TRAINING CAMP BATTLES TO WATCH OUT FOR
One of the good things about being a year removed from a conference championship appearance and having re-signed or extended most of your notable free agents from that squad is that you have few notable positional battles. When the Saints convene for Training Camp ’08 on July 24th, their biggest offseason additions will step into pre-defined roles: MLB Jonathan Vilma immediately becomes the starting middle linebacker on the Saints’ defense and DE Bobby McCray is penned into the rotation at defense end. The Saints do have some questions at big-time positions like wide receiver and cornerback, so we’ll take a look at the players vying for starting roles, and perhaps roster spots.
Wide Receivers: Marques Colston, Devery Henderson, Terrance Copper, David Patten, Robert Meachem, Adrian Arrington, Lance Moore, Skyler Green, Todd Blythe, Titus Ryan, Carlos Robinson. Roster spots available: 6.
The Saints carried six receivers in ’07, and with them all returning in ’08 there’s no reason to think they’ll change that number, but a couple of the names may change. Colston’s a lock, and the questions begin with who’ll start opposite him. The team needs a reliable receiver to draw the double team away from Colston while stretching the field and not allowing defenses to stack the line against our running game.
After an ‘07 training camp in which everyone claimed his concentration problems were behind him, former second round pick Henderson suffered through yet another frustrating season of just as many drops and missed chances as breathtaking catches. He was re-signed to a one-year contract and this might be his last chance to catch on with the Saints. He’s a pretty good bet to make the roster, but can he prove consistent enough to start?
Robert Meachem is actually my favorite to win the starting spot opposite Colston. His injury problems are supposedly behind him and he’s earned some praise for his work ethic from Sean Payton during OTAs. After riding the bench for his rookie year, he seems hungry to prove he was worth the first round pick. The question is whether he can be a complete receiver, but there’s no question that, other than Colston, Meachem’s got the highest upside of any receiver in training camp. He’s got the speed to do all the things I mentioned earlier—does he have the hands and mental capacity to master Payton’s offense?
We’ve seen everything that Copper and Patten can do. They’ll be nice change of pace receivers because they know the offense and can step in if an injury occurs, maybe giving us a surprise monster game or two if they catch a defense off guard. Copper wasn’t used much last season, while Patten became the no.2 receiver almost by default once Henderson proved inconsistent.
Blythe, Ryan and Robinson are all hired hands for camp and I don’t expect any to make the final roster.
So, if we’ve got Colston, Henderson, Meachem, Copper and Patten all making the roster, who gets that sixth and final slot? Moore was a bit disappointing last season after an encouraging preseason, so he goes into this training camp with the smallest margin for error. Former LSU receiver/return specialist Skyler Green was signed late last season and placed on the practice squad, and the Houma boy will try and impress with his versatility, including returning punts. Then you have Adrian Arrington (Michigan), who the Saints moved up to pick in the 7th round of this year’s draft and has been lauded as the next Colston. Moore’s spot on special teams would be devalued if Reggie Bush becomes the team’s main punt returner (a wish he made known during OTAs), and second round pick CB Tracy Porter can also return punts. The battle between these three receivers is the one to keep an eye on, in my opinion.
Cornerbacks: Mike McKenzie, Jason Craft, Jason David, Tracy Porter, Randall Gay, Greg Fassitt, Jerametrius Butler, Anwar Philips, Aaron Glenn, Usama Young. Roster spots available: 4.
If you thought this position was a question mark heading into last season you must be scratching your head raw going into this one. In ’07 we at least had two players we thought were solid starters in McKenzie and free agent signee David, but going into this year the former is coming off a knee injury and the latter disappointed so badly that a few weeks ago Sports Illustrated writer Peter King cryptically mentioned in his Monday Morning QB column that if some team wanted to trade for David the Saints would be willing to listen.
The safest bet is that McKenzie will start the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list and probably won’t contribute until Week 7 at the earliest. As for the two players who’ll line up on the Superdome floor September 7th vs. Tampa Bay? My crystal ball is hazy at best. This list is full of retreads (Glenn), castoffs (Butler), backups (Craft), so-far-ne’er-have-emerged-as-Saints (David, Fassitt, Philips, Young) and newly acquired players with potential starting talent (Porter, Gay).
Porter and Gay might have the best chance of opening the season as starters, if for no other reason than they’re the two freshest faces, Porter coming in the second round of this year’s draft and former LSU Tiger Gay being signed away from the AFC Champion Patriots.
I’m on record as saying that David will have a bounce-back year, but that was before King’s comment. I find it hard to believe that the Saints would give up on David after just one year, but odder things have happened.
If the starters are up in the air, can we at least knock this list down to the four who make the roster? If McKenzie opens the year on PUP, he won’t count towards the roster, so for now we’ll go with Porter, Gay, David and Glenn (who was a Cowboy in ’05, when Payton coached in Dallas). Young’s got an outside shot, but I think the acquisition of Porter bumps the former third round pick.
Cornerback is again the biggest question mark for the Saints, and the position’s biggest hope is that the upgrades at MLB and defensive tackle (Vilma and Sedrick Ellis, respectively) spike up the pass rush, leaving our defensive backs much less vulnerable.
BREES BARELY BETTER THAN ELI?
We all know that even though Eli Manning has a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants, Drew Brees is by far the better QB, right? EA Sports doesn’t seem to think so, because when he QB rankings for Madden ’09 hit the web a couple weeks ago, Brees is rated at a very respectable 94 (out of 100) while Manning sports a ranking of 93. There’s no doubt that Eli’s vaunted playoff run vaulted him into respectability, but the fact remains that his ‘07/’08 season was full of questionable decisions and it wasn’t unreasonable to argue that he should’ve been benched a time or two. Not only does he not deserve to be just one ranking point behind Brees, he doesn’t deserve a 93 ranking. I’m thinking Eli should be around St. Louis Rams QB Marc Bulger’s rank, which is 89.
The QBs ranking equal to or above Brees? There are just five: the Bengals’ Carson Palmer (96), the Colts’ Peyton Manning (99), the Cowboys’ Tony Romo (94), the Patriots’ Tom Brady (99) and the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger (95). I’d make the argument that Brees should be third on this list after Manning and Brady. You can make an argument for Palmer, but Romo and Roethlisberger benefited more from their teams’ running games.
