LSUFAN44 wrote:
Saints need an true safety for the future this year or the following year,Saints need to address this problem sooner than later.Darren Sharper played for us for one an a half years,Reed is also old,therefore he won't last that long either.However, i could see the Saints signing Reed and at the same time sign a quality safety in the 3rd round.If my memory serves me correctly,Saints have two 3rd's round picks,Reid could very well still falls to us in the 3rd round......
I do see your point tiger but do you still believe in Malcolm Jenkins or Harper as our safeties for this year or for the future ?
I agree that Ed Reed would be a one or two year stop gap measure and I do think that the Saints would eventually have to find a future safety, but you could say the same about any position.
The Saints need a future Left Tackle
The Saints need a future Defensive Tackle
The Saints need a Future Shutdown Corner.
The Saints need a Future OLB Edge Rusher.
The point on several of these things is that there are going to be players available all over the place and opportunities. One of the reasons that you have free agency start on March 12th is so that you can identify a couple of key pieces and try to fit them into the puzzle. If the Saints were able to make a quality offer to Reed then maybe he would be interested. I think right now the questions is will he leave Baltimore and he may not want to. If he chooses to leave will it be all about maximizing money or will it be comfort. He is from the area and just returned for Mardi Gras. He has family and friends in the area.
Would that be enough to sway him to structure a deal friendly to the New Orleans cap situation? If so then you buy another 2 year with him at Safety while being able to fill your need at another position for hopefully the next 4-5 years.
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I don't think that LSU's Reid is still there in the third. I still like the idea of trading down in the 1st if you can find a partner and picking up a late 2nd round pick. I think that he might be there in the bottom of the 2nd round if things went well.
Under that senario you could have hit the jackpot grabing a DT at say pick #24 or 25 and then grabing Reid late in the second round to give you two key pieces of the puzzle.
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As far as Jenkins and Harper are concerned. I will address each one individually, but let me add that one thing that we can never fully understand is what each player has been told to do within a defense and what that player has understood his role to be within that defense. I use the example of Harper---Obviously in the Williams system Harper was expected and often brought down into the box. Williams often had him close to the line, well just on the surface that isnt a normal position for the safety. So we cannot always criticize Harper's ability to cover a TE like Vernon Davis in coverage from the trail position on the LOS. Safeties need to be back and come up and make the plays not turning and running with guys in coverage. Williams lived with it and died with it. He died on that final drive in San Fran in the playoff game.
Jenkins is a guy that came into the league with combo skills. Maybe could have been a corner, but most felt was better at safety. So I do not believe that Jenkins who could have played some corner has gone down that much to where he could not play safety. I think that Jenkins can and is still a serviceable player and can be for several more years.
Is he going to Pro Bowls? Probably not because he is not the ball hawking safety like Ed Reed and to go to Pro Bowls you need ints, but I will add that Jenkins need to be put into positions to make him successful. This is one of the areas in which I think that we have overlooked the last couple of years is just how bad our linebackers were. Especially in coverage and because of this we required our safeties to play more coverage and to play closer to the line to help with run support and pass routes in the 8-12 yard range. Safeties should be in the 12-15 yard range unless they are in a zone coverage protecting a first down line or endzone.
So Jenkins give the right scheme can do the job. Let him play safety the way the poisition was intended.
Harper has just gotten older. He never possessed great speed and now father time is gaining on him being time. Harper lacks the recovery time to see a play and make the adjustment to be able to break on a route or to get back in coverage on a deeper pass.
If Harper was lined up in Zone coverage and you told Harper okay this is area. So he sees Davis coming out he would be able to come up and make the tackle or break up the pass.
But if Harper was lined up in Man covering Davis. Now he is lined up 12 yards off the ball at the safety position at the time the ball is snaped his first move is to come down a yard or two as Davis leaves the line. Now if Davis goes out in the flat for a short pass Harper can come down and make the tackle, but if Davis gets Harper in coverage on a deeper route he is toast.
