New Orleans Saints – Final Preseason Thoughts

I have been looking forward to September 9th since the season opener was first announced during the off season. As I made my game-day plans and got psyched for the game, I made mental notes of all the thoughts I had about this coming season. For the most part, I think the Saints have all the pieces in
place for a nice post-season run that I hope can end in a repeat.

Passing game: In the preseason, Brees looked deadly as ever, hitting receivers mid-stride, avoiding defenders, and getting the ball off quickly. He will have just as many targets this year as last, and will have the weight of bringing a championship to New Orleans off of his shoulders. He should be able to fall into a nice groove very quickly, and once he finds that groove, the road to the Super Bowl gets that much easier. Backing up Brees is Chase Daniel, some call him a poor man's Brees, but nothing about Daniel's preseason looked poor to me. Daniel completed over 64% of his passes for nearly 370 yards. He averaged 7.7 yards per attempt while throwing 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Not perfect by anyone's standards, but great for a QB who has never once seen a regular season snap.
I expect another 4,500 yards passing, +30 TD season for Brees.

Marques Colston and Robert Meachem are expected to be Brees' top 2 WR targets this season, followed by Lance Moore and Devery Henderson. Adrian Arrington and Courtney Roby will also be seen in a few games each.

Pierre Thomas, Reggie Bush, and Chris Ivory are all running backs who have the ability to make catches in the backfield, and turn them into big yardage plays. DeShawn Wynn wasn't able to show much in the preseason, but he looked promising in his three seasons with Green Bay.

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Tight ends Jeremy Shockey, David Thomas, and Jimmy Graham are also going to be contributors to the Saints 2010 season. I expect Jimmy Graham to show a lot this season, and eventually take over for the injury riddled veteran, Shockey. Thomas has been a great number 2 TE and hopefully, he will be happy remaining a number 2 TE.

Ground Attack: Pierre Thomas will probably get most of the carries this season, with Reggie Bush and Chris Ivory splitting the rest. DeShawn Wynn may get his fair share, depending on how he performs. I would expect a 1000 yard season from Thomas, and around 900 combined for Bush and Ivory.

Run Defense: This is the only place the Saints look like they could stumble. During the draft, the Saints failed to adequately address the 2biggest needs at DT, and LB. Going into this season, those are still the 2 biggest concerns. At DT, Ellis will start and that's about all that is certain. Hargrove and Ayodele will probably split most of the snaps, but neither of them are anything to write home about. They are average on their best days and invisible on an average day. They may be enough to get it done, but opposing team running backs drool when they get a chance to play the Saints. The LB position looked good in preseason with Vilma, Shanle, and Casillas taking the 3 starting spots, but on the preseason finale, Casillas suffered a foot injury that will keep him out for the entire season. Right now it is uncertain who will take his spot, but whoever it is needs to seriously step up their game if they want to help fill the void at WLB.

Secondary: Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter are a great CB tandem, and Gay isn't a bad 3rd CB either. Patrick Robinson is still developing and Leigh Torrence is solid on his best days. Malcolm Jenkins move to FS didn't really come as a surprise and he is expected to flourish there, under Darren
Sharper's mentoring. I think he will be less dangerous than Sharper, but he will provide better coverage and run support. Sharper is a hit or miss safety, and I hope Jenkins picks up at least a little bit of that risk taking style.

Roman Harper will continue to start at SS, and barring any injuries, he should be solid for 2010 and several years to come.

By Tyler Douglass
ProFootball-fans.com New Orleans Saints Correspondent