It seems ever since the New Orleans Saints announced the signing of former Saints and Panthers safety Roman Harper over a month ago, I’ve been defending the move, so I’ll continue to do so one last time on a public forum. To keep it simple I’ve decided to break down the 3 most prevalent reasons as to why I believe bringing the seasoned veteran is the correct move.
Starting the list off I have to begin with the overall most important aspect Roman Harper brings to the defense, and that is leadership and experience. It would be ignorant to dismiss that a factor to the defensive struggles the past two seasons has been a lack of leadership. In one off season the defense lost the presence of Jonathan Vilma, Malcolm Jenkins, and Roman Harper and the defense hasn’t looked the same since that point in time. Brandon Browner was brought in to hopefully bring an element of leadership to the locker room last season and the penalties and record books speak as to how well that panned out. Bringing in Harper allows a player and more importantly a man that Sean Payton knows and trusts to take this defense under his wing and mold the plethora of young talent into a fine tuned cohesive unit.
The second most important aspect to his addition is what he in my opinion offers the defense in terms of on-field performance. This seems to be the focal point of complaints and debate of his signing. I believe his play can still be beneficial to the team if used properly under Dennis Allen. The heart of Roman Harper’s weaknesses was showcased in the infamous San Fransisco playoff game back in 2011 where he was attacked in the passing game and many teams followed suit in the years to come. So what’s to expect any difference 6 years later and older? The answer is actually quite simple. His role and expectancy. There have been numerous reports through the teams mini camp sessions that Allen is fond of a 3 safety set featuring any number of combinations featuring Jairus Byrd, Von Bell, Kenny Vaccaro, and Roman Harper. Additionally, Vaccaro spoke in an interview saying that his role is changing allowing him to be a hybrid similar to his rookie season, which was by far his most dynamic season. Having said all of that, the reason multiple looks out of a 3 safety set and this hybrid role is possible is the addition of Harper where he is only expected to do certain things and start to his strengths. Harper was a main starting safety during his last tenure with the team, which made attacking his weaknesses much easier for opposing defenses. Changing the role of Harper allows him to only be included in packages and play types working his strengths as long as Dennis Allen is able to effectively game plan.
Lastly, the third and most simply stated reason is depth. There’s no guarantee Harper will work but bringing him in so early during this process allowed the team to get a system in place allow Harper to learn it and see how training camp goes. With the injury history the saints have had on the secondary the past few seasons, in particular in Jairus Byrd, having additional depth in the secondary is not only a benefit of the signing, but it is a truly desirable aspect heading into training camp.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
