Watching the NFL playoffs for the past few weeks, I’ve been asking myself a question: Where would the Saints be if they kept the right players?
The most obvious player comes to mind in Jake Delhomme. The UL-Lafayette product and Breaux Bridge native left New Orleans for a chance to be a starting quarterback somewhere in the NFL. He beat out veteran Rodney Peete for the job at Carolina and is taking the Panthers to their first Super Bowl.
Delhomme isn’t flashy but he gets the job done with a touchdown-interception ratio of 19 to 16. He has a 59.2 completion percentage with 3,219 passing yards.
Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks has a better touchdown-interception ratio, 24 to 8, but his 59.1 completion percentage and 3,546 yards passing are strikingly similar to Delhomme’s numbers. Brooks’ five fumbles also didn’t help the team.
New Orleans coach Jim Haslett either couldn’t do the math or didn’t know the ability of Delhomme. He never gave Delhomme a chance to start during the 2002 season even though Brooks obviously had an arm injury that inhibited his play.
Haslett must be kicking himself now. The Saints needed one win to make the playoffs and Delhomme could have gotten them there. The joke’s on New Orleans and Haslett as the Ragin’ Cajun will play in the big game.
While we’re talking about the offense, let’s mention offensive guard Willie Roaf and tackle Kyle Turley. Both linemen play in the state of Missouri with Roaf at Kansas City and Turley at St. Louis. They also played for teams with more than efficient offenses and made the playoffs.
The Saints’ offensive line was hit and miss on the other hand. That’s right, they let the defense through all the time. Sometimes the quarterback and running backs got hit and other times the backs were lucky enough to miss a crushing tackle.
You’ve got to have good protection for the backs if you’re going to make the playoffs.
On the defensive side of the ball, Haslett wasn’t happy with the weight of the lunch bunch so he got rid of them. Two of them played on playoff teams as Norman Hand was in Seattle and Grady Jackson was a force in Green Bay. Jackson may be overweight but he still had 48 tackles with six sacks this season.
The Saints only had one player with more sacks than Jackson. Jay Bellamy had eight and he’s a safety. A defensive back should not lead the team in sacks. That means the defensive line isn’t doing its job.
Former Saints linebacker La’Roi Glover delivered five sacks for a revived Dallas Cowboys franchise, while cornerback Michael Hawthorne intercepted two passes, roaming the field for the Packers.
On special teams former Saints punter Toby Gowin played for the Dallas Cowboys and place kicker Morten Andersen hit 16-of-20 field goals with the Chiefs.
These are just a few examples of players who the Saints let get away due to poor general management. In 2001, when the Saints made the playoffs, they had a good General Manager in Randy Mueller who knew what players to keep. Then they fired him.
You can’t keep all the good players with free agency but they could have kept some of the good ones.
It just doesn’t make sense. Executive Vice President and General Manager Mickey Loomis is a joke. You just saw all the talent he and other past Saints GMs have given up in recent years.
Owner Tom Benson is cheap and satisfied with the mediocrity of an 8-8 season. Until ownership changes the Saints will always be less than playoff caliber.