds of guys like David Roach every season that are called to rookie minicamps. Although no one will ever hear of 99% of the David Roachs of this world, one can only imagine how exciting it must be to get a jersey with a number on it for a professional football team, to walk the facilities, practice with the coaches, learn the basics of an NFL defense, and meet guys like Reggie Bush and Drew Brees. Regardless of how Roach’s story ends, most NFL fans would probably give a lot to walk a mile in his shoes right now. Rooting for an underdog is one of the true joys of sport, and we at Whodatsay will always be rooting for Roach and guys like him. Unfortunately for this underdog, the Saints have 85 players currently signed and can only take 80 to training camp, meaning 5 more will have to hit the road before the real work even gets started.

Who Dat Say News: Saints getting National Pub (Sort Of)

News: ESPN.com writer Pat Yasinskas predicts that the Saints are the team most poised to make a turnaround this year. Calling the Saints the "best 7-9 team in the league last year," Yasinskas says that the 2008 Saints will make a run "deep into the postseason." His reason for the turnaround? A much improved defense. "The big reason the Saints will fare a lot better than last year is their defense. They jumped up in the draft to get USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, and that's going to turn out to be one of the biggest moves of the offseason. Ellis is going to jam the middle, giving the Saints a chance to have some defensive playmakers for the first time in coach Sean Payton's tenure. Ellis' presence will allow linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Dan Morgan to jump-start careers that had stalled elsewhere because they'll be able to roam untouched from sideline to sideline. That's going to jump-start the defense and make the Saints one of the league's best teams."

WhoDatSay: We would like to thank Mr. Yasinskas for recognizing that the Saints were the best 7-9 team last year, and that our beloved Black and Gold are the most likely candidate for a "turnaround" this year, but unfortunately we learned the hard way last season that it doesn't matter what they say about you in the preseason. If the Pat Yasinska's of the world would have had their way last year, the Saints would have made their first Super Bowl in franchise history. That's not to say that we don't agree with Mr. Yasiska about the 2008 Saints. We think Sedrick Ellis and Jonathan Vilma will do wonders for our defense as well. Rather, we recognize it is healthy for purposes of our life expectancy to point out that Mr. Yasinskas' prediction is neither a revelation nor a prophecy, but just a prediction.

Who Dat Say News: Payton, Loomis Confident Saints Can Return to NFC Elite; David will be Counted On

News: Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis feel the Saints should be back in the championship hunt provided they stay healthy, according to SI.com. "Those are the types of expectations that we have of ourselves," says Loomis. When asked about embattled cornerback Jason David, Loomis had this to say, "We have not by any stretch of the imagination given up on Jason David," says Loomis. "Jason had a tough year, a tough transition period, going from the [Cover 2] defense that the Colts played to the defense that we played. What we asked him to do, in terms of being out on an island and covering guys man-for-man more often than he did with the Colts, it took an adjustment period for him. But he's got the ability to be a good corner for us, and that's what we expect."

Who Dat Say: Jason David could very well be the most disliked Saints player since … well, since Josh Bullocks. When receivers blew by David as he stared down the quarterback in the backfield instead of keeping his eyes on the receiver, it was frustratingly obvious at times that David was playing as if he were still in a cover 2. To be fair, Bullocks deserves as much blame as David for his complete inability to help out on the deep ball. Regardless, I do think David has the skills to compete if he can ever, as Loomis says, adapt to our man coverage scheme. He does have the quickness and speed to keep up with top-notch receivers if he can only break those terrible habits. Because of his lack of size, at 5’8” and 180 pounds, I doubt David will become a great corner, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him thrive as a nickel back.

Rome Was Not Built in a Day

There are two ways NFL head coaches and general managers build professional football franchises capable of winning Super Bowls, and patience seems to be the only variable between them. Teams can build for the future to win consistently or mortgage the future to win now. Some teams, such as the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots refuse to make large sweeping personnel moves; rather they continuously find value in each free agent signing and draft pick. The Colts or Patriots will never package a heap of draft picks to move up in round one to get that "need to have player" necessary to win a Super Bowl.

On the other hand, some teams cling to hopes of winning a Super Bowl this year and choose to mortgage their future to achieve that end. For example, the Jaguars traded away their first round pick, two thirds, and a fourth-round draft pick to acquire Florida's Derrick Harvey. And, a year after trading their 2008 first-round pick for Brady Quinn, the Browns traded their second and third round picks for Corey Williams and Shaun Rogers, rendering them “pick-less” until round four. Very rarely, if ever, does the decision to mortgage the future not come at too steep a price. Luckily, for Saints fans, the Saints appear to have their future in mind with every move they make. They are building a team in hopes of winning not one Lombardi Trophy, but several.

Although the Giants are the reigning Super Bowl champs, they are not a franchise built for the future. They will not be a dynasty. Teams that are consistently successful (as measured by their ability to compete for Super Bowls) always have two things in common: an elite QB and a consistent top 5 ranking on offense or defense. The two dominant professional football franchises of the new millennium have been the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots. The Colts have an elite quarterback in Peyton Manning and have been consistently ranked in the top 5 in total offense for the past several years. The Patriots also have a superstar quarterback in Tom Brady, and last year (in their bid for perfection) were ranked tops in the league in total offense – prior to that, for the past several years, it was their defense that was ranked among the best in the NFL. The dynasties of the 1990’s, the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys, boasted the same. Denver had their elite quarterback in Elway and a top 5 offense (and in 1997, a top 5 defense, too). Dallas had Aikman and a top 5 offense throughout their reign. San Francisco was perhaps the greatest of them all. The '49ers won the Lombardi Trophy five times in the 80's and 90's behind the superior quarterback play of Joe Montana and Steve Young and consistently had offenses or defenses (and sometimes both) ranked in the top 5 of the league.

So if the formula for consistent success is a team with an elite quarterback and a top five ranking on one side of the ball, where do the Saints stack up right now? While Drew Brees may not be in the same category as Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, few would argue that he has not been an elite NFL quarterback the past two seasons. Last year he finished behind only Brett Favre and Tom Brady (but ahead of Peyton Manning) in passing yards; and in 2006, he led the entire league. While the Saints no longer boast the Dome Patrol defense, the team has had no issues finding offensive success over the past two seasons. They finished first in the league in total offense in 2006 and fifth in 2005. In common with past NFL dynasties, the Saints have an elite QB and a consistent top-five offense. With Sean Payton calling the plays for a team whose offensive starters average 27 years of age (25 for their three big playmakers, Brees, Colston, and Bush), it's safe to assume that there will be little if any drop-off in total offense over the next several years. The Saints window of opportunity is just beginning to open.

So far, however, even with those pieces, the Saints have failed to make it to the big game, which is less than every one of our division rivals can say. Carolina and Atlanta made the big game in 2004 and 1999 respectively, and Tampa Bay won it in 2003. Unfortunately for those teams it is 2008, and last I checked, Jake Delhomme and Tampa's five QB's (even if you combined their skill-sets) are not elite; and Atlanta will be hard-pressed to finish the season in the top twenty in offense or defense, much less the top five. Also, the once-vaunted defenses of the Panthers and Buccaneers are no longer as dominant. It's not that they are bad; quite frankly they're much better than what the Saints strutted out the past two seasons – but we're looking for top 5, remember. Sure, teams can win a Super Bowl without having an elite QB and top 5 offense or defense – the Giants proved that last year and, as mentioned above, Tampa proved it in '03 -- but they won't do it consistently. Teams need both. If the Baltimore Ravens would have had an elite quarterback to complement one of the best defenses in NFL history we may be talking about them as the great dynasty of the early 2000’s. Too bad Trent Dilfer, Elvis Grbac, Kyle Boller, or Steve McNair didn’t fit the bill as “elite.”

Teams that have the necessary ingredients do not have to make rash personnel decisions in order to remain competitive. They can be more patient. Recently, in negotiating with the New York Giants for tight-end Jeremy Shockey, the Saints proved they are not willing to mortgage their future; rather they exhibited the patience necessary to build a dynasty. The team made a fair offer for the tight end during the draft, but was rebuked. New York, reasonably so, demanded higher compensation than a 2^nd and 5^th round pick, but the Saints chose not to sweeten their offer. Since then, I have heard such things as "we should trade next year's first round pick for Shockey because we can win with him now, and there is no telling what next years' pick will produce." As for me, I was happy when Loomis didn't allow the Giants to force his hand in overpaying for Shockey, and believe we should not even consider giving up our 2009 first-round pick for him. I was happy when we didn't throw millions at Asante Samuel to lure him to New Orleans (much like the Buccaneers did when they made Jeff Faine the highest paid center in the league). I was happy when we refused to mortgage the farm for Glenn Dorsey (much like the Panthers did when they gave the Eagles a second and fourth-round pick in last month's draft and their first-round pick next year for a player who, by most accounts, was just the fourth or fifth best-rated lineman available – sorry Coach Fox, but Jeff Otah is not going to win Carolina the Lombardi Trophy either).

In the last two cases, teams have made personnel decisions that will put them behind the eight ball for the future all in hopes of competing for the playoffs this season. Why? Carolina and Tampa are not winning the Super Bowl this year. The Saints may not either, but at least we are not paying players and making draft moves that will short-change us for next year… or the year after. While Jacksonville was giving up the farm (four picks) for Derrick Harvey, the Saints gave up one third-rounder for Sedrick Ellis. When Carolina was sending 3 picks to Philly for Jeff Otah, the Saints were sending the Jets a mere fourth-rounder for Jonathan Vilma. While other teams in the NFC South tried desperately to answer all their personnel questions in one off-season, the Saints understood that it is not always prudent or possible to do so. They were content to leave a few needs unanswered when they refused to overpay for a tight-end or a corner back (remind anyone of Belichik?).

I understand that many Saints fans would rather just make the big game like Carolina did in 2004, or Atlanta did in 1999 (or preferably win it like Tampa did in 2003), and could care less about "building a dynasty." But why think small? Please don't buy in to that stupid cliché that states "the future is now!" People who think that way have little foresight. Teams that mortgage their future to win now have an itch and they scratch it. They truly believe that they are only one player away from winning the Super Bowl. But they will wake up to the reality that all they did was cripple their franchise.

As the 2008 season approaches, Saints fans should know that they cheer for a team that is very close to exploding through the weak NFC ranks. They follow an organization that is finally doing it the right way. The men running the show (Loomis and Payton) are building this team for the long haul, not the short. The Saints have their elite quarterback, Drew Brees, and one of the NFL’s top five offenses – and neither appears to be going away any time soon. Those are the two things dynasties are built upon. Rather than selling out for now, our front office is putting in for later. Fans should enjoy the ride – the next five years will be the best Saints history may have to offer.

Who Dat Say News: Coach Payton Creates Payton's Play It Forward Foundation

News: According to NewOrleansSaints.com, Saints Head Coach Sean Payton, and wife, Beth, proudly announced today the formation and launch of the Payton's Play It Forward Foundation. Payton's Play It Forward Foundation will serve as a catalyst and fund-raising vehicle for various non-profit organizations to build and support their infrastructures, extend their reach, and bring effective programs to scale. These multiple approaches shall serve to advance the mission of enriching lives and strengthening the New Orleans community and the Gulf South region.

Who Dat Say: This city loves its coach, and this move should only strengthen that love. Plus, with all the bonus money Payton is set to make for taking the Saints to the Superbowl this season, he should have a little change to throw around.

Who Dat News: Ellis and Porter Already Impressive

News: According to thetowntalk.com, Saints coach Sean Payton liked what he saw from Sedrick Ellis and Tracy Porter at the team’s rookie mini-camp held this past weekend. Neither player has quite adapted to the humidity and weather conditions here in Louisiana, but Payton spoke highly of both players. "When you look at Ellis, he's been a pain in the rear for a couple of days now splitting some double teams and getting in the backfield." "Porter showed some of the coverage skills we're anticipating… and has good ball skills."

Who Dat Say: What is so impressive about Ellis is that he is big and strong enough to anchor in the nose, but also quick and agile enough to penetrate from the three technique. Payton played him at both positions in the recent mincamp and said he will continue to do so. Unlike former first round pick Jonathan Sullivan, Ellis also looks the part: He is not a pudgy 21-year old kid, but a beast of a man. As for Porter, we are not expecting him to have as much of an immediate impact as Ellis; but it would certainly be nice to have another corner besides Mike McKenzie who can cover and also display good ball skills.