Saints Gab

FedEx and the NFL today announced the winners of the sixth annual FEDEX AIR & GROUND® NFL PLAYERS OF THE YEAR AWARDS at a press conference in Tampa Bay, site of Super Bowl XLIII.

* Quarterback DREW BREES of the New Orleans Saints was named the FedEx Air NFL Player of the Year.

* Running back ADRIAN PETERSON of the Minnesota Vikings was named the FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Year.

In honor of the winners’ outstanding play, FedEx is donating $25,000 to the Safe Kids USA coalitions in New Orleans and Minneapolis, the local chapters in each player’s market. In addition, the Tampa Safe Kids coalition received a $25,000 donation the week before Super Bowl XLIII.

For the fifth season in a row, the Air & Ground program was a win for the local community. As part of this season’s Air & Ground program, FedEx teamed up with Safe Kids USA – a national non-profit organization that works to prevent accidental injury among children – to deliver safe kids. Throughout the season, FedEx made weekly $1,000 donations in the names of the Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week to their local Safe Kids coalitions to fund pedestrian safety improvements. Some examples of these pedestrian safety improvements include:

FedEx also hosted special safety education events at a series of elementary schools in NFL markets to educate students about pedestrian safety.

· In Tampa, the police helped identify an area around Sulphur Springs Elementary that was susceptible to speeding, so part of FedEx’s $25,000 donation was used to install speed tables around the area to slow down traffic.

· In Dallas, the Safe Kids coalition used data on local motor pedestrian collisions to identify Arcadia Park Elementary school as the host for future education programming because the location ranked highest in motor pedestrian collisions.

This year, FedEx surpassed the $1 million mark in funding to create safer communities for children as part of the Air & Ground Program.

OUTSTANDING AIR & GROUND PERFORMANCES

Brees demonstrated his offensive air attack leading the NFL in pass attempts (635), pass completions (413), passing yards (5,069) and completions of 25 yards or more (35). His 5,069 passing yards establish him as the second player in NFL history to surpass the 5,000 yard mark. Brees is the only Saint to pass for more than 4,000 yards in three consecutive seasons and his 34 touchdowns are a franchise record. Brees’ season began with a 24-20 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in which he completed 23 of 32 passes for 343 yards and three touchdowns. Brees posted ten 300+ yard performances, tying an NFL record, including two games where he surpassed the 400-yard mark. Brees was nominated for five FedEx Air NFL Player of the Week awards in 2008, winning twice.

Peterson became the first Vikings running back to earn an NFL rushing title with 1,760 yards. The 1,760 rushing yards and his ten 100-yard games established new franchise single-season rushing records in both categories. Peterson averaged 110.0 yards per game on the ground in 2008 to break his own Vikings record for a season set in 2007 at 96.0 yards per game. Peterson also became the fifth player in NFL history to rush for 3,000+ yards in their first two seasons. Continuing to demonstrate his dominance in the field, Peterson amassed 192 yards and one touchdown on 30 carries in the Vikings’ Week 10 28-27 win over the Green Bay Packers. Peterson was nominated for four FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week awards in 2008, winning three times.

Brees and Peterson were selected from a panel of three finalists in each of their respective Air and Ground categories. The finalists were chosen by a panel of NFL experts based on the season’s fan voting. The other FedEx Air NFL Players of the Year finalists were quarterbacks PEYTON MANNING of the Indianapolis Colts and KURT WARNER of the Arizona Cardinals, while the FedEx Ground NFL Players of the Year finalists included running backs MICHAEL TURNER of the Atlanta Falcons and DE ANGELO WILLIAMS of the Carolina Panthers.

More than 1,156,000 fan votes were cast at NFL.com from Monday, January 5 through Friday, January 23, to decide the winners.

Former winners of the FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Year Award include:

· (2007) Green Bay Packers QB BRETT FAVRE and Jacksonville Jaguars RB FRED TAYLOR

· (2006) New Orleans Saints QB DREW BREES and San Diego Chargers RB LA DAINIAN TOMLINSON

· (2005) Bengals QB CARSON PALMER and Seattle Seahawks RB SHAUN ALEXANDER

· (2004) Indianapolis Colts QB PEYTON MANNING and New York Jets RB CURTIS MARTIN

· (2003) Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning and Green Bay Packers RB AHMAN GREEN

Seems that the prospect of linebacker Dan Morgan coming back to the NFL is no joke. Morgan told ESPN.com Monday he has filed his reinstatement papers with the NFL and plans to rejoin the Saints, who still hold his rights.

Morgan has said he has talked to the Saints and they seem interested in him playing. Morgan, 31, retired last May before ever playing a game for the Saints, who had signed him as a free agent.

Free agency isn’t going to take place for about another month, but already one player that might have the interest of the Saints is Vikings Veteran safety Darren Sharper. The 12-year veteran looks as if he won’t be back in the Twin Cities, and ProFootballTalk.com is reporting that the Saints may have their eyes on Sharper.

There is no question that the Saints defense needs to get upgraded in 2009, and Sharper coming aboard could be a great early free agency signing for a team that will have a lot of expectations on it for next season.

From: WWL Radio

Negotiators for the state of Louisiana say they are getting very close to a deal to keep the New Orleans Saints playing football in the Superdome for a long time. They are also laying the groundwork for a Super Bowl bid. “We have high expectations and hopes that we can work out our negotiations with the Saints so we can go together and seek the Super Bowl,” lead negotiator Ron Forman told WWL First News. “The meetings have been very, very positive.” The current Saints contract expires next year.

From: New Orleans Times-Picayune

Linebacker Dan Morgan has informed the Saints he intends to return to the NFL after a one-year retirement, General Manager Mickey Loomis confirmed. The Saints will maintain Morgan’s rights if he is reinstated, though it’s not clear if they want to keep him under contract or if he wants to look to play elsewhere.

The Saints signed Morgan to a one-year, incentive-laden contract last March, when he was attempting to come back from an Achilles tendon injury and a series of concussions. But Morgan chose to retire two months later when the rehab wasn’t progressing as quickly as he had hoped.

It almost goes without saying that 2008 was a disappointing year for Saints fans. The pre-season hype had people talking about the Saints as Super Bowl contenders and it looked like the team was going in the right direction with key players like Jonathan Vilma and Jeremy Shockey. But the team wasn’t able to meet those expectations. For the first time in its history, the Saints had the number one offense in the league but couldn’t even pull out a winning season.

Over the last few weeks, the Saints have cut ties with defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs and signed sought-after defensive coach Greg Williams. I’ve even heard that Coach Payton had given up $250,000 of his annual salary to help get Williams. The fans are elated. Williams brings the promise of a strong pass rush and an aggressive defense that will disrupt opposing quarterbacks.

Williams will likely do it with many of the existing players. The Saints are in salary cap trouble and have several free agents that that would like to keep. Getting a couple of stud defensive players to sign will be hard without cap room. Williams will have to start with what he’s got.

Now that the dust has settled a little, let’s take a look at how the defense actually did this year.

The league ranks defenses by yards allowed per game – fewer yards allowed, the better the ranking. New Orleans finished 23rd in the league with 339.5 yards per game (Arizona finished 19th). Three spots above the Saints were Green Bay (20th), Chicago, and Houston. Three spots below were Atlanta (24th), San Diego, and Cleveland.

In rushing yards per game, the Saints were 17th with 117.8. That was better than all three of our division rivals (Atlanta -25th, Carolina – 20th, and Tampa Bay 19th). The biggest rush against us was for 46 yards. 23 teams did worse. We allowed two 40+ yard rushing plays and 10 20 yard + rushing plays, again better than our division rivals.

The Saints passing defense ranked 23rd with 221.7 yards per game allowed. This, of course, is where the stats reflect the dismal impression of the defense. All of our division rivals did better: Tampa Bay was 4th with 187.3 yards per game, Carolina was 16th with 211.7, and Atlanta was 21st with 220.4. Interestingly, the Arizona Cardinals finished one place above with 221.2 yards per game and the Jacksonville Jaguars (Greg Williams’ last home) finished one spot below New Orleans (24th) with 224.1 yards per game.

The biggest problem was the number of passing plays for 20 or more yards. The Saints allowed 53. Only Jacksonville and Seattle did worse. The Saints also got only 28 sacks (tied for 22nd) and 10 forced fumbles (tied for 29th in the league).

The defense surrendered 24.6 points per game, which puts them in 26th place in the league. That’s worse than Oakland and Cincinnati – two terrible teams this year, but better than Denver (which has been solid over the years) and Arizona (who is going to the big game).

Some good news : the defense allowed 21 touchdowns (tied for 18th), got 15 interceptions (tied for 11th), the biggest play allowed was 67 yards (tied for 9th), only allowed 5 passing plays of 40 or more yards (tied for 6th), and were penalized only 637 yards (9th in the league).

The Saints had only one player in the top 50 tacklers: Jonathan Vilma, who actually finished eighth in the league with 132, 98 of which were solo tackles (which also puts him in eighth place). Roman Harper is next (58th in the league) with 89 total tackles, 82 of which were solo. He is followed by Scott Shanle (63rd) with 87 (60 solo), and Scott Fujita (83rd) with 81 (63 solo).

Bobby McCray was our sack leader with six. He is tied for 32nd in the league. Rookie Sedrick Ellis had four sacks and was tied for 88th in the league. We had no other players in the top 100.

Some bad news for the Jason David haters: David had five interceptions which tied him for sixth in the league. Fujita had two which put him tied for 59th along with Kevin Kaesviharn.

I hope all of this provides some perspective – at least more than just remembering some play where we got burned and deciding that we are awful in some category or another. The rushing defense was average. It may look better because teams knew that they could pass on us so they ran it less. The passing defense – which is supposed to be Williams’ strong suit – needs a lot of work. The passing defense needs to focus on limiting yards, especially plays of 20 or more yards. The defense also needs to create more turnovers – 22nd in sacks and 29th in forced fumbles. We allowed too many points. How long has it been since we shut out an opponent? The high ranking for penalty yards showed that we played with some discipline. Maybe the trouble then was that we called the wrong plays.

The best thing that I got out of all this is how much better we will be with some improvement in our defense. We don’t have to be number one to go to the playoffs. Hiring Greg Williams was a good move. Let’s hope that the front office makes a few more.

It’s that time again to start talking about free agency, and we’ll spend some time breaking down positions, and today we are going to start with maybe the most important position on the field – quarterback. Here are our rankings of Free Agent QB’s, and what we think will be the end result for some of these players.

1. Kurt Warner – Cardinals: The Super Bowl QB is going to be a free man, but expect the Cardinals to make a more than fair offer to keep Kurt around, win or lose the big game a week from Sunday. Kurt could have been the MVP this season without a doubt, and while a couple other teams will likely flirt with the idea of grabbing him, I can’t see him anywhere else but in the desert.

2. Matt Cassel – Patriots: Look for Cassel to be franchised, meaning he’s not going anywhere in 2009. The Pats need to protect themselves just in case Tom Brady is not going to be ready to go at the start of the season. Again, he’ll get plenty of interest in the open market, but don’t expect him to make it there unless teams are willing to give up two #1 picks.

3. Jeff Garcia – Buccaneers: Even at 39, Garcia can be a stop gap for some team on the steps of being a possible playoff or Super Bowl contender. With the coaching changes in Tampa Bay, it wouldn’t be a big surprise to see Garcia take his game elsewhere, but there is always the chance he may retire.

4. Kerry Collins – Titans: The Titans had a great season with Collins, but even as the #1 seed in the AFC were not able to get by the Ravens. Collins played tough when the team needed it, beating the Steelers late and Ravens early in the year. He’s the perfect QB for the Titans system, and giving him two years at $10 mil per year would not be out of the question.

5. Rex Grossman – Bears: Rex in effect should get a fresh start and bail from the situation that is the Bears. The team appears to have made a commitment to Kyle Orton as their QB of the future, and if Grossman wants to be a starter, he’ll likely have to go somewhere as a backup and then hope for poor play or an injury to be in the starting lineup.

6. Luke McCown – Buccaneers: McCown is still young enough to where he could be a decent player in this league, as he’s shown flashes but has never fully taken it to the next level. Look for him to go somewhere and be a backup with the hopes of being a starter down the road.

7. Kyle Boller – Ravens: This may be a shot in the dark, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Boller somewhere else with a fresh start. He wasn’t ever able to live up to the level of the pick the Ravens used on him, and with Joe Flacco taking them to the AFC Title Game, there is no question who the long term starter will be in Baltimore.

8. Ryan Fitzpatrick – Bengals: The former Harvard QB started the year awful, but by the end was playing much better, but won’t have that shot again with the Bengals as Carson Palmer will be back under center in 2009. Wouldn’t doubt if another team or even the Bengals locked him up as their back-up. He’d be smart to stay in Cincy if the offer is there.

9. J.P. Losman – Bills: Not a big fan of Losman, but someone will give him a job as a 2nd QB on their roster. I wouldn’t doubt if he’s in camp with a team that has an unstable QB situation come July.

10. Byron Leftwich – Steelers: The former starter with the Jags has found a nice home with the Steelers, and has played well when called upon. With that, he’d be well served to stay in the Steel City, but with the desire to compete, my guess is he moves on to another squad.

Other Free Agent QB’s:

David Carr – NY Giants
Brett Ratliff – NY Jets
Brock Berlin – St.Louis
Charlie Batch – Pittsburgh
Dan Orlovsky – Detroit
Chris Simms – Tennessee
Joey Harrington – New Orleans
Brian St.Pierre – Arizona
Brooks Bollinger – Dallas
Gibran Hamdan (RFA) – Buffalo
Jared Lorenzen – Indianapolis
Tim Rattay – Arizona
J.T. O’Sullivan – San Francisco
Charlie Frye – Seattle
Patrick Ramsey – Denver
Craig Nall – Houston
Marques Tuiasosopo – Oakland
Lester Ricard – Carolina
Bret Basanez – Carolina
Todd Bouman – Baltimore
Jamie Martin – San Francisco
Anthony Morelli – Arizona

Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma is in trouble with the law, as he was arrested in Miami Friday afternoon for reckless driving and resisting arrest. He was released last night on $6500 bail. “Clearly he’s upset about being arrested and plans to fight it,” Vilma’s agent, Mitch Frankel, told The Associated Press. “There was no alcohol, drugs or firearms involved. Jonathan plans to vigorously fight it.” The LB will be a free agent in about a month, but has already said he wants to stay with the Saints. It will be interesting to see if this latest arrest sways the teams thoughts of making him an offer or not.

The New Orleans Saints announced on Thursday that they have hired the only candidate to interview for the defensive coordinator position – Greg Williams. The initial reaction from fans seems to be overwhelmingly positive: the much-despised Gary Gibbs is gone and the team picked a defensive-minded coach with 19 years of coaching experience in less than a week.

However, when I told a friend of mine the news, his reaction was “what’s so great about him?” (I think that he had his heart set on somebody else). When I said that Williams had been the defensive coordinator this year with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he again did not seem impressed. “They were awful this year.” Hearing that the Jaguars and Williams decided to mutually part ways after his one-year contract was over compounded his lack of interest. “He used to be the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins too, and he had been head coach of the Buffalo Bills,” I said, trying to not let his negative reaction dash my hopes for the Super Bowl so early in the offseason. Finally, I had to go look up some statistics to make my argument stick that this was a good move for the Saints.

That is what I want to give you, the reader, so that you too will see that hiring Williams was a good choice – or maybe I am just trying to keep the gris-gris away.

Greg Williams came into the NFL in 1990 after being a high school coach and an assistant at the University of Houston. He started with the Houston Oilers (remember them?) who later became the Tennessee Titans. He was with the Oilers/Titans from 1990 to 2000, having started out as an assistant, special teams coach, linebackers coach, and finally defensive coordinator, which he held from 1997 to 2000.

In 1997, the Tennessee Oilers were ranked 22nd in total defense (Saints ranked fourth) but were fourth in rushing defense. The next year, Tennessee moved up to 16th in total defense. In 1999, Tennessee was 17th.

The Titans’ defense really exploded as the new millennium started. In 2000, Tennessee ranked number one in overall defense with 238.3 yards per game, number one in passing defense (do we need help here?) with 151.4 yards per game, and 3rd in rushing defense with 86.9 yards per game. Tennessee allowed only 191 points that year (an average of less than 12 points per game), and were second only to the Baltimore Ravens. This was the third-lowest points total since the NFL went to a 16 game season.

When Williams left the Titans to become the head coach of the Buffalo Bills in 2001, Tennessee’s defense fell to 25th while the Bills’ defense was ranked 21st (13th against the pass). In 2002, they were ranked 15th (6th against the pass). In 2003, the Bills ranked number two overall in defense (269.6 yards per game) and number two against the pass (169.2 yards per game). However, the Bills ranked 30th in offense that year and Williams was fired.

In 2004, Williams joined the Redskins coaching staff as assistant head coach/defensive coordinator. He took a defense that had been ranked 25th in the league the year before and turned them into the number three total defense (7th against the pass, second against the rush). Washington allowed 267.6 yards per game that year and 265 total points. In 2005, Washington was ranked ninth in the league (10th against the pass).

In 2006, Washington’s defense fell hard to 31st in the league. The Redskins came back quickly though, finishing 8th in total defense in 2007 (16th in passing and 4th in rushing).

So, that brings us to this past season where Williams was defensive coordinator/assistant head coach with the Jaguars. The Jaguars had been ranked 12th overall in 2007 but had lost longtime defensive coordinator Mike Smith to the head coaching job with the Atlanta Falcons. The Jaguars finished 17th this season but were tied for 13th against the rush.

So, out of the twelve years that Williams has been a defensive coordinator or head coach, he has had five top-ten ranked defenses (Titans in 2000, Bills in 2003, Redskins in 2004, 2005, and 2007). He has had only three years where the defense finished at 20 or below (Titans in 1997, Bills in 2001, and Redskins in 2006). However, two of those years were his first in a new position.

Williams is a seasoned coach who can do more than just improve one area of the defense. He is supposed to be known for running aggressive attacks on the opposing quarterback, something that we were lacking this year.

According to the articles in the Times-Picayune, Williams is really enthusiastic about the position which I think is pretty important. Williams might have had offers at Green Bay and at Tennessee, which have usually been more desirable places for coaches to end up than in the Big Easy. To me, that shows he views the team as a contender.

In the end, my friend seemed convinced when I told him that Williams had coached several top-ten defenses. I think that all he wanted after all was to be sure that this wasn’t another “Same Ol’ Saints” move.

The Saints have themselves a new defensive coordinator, and it’s a name that they hope will able to turn around a unit that has struggled the past two seasons – Gregg Williams.

Williams got the position on Thursday morning, but terms of the deal were not immediately available. He has more than enough experience and is one of the more respected defensive minds in the game and one of the most coveted candidates on the market.

Last season the Saints defense were ranked 23rd in the NFL in yards allowed and tied for 26th in points allowed last season. Williams was with the Jaguars last season, but won’t go back after a season where the Jags struggled and didn’t meet up to the level they felt they were going to.