Gregoire

Here's the problem as I see it: they know that Harris is the long-term solution at QB. Jennings has had an extra year in the system, so they feel more comfortable with him. The problem is not this year. I think that everyone felt like the team wasn't in a situation to compete for a national title.

The problem is next year. Everyone assumes that Harris is Jarrett Lee. That if we play him as a true freshman, that we'll destroy the guy. That ain't true. What's instead happening is that recruits and players alike are seeing Les play a lesser talented football player at the most important position on the team. Again.

Here's the thing though: every snap that Jennings takes with the first team slows down Harris' eventual progression. Even *if* Miles feels that Jennings knows the offense better, his glaring inability to read defenses once the ball is snapped and his tunnel vision combined with his absolutely craptastically slow release makes for a ton of incompletions. I'd much rather watch the best player at the position take the majority of the snaps in practice so that we're better prepared for 2015 and beyond. This season is effectively over as far as title hopes are concerned. Might as well make the best of it for the future. Otherwise, we're going to be watching Harris next year going through the growing pains he should have gone through this year.

Problem is that now with two spread offenses in the West, teams are going to recruit and gameplan against it. Bama usually gets huge, fast guys. LSU gets quick, rangy guys.

There's a reason one of them won by double digits against both spread offenses this season, and it's the same reason LSU crushed Oregon and West Virginia a few years ago. HUNH isn't all that effective if the guys on the other side of the ball are quicker than you.

Essentially by drafting well. Teams get compensatory picks when they lose more players to other teams than they sign to their own... with some sort of differential in there to compare the size of contracts. While most Saints fans point to our success in later draft rounds and undrafted free agents, this team drafts extremely poorly in the early rounds and doesn't particularly value their draft picks... trading them away for mid-career veterans like Vilma and Shockey.

Now let's look at some stats, ignoring this latest draft:

From the last 7 drafts, we have kept 11 starters from 41 drafted players, and in the first 3 rounds during that period, we have kept 5 of 15. (Jenkins, Harper, Robinson, Graham, Jordan)

For reference, that's 2 fewer picks than Seattle in the first 3 rounds. 6 fewer than San Francisco. 6 fewer than Houston. 8 fewer than Baltimore. 8 fewer than the Giants. 8 fewer than Pittsburgh. 9 fewer than Green Bay. 13 fewer than New England.

What's it mean? The teams that are good and upcoming build through the draft. They trade down to get extra picks, use those extra picks to get as many good players as they possibly can, and when the picks leave for better money, it's all good because they're just going to get compensatory picks to pick up even MORE players.

Here's how bad it is for the Saints: the Patriots have drafted 25 more players over the past 7 years than New Orleans. That's almost half a TEAM. If you want to know which teams have the best foundations going forward, just look at their drafts. Simply by virtue of trading down and drafting well, you perpetuate the ability of your team to do well simply by allowing yourself perpetual access to more talent.

This season?

San Fran made 11 selections. Seattle made 11. Green Bay made 11. Baltimore made 10. Houston made 9. Pittsburgh made 9. Atlanta made 8. 4 New England made 7. Meanwhile, New Orleans made 5.

We aren't getting picks because we do a horrible job of judging talent in the early rounds and a terrible job at managing the draft.

Because when I think of the problems the Panthers have, it's at RB.

What is wrong with those people?

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2. You believe that a pro team can exist with a socialist attitude - even the superstars on the team - all for the greater good of the salary cap.

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Find me an NFL team with a player whose salary ate up at least 1/6 of its overall salary structure, which has ever won a Superbowl. You're right, the NFL isn't a socialist system, but there's being compensated and then there's demanding so much that you can't be competitive because there are 52 other guys who also need to get paid.

Most 5 stars are physical freaks. Freaks normally get by in high school because their talent level is so ridiculous that they don't have to worry about technique. They also are not used to being criticized, and most don't take coaching well. The further you go up the ladder, the more you have to check your ego at the door and do the little things right.

Stanford has extremely strict admissions requirements and they do not make exceptions for athletes. The boosters do not run that place, billionaire business leaders do.

The list is for seniors, not for overall ranking at position. In other words, most of these guys are not that great, because if they were they'd already have decided to go pro.

Probably waiting on Hawthorne to retire and willing to work for cheap.

Most fans ARE reasonable and could have tolerated a loss to Bama.

What they can't tolerate is why, beyond all logic and reason, Miles went into that game with the plan that he had and then continued to stick to it even though it never worked. They fans didn't deserve it, and the players sure as hell didn't deserve it.

If the fans have been unreasonable, it's only because of Miles' lack of reason.