Scouting Report
5 - New Orleans Saints The defense will get its sacks, which, by the way, is
what Saints fans could be wearing
again unless a punchless offense comes
around
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The jolting Johnson (94) exemplifies the Swamp Dogs' rabid
penchant for hounding opposing
quarterbacks.
(Peter Read Miller)
| The easy
way out would be to predict doom for the team that has hitched
its wagon to quarterback Billy Joe Hobert. Having been
released by the Bills last season after admitting that he'd
gone into a game without bothering to do his homework,
Hobert was signed by
the Saints, whom he led to victory in two of their last four
games. In New Orleans this constitutes
heroism.
But a fortnight immersed in the slop pail of mediocrity
that is this division (one team excepted) has left us weary
of leveling criticism. So we vowed, during a visit to the
Saints training camp in La Crosse, Wis., that if we had
nothing nice to
say—other than to point out that if
ex-Seahawk Lamar Smith fails to goose his new team's ground
game, Saints fans can break out the grocery bags they wore
over their heads in the bad old days—we would say
nothing at all. In that
case meet Kendall Gammon, long-snapper
extraordinaire. Gammon has produced his
own instructional video,
Snap
Right, and is widely regarded, in
long-snapping circles, as one of the best in the business.
"The guy's automatic," says punter Mark Royals,
whose 45.9-yard average led the league last season. Between
these two and kicker Doug Brien, who
made all his extra points
and all but four of his 27 field goal attempts, including
three game-winners, the Saints have some crack special
teams.
Brien was in a position to win those games with his leg
because, after a tentative start, the Swamp Dog attack of
defensive coordinator Zaven Yaralian came on strong,
leading the league in sacks (59) and finishing fourth in
total D. That's not easy to
do when your team's offense—we aren't being critical
here, just stating a fact—had the most three-and-outs
in the NFL. "We don't get down on the O," says
outside linebacker Mark Fields. "We like being on the
field."
Fields, who in his fourth year stands on the cusp of
superstardom, will need to put up big numbers this season
to offset the loss of middle linebacker Winfred Tubbs, who
signed with the 49ers after making 160 tackles in '97. No
problem, says Fields,
"I've got a few things going for me." To wit: He is
6'2" and 244 pounds, dashes a 4.55 40 and last year
chased down speedy Rams wideout Isaac Bruce from
behind to prevent an 80-yard
TD run. So swift is Fields that Saints coaches have no qualms
about putting him in pass coverage on slot receivers.
"He's so
fast he can run in the wrong direction, adjust and still
make the play," says middle linebacker Brian Jones,
who moves into the starting lineup. Before blowing out his
knee in camp a year ago, Jones was pushing Tubbs for his
job. Saints coaches are
confident he'll be just
fine.
Yaralian's fondness for the blitz results in chronic
loneliness for his cornerbacks, who are often left in
man-to-man coverage. So it will be interesting to see how
former 49er Tyronne Drakeford performs. Drakeford is a
jamming, aggressive
player of
the sort coach Mike Ditka prefers. The problem with
Drakeford's style is that receivers sometimes elude those
jams and burn him: He had more than his share of bad days
with the
Niners.
Classy, relentless Wayne Martin gives opposing offenses bad
days. Martin had
34 1/2 sacks in his last three seasons and may be the NFL's most
underrated defensive lineman. He and linemate Joe Johnson
combine to create much mayhem in the trenches. The problem
is that at press time Johnson was a huffy holdout, having
told the Saints he
was insulted by their offer of $21 million for five years.
Replied team president Bill Kuharich, "I wish someone
would insult me like that." Good one, Bill, but it
won't be so funny if you have to go into the season with a
yawning breach in your front
four.
| Schedule |
| Sept. | 6 | at St. Louis |
| 13 | CAROLINA |
| 20 | OPEN DATE |
| 27 | at Indianapolis |
| Oct. | 4 | NEW ENGLAND |
| 11 | SAN FRANCISCO |
| 18 | at Atlanta |
| 25 | TAMPA BAY |
| Nov. | 1 | at Carolina |
| 8 | at Minnesota |
| 15 | ST. LOUIS |
| 22 | at San Francisco |
| 29 | at Miami |
| Dec. | 6 | DALLAS |
| 13 | ATLANTA |
| 20 | at Arizona |
| 27 | BUFFALO |
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Kuharich took heat for not shopping for a starting
quarterback in the off-season. But how tough will it be to
hand the ball to Smith, whom the Saints feel will be a
perfect fit in Ditka's smashmouth running
scheme?
Even if Hobert or his backups, Heath Shuler and Danny
Wuerffel, could throw a decent deep ball, it
wouldn't matter: They lack a speed receiver to run under
it. The absence of a blazer on the Saints receiving corps
was underscored early on the morning
of Aug. 2, when wideout Keith Poole was arrested after
allegedly hitting a man with whom he'd had words on the hip
with an eight-iron. When the Saints scheduled a press
conference three days later, there was speculation that it
would be to announce that
Poole had signed with
Callaway.
The big news, instead, was that Ditka, who last season
questioned whether he was the right guy for his job, had
been signed through 2002. Who knows how good New Orleans'
offense could be by then? All we know—again, we aren't
being critical here, just
stating fact—is that right now it could hardly be any
worse. —Austin Murphy
By the Numbers | Inside Slant | Lineup
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