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Mock-Offseason 1.0 (Revised)


whodatworm23

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Resigned:

Drew Brees, Kenny Vaccaro & Alex Oakfor

Key Free Agent Loss:

Sino Kelemete

Released:

Colby Fleener, Nick Fairley (medical)

Restructured:

Max Unger, Zach Strief, Thomas Morstead

Tendered (RFA):

Brandon Coleman, Willie Snead, Delvin Breaux

Comments…

Brees is a no brainer and while I know many of us have soured on Vaccaro, I just don’t think this front office is ready to move on from him and I know he wants to stay. Oakfor is a priority as well. Kelemete is a player I’d love to see back and I think the Saints will make an effort to keep him but big money and the lure of a starting position will likely draw him out of town. Fleener will be a cap causality and sadly the Saints will move on from Fairley. Unger and Morstead will restructure their deals, while Strief takes a pay cut and accepts a reduced role as a reserve in 2018 giving it one more shot at another championship before joining the coaching staff in 2019. Of the Saints restricted free agents I believe Coleman, Snead and Breaux will all be tendered and of the 3, Coleman being maybe the only one to return. My reasoning for all the above is that this is a team that “should” have gone to the Superbowl this season, even with the plethora of injuries they suffered. The smart thing to do would be to bring this team back healthy and just add improvements to it and see if it’s enough to get us over the hump.

 

 

Free Agent Additions:

Trey Burton [TE] Philadelphia Eagles, Aaron Colvin [CB] Jacksonville Jaguars

Comments…

Burton is a young promising tight end that has proven that he possesses the skill set to be a high end NFL starter in this league. Colvin has been an excellent slot corner for the Jaguars this season and has the size, cover skills and physicality the Saints covet in corners. Adding Colvin via free agency would be a wise investment and give the Saints tremendous versatility with how they deploy their defensive secondary as the undersized Colvin can play either out on the edge or in the slot.

 

 

2018 Mock Saints Draft:

Round 1: Rashaan Evans, LB: Alabama

Round 3: Frank Ragnow, OC/OG: Arkansas

Round 4: Jake Wieneke, WR: South Dakota State

Round 5: BJ Hill, DT: North Carolina State

Round 5: Trey Quinn, WR: Southern Methodist

Round 6: Mike Love, DE: South Florida

Round 6: Matthew Thomas, LB: Florida State

Round 7: Mike White, QB: Western Kentucky

Comments…

Evans is tailor made to play for Mike Nolan and would give the Saints some much needed speed and athletisim at the linebacker position. The Ragnow selection is a replacement for Sino Kelemete as well as an eventual successor to Max Unger down the line. Wieneke is a small school big body physical reciever who catches everything thrown his way and could develop into a nice compliment to Mike Thomas. BJ Hill gives us depth at the nose with a player defensive line coach Ryan Nielson is very familiar with, while Trey Quinn could be an excellent slot receiver in Sean Payton’s system. Mike Love possesses tons of untapped athletic ability and has the body type (6’4” 265lbs) that coach Nielson wants in a defensive end. Matthew Thomas (much like Mike Love) is a very fast and athletic defender that could blossom with hard NFL coaching. Mike White has good size and passing ability; he reminds me a lot of Trevor Siemian coming out of Northwestern and gives the Saints another camp arm to compete with Taysom Hill in 2018.

 

 

 

WHODAT

 

 

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3 hours ago, whodatworm23 said:

PRE-FREE AGENCY ROSTER MOVES:

Saints resign Drew Brees, Alex Oakfor & Kenny Vaccaro.

Brees is a no-brainer of course while Oakfor was well on his way to a superb season with the Saints before his injury. Oakfor is young and is a solid starter opposite Jordan on the defensive line. Vaccaro might be a surprise to many as I’ve stated my personal belief is that the Saints should move forward with Von Bell as the starter but the Saints will operate how they see fit this offseason and I suspect that they will be hesitant to be so quick to move on from another former 1st rounder as they did with Malcolm Jenkins. Also I expect Vaccaro to push to remain in NOLA with this young promising defense and his BFF Oakfor, even giving the Saints a hometown discount on his extension. In the end I expect these 3 players to be the sole focus prior to unrestricted free agency as the Saints keep their leadership and young nucleus intact.  

 

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENCY:

Saints make big splash by signing Malcolm Butler and Marquise Lee.

The Saints were close this season and rumors are that Sean Payton is having trouble moving on as many within the organization are. Payton and the Saints are in a 2-3 year window with Drew Brees now and they understand that they must improve quickly in order to capitalize within that window. Marcus Lattimore has developed into a shutdown cover corner in only his rookie season and while his counterpart Ken Crawley played well this season, he was also the most penalized player on the team in 2017 struggling mightily at times with being to hands on. Butler is a top notch NFL cornerback who would give the Saints an extremely formidable starting duo and allow Crawley to fall back into a nickel / slot role giving the Saints great depth at the position. Added to that could be the healthy return of Delvin Breaux and the Saints could very well field the best defensive secondary in the NFL in 2018. Butler is also a favorite of Sean Payton who’s made no bones in the past of acting on what he calls “unique opportunities” in free agency.  I suspect Payton will see the potential to add Butler to the roster as one of those opportunities and I expect he and the Saints to act on it.

 

Other than Butler… I think the Saints will pursue another receiver in FA and could opt to allow Willie Snead to hit the open market. The player I have the Saints signing is Marquise Lee of the Jaguars who is a very talented player that has been held back by the quarterback play in Jacksonville. In New Orleans with Brees and this offense, Lee could shine.    

I like keeping Brees and Okafor, but I'm well over Vaccaro. He and Payton clearly butt heads, and the guy is either all in, or half-assed, and I don't like that. Let him walk. We have 2 talented safeties, and I think it's a similar situation as we had in the backfield of the offense. Ingram + Kamara + Peterson = Williams + Bell + Vaccaro. Ditch Peterson (Vaccaro) and watch the others blossom.

Also, NO to Malcom Butler. Yeah, he's a good corner, and there are others out there. He's going to cost a lot, and I'm not for that.

Kyle Fuller - Bears CB - is younger, plays better, better stats, just as good of instincts, and is durable. He's one of my top FA signings to play opposite Lattimore.

I'm not so certain we'll (or any team) be able to sniff M. Lee. He's on a good, growing team that is showing mega success right now, and you know Kahn will throw as much money as he can at their core to continue to grow. A top rookie running back, a QB who's finally growing into his position... last thing they need is to lose one of their top receiving threats.

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What about Terrelle Pryor? 6'6" 240. Was a QB, transitioned into WR, and actually went over 1000 yds receiving with Cleveland of all teams.

Plug him into Coleman's position, or even make him a hybrid WR/TE like Graham was, and there's your redzone threat. Would probably come cheap, too.

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51 minutes ago, Mid Iowa said:

What about Terrelle Pryor? 6'6" 240. Was a QB, transitioned into WR, and actually went over 1000 yds receiving with Cleveland of all teams.

Plug him into Coleman's position, or even make him a hybrid WR/TE like Graham was, and there's your redzone threat. Would probably come cheap, too.

I like this idea. This might solve the redzone options issue.

@whodatworm23  Excellent write-up, as usual. I'm not to keen on the Malcolm Butler thing and keeping Kenny V and I highly doubt Key falls that far.

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52 minutes ago, Mid Iowa said:

What about Terrelle Pryor? 6'6" 240. Was a QB, transitioned into WR, and actually went over 1000 yds receiving with Cleveland of all teams.

Plug him into Coleman's position, or even make him a hybrid WR/TE like Graham was, and there's your redzone threat. Would probably come cheap, too.

I like the Pryor suggestion, he's also got a good deep ball so the play that Snead ran would work really well as well.  As I told @whodatworm23 I actually felt Pryor was the better QB prospect coming out because although he wasn't as accurate etc he knew how/when to take some chances throwing the ball whereas I feel like JT needs to have a guy open before he's willing to throw to them most of the time.  Like I don't think he could run an offense from behind and requiring him to take a risk and make a throw like you will have to at the NFL level at times, unless of course you have a #1 defense.

I do think that Butler will be targeted, I think he would be a good fit across from Lattimore.  He might not be completely worth the money he'll get, though I think it might be less this year than it would've been last year with a slightly down year compared to the previous and him being a year older.  I think if we can get him at 10/yr then we definitely move on him as having him and Lattimore as the top 2 guys will allow Jordan and whoever is across from him to get time to get to the QB.  Though the other option is possibly investing another 1st round pick on CB getting a guy like Ward/Jackson if they are there and rolling with Crawley/Breaux/Williams as 2-4 if we don't get someone in the draft.

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The more I think about it, I like the Pryor idea even better. A scenario I'd like to see would be...go after Pryor and Poe in FA. If Jackson were there at pick 27...for the love of all that is holy, draft him! If not, trade down to beginning of 2nd and pick up another pick or two (stranger things have happened).

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4 hours ago, jcvoodoo said:

The more I think about it, I like the Pryor idea even better. A scenario I'd like to see would be...go after Pryor and Poe in FA. If Jackson were there at pick 27...for the love of all that is holy, draft him! If not, trade down to beginning of 2nd and pick up another pick or two (stranger things have happened).

IMO that ignores our two biggest needs in LB and TE.  

I don't think you can just plug in Pryor as a big body, it hasn't worked how we needed it to with Fleener, Coleman, Hill etc... he's not 6'6" 240 BTW to whoever said that.... He's about 6'4" 230ish.. I think he's a fine replacement for Snead if we're ready to move on, but we still need a big inline blocking TE that has some receiving ability. 

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1 hour ago, domepatrol91 said:

IMO that ignores our two biggest needs in LB and TE.  

I don't think you can just plug in Pryor as a big body, it hasn't worked how we needed it to with Fleener, Coleman, Hill etc...

It's not a draft pick, it's a free agent signing. It's not like we can't entertain the LB and TE at the same time.

The guy produced over 1000 yards as a receiver 2 seasons ago, so to say you can't just plug him in, I wholeheartedly disagree.

Brandon Coleman's top year was as a rookie - 454 yard - not even close to Pryor.

Colby Fleener isn't even in the same conversation, so I guess I'll just disregard the comment.

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1 hour ago, Mid Iowa said:

Not surprised you disagree.

Not sure what this means..

Anyways I'm not disagreeing with you per say, I'm just sayin' the measurables you stated are incorrect. 

1 hour ago, Mid Iowa said:

BTW, Here's where the 6'6" 240 came from.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PryoTe00.htm

ESPN, NFL, Official Redskins, NFLDraftScout and Rotoworld all list him as 6'4" 225ish.

Quote

Not sure any of us actually took a scale and a ruler to him.

Sure nobody on here knows exactly, but you can look at the guy and tell he's not 6'6" nor 240lbs.  

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1 hour ago, Mid Iowa said:

It's not a draft pick, it's a free agent signing. It's not like we can't entertain the LB and TE at the same time.

Well he didn't mention LB or TE at all, but he did mention what he wanted to do with the 1st round draft pick (CB) and two big signings so I was providing my feedback. I believe that out of 2 big FA signings and a 1st round pick we should shore up at least one of our two biggest needs. 

1 hour ago, Mid Iowa said:

The guy produced over 1000 yards as a receiver 2 seasons ago, so to say you can't just plug him in, I wholeheartedly disagree.

I said we can plug him in to replace Snead as a WR. You cut that part off. ;)

3 hours ago, domepatrol91 said:

I think he's a fine replacement for Snead if we're ready to move on

I was just disagreeing with the idea that he could plug in and play ANY inline TE like Graham did for us.

10 hours ago, Mid Iowa said:

or even make him a hybrid WR/TE like Graham was, and there's your redzone threat. Would probably come cheap, too.

Because I think we still need to invest in TE anyways and think Pryor shouldn't be looked at as a TE in any way. He's a WR and always has been (receiving wise), I don't think he's the answer at TE by any means. 

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1. Let Kenny walk. He is too inconsistent and even when he is giving maximum effort he still isn't great.

2. Butler is someone I don't want the Saints to get. He will be demanding like 15 mil per year, and that money could be better spent elsewhere. They're also probably keeping Breaux since he is a RFA. As for Lee, I think we're going to keep Snead and Coleman since they're RFAs, so I'm not sure where he would fit. He seems like a deep threat and we already have that in Ginn.

3. I wouldn't be angry with this draft, but I also wouldn't be excited. Key doesn't fit our defense. He is a 3-4 OLB in my opinion and we would be drafting based on potential with the hope he puts on weight. We're better off going with a DT assuming the top three LBs are gone.

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12 hours ago, Mid Iowa said:

I like keeping Brees and Okafor, but I'm well over Vaccaro. He and Payton clearly butt heads, and the guy is either all in, or half-assed, and I don't like that. Let him walk. We have 2 talented safeties, and I think it's a similar situation as we had in the backfield of the offense. Ingram + Kamara + Peterson = Williams + Bell + Vaccaro. Ditch Peterson (Vaccaro) and watch the others blossom.

Also, NO to Malcom Butler. Yeah, he's a good corner, and there are others out there. He's going to cost a lot, and I'm not for that.

Kyle Fuller - Bears CB - is younger, plays better, better stats, just as good of instincts, and is durable. He's one of my top FA signings to play opposite Lattimore.

I'm not so certain we'll (or any team) be able to sniff M. Lee. He's on a good, growing team that is showing mega success right now, and you know Kahn will throw as much money as he can at their core to continue to grow. A top rookie running back, a QB who's finally growing into his position... last thing they need is to lose one of their top receiving threats.

Fuller is very inconsistant... Butler will be overpaid but his value within this 2-3 year window would be worth it. Aaron Colvin is a guy I am very high on as well and would take over Fuller.

 

Lee will be looking for money and oppertunity, Jacksonville is a promising team but they run a consertive offense and Lee could see the Saints aggressive system as more suited to his talents.

 

I wouldnt resign Vaccaro if I were calling the shots... but Im not.

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11 hours ago, jcvoodoo said:

I like this idea. This might solve the redzone options issue.

@whodatworm23  Excellent write-up, as usual. I'm not to keen on the Malcolm Butler thing and keeping Kenny V and I highly doubt Key falls that far.

Key will be the def of a wildcard this draft... I do expect a Shane Ray or even Randy Gregory type fall for him. Yes he's talented but he'll have to answer questions reguarding drug test, quitting, motor and injuries. I don't think he falls out of the 1st round but I also don't see him being drafted in the top 15 either.

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