With OTAs now wrapped up the Saints have some time off before diving back into the season full bore. The Saints will report to the Greenbrier in West Virginia on July 24th to start training camp, which means the players have a little over a month off. This is known as a pretty dead period in terms of news unless the players are doing something stupid. So basically no news is good news. With the Jimmy Graham situation still unresolved, though, we might have a little nugget to sink our teeth into. In the meantime, with training camp approaching as the next big thing, I wanted to share what I view as the five biggest questions that currently surround the team.
1. Is Terron Armstead ready to be a left tackle for a full season and play well?
It’s a bit unsettling to me that Armstead basically has the left tackle position on lockdown with no real competition going into camp. The little we saw of him last season progressively got better and based on his play in the playoffs against the best defense in the NFL I think there’s very good reason for optimism. I do admit I feel better about left tackle now than I did at this time last year when the starter was either Jason Smith or Charles Brown. Many fans already seem convinced that Armstead is primed to be a star. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves and remember that the 3rd round pick started just four games last year. That’s it. And while he’s gotten bigger this offseason his body probably wasn’t thick enough to handle the wear and tear of a full 16 game season last year. How the offensive line performs and how the offense ticks will have a lot to do with how quickly Armstead can get to a consistent level that benefits the team. He doesn’t have to be Willie Roaf good but it’s imperative that he not be Charles Brown bad.
2. Life After Sproles: How do the reps at running back get spread out?
With Darren Sproles no longer in the mix I’m very curious to see how the ball carrying and pass catching out of the backfield opportunities get spread around. Sproles was in there pretty much anytime it was an obvious passing down, so without him in there the Saints actually have a bit more of a surprise element. Clearly Pierre Thomas and Mark Ingram are in the mix. Thomas will probably get his 10 touches a game, a mix of screens, dump offs and hand offs. Ingram will still be the primary inside runner, one would imagine. That leaves Khiry Robinson, who also stands to see a lot more reps in 2014. There’s a couple X factors too, though. Does Travaris Cadet see more reps? Does he replace Sproles pound for pound? Or is he in the mix but does he see the field a lot less than Sproles did? And with Brandin Cooks in the mix, he’ll be able to do a lot of things on offense that Sproles did, too. The fact that I’m unsure how the rotation plays out is a really good sign. It means the offense is regaining a sense of unpredictability. The personnel groupings with Ingram and Robinson always tipped run, and Sproles being in there tipped pass in recent years. If Ingram and Robinson are in on pass play calls it should give Kenny Stills and Brandin Cooks more opportunities to stretch the field with a single high safety. It will be interesting to see if the Saints have Ingram and Robinson in more as they commit to the run, too, and the signing of Erik Lorig should hopefully help that.
3. Does Champ Bailey have anything left in the tank?
This free agency pickup was sexy, especially considering the need for a starting corner. And there’s no doubt Bailey is a high character guy that young corners around the country look up to. Regardless of what he does on the field, he’s a good guy to have on your roster and in your locker room. But he’ll be 36 in two days and he’s coming off an injury riddled season. Does he have anything left? Can he give the Saints good production? Can he be counted on to play any duration of time? It seems a little unrealistic to expect too much from Bailey, and those that have likened this pickup to Darren Sharper in 2009 are setting themselves up for huge disappointment. The Olin Kreutz debacle happens way more often to over the hill veterans that part with their old team than Sharper miracle. If this pickup doesn’t pan out cornerback starts to feel pretty thin. The Saints really need him to be a #2 quality corner.
4. Does Shayne Graham finally provide stability at kicker?
The kicker position has not been that consistent in the Sean Payton era. There’s been some decent periods with John Carney where distance was the issue, some periods of Garrett Hartley hot streaks, but overall it’s never felt rock solid. All due respect to Derek Dimke, Graham is probably the 2014 kicker. That said I hope Dimke proves me wrong and wins this job because if he does that probably means the kicker position is in better hands than I think it is currently. Graham feels a bit like the on again off again Carney experiments of years passed. Graham is accurate inside 45 and should be reliable on short kicks, but he doesn’t have the booming leg and as we saw in Seattle he’s not going to come up with the bomb make in bad weather. So the plus is you won’t be sweating bullets on the 31 yard tries like you did with Hartley, but forget Graham hitting the 52 yarder pretty much ever. You’re losing one problem but creating another, and with the offense having regressed a bit last year it would be nice to count on a rock solid situation at kicker.
5. Will Jairus Byrd live up to the hype?
If there’s one thing the Saints’ defense didn’t do well last year, it’s create turnovers. That’s why the Saints made Jairus Byrd the richest safety in NFL history this offseason (at least temporarily). Byrd comes highly decorated and rated as the top free agent pick up in the league, but he’s already off to a rocky start with back surgery that should limit him a bit at the start of training camp. With the Saints so tight against the salary cap, the investments they make have to pay off. They can’t afford to have a signing of that level and have it blow up in their face. The Saints need Byrd to be the stud they think he is to truly have a shot at winning another Super Bowl.
And while this didn’t make the top 5 list, big questions surround the returns of Patrick Robinson, Joe Morgan and Victor Butler. I’m really curious how they will rebound from their respective injuries and which of the three, if any, will make the 53 man roster.
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