Breaking News: Malcolm Jenkins, New Orleans Saints Reach a Deal

Sports Illustrated reported that Malcolm Jenkins was signed by the New Orleans Saints to a five-year deal, the financial terms of which have yet to be released. 

Jenkins was the 14th overall selection in the 2009 NFL draft and the first cornerback taken off the board.

Malcolm Jenkins possesses great change of direction speed, size, and enough athletic ability that he could easily develop into a star.  As far as most can tell, he’s a great talent.  But for a rookie missing so much of training camp, how quickly can he be expected to crack the lineup, get some game time, and make an impact? 

Jenkins is smart, but the mental demands at the professional level are a world apart from the college game.  Just ask Robert Meachem, who, like Jenkins, is physically gifted but has been unable to translate that to regular and consistent success on the field. 

In addition to the mental challenges, Jenkins will be competing for playing time against a Saints secondary that’s suddenly stacked with talent. 

Pat Yasinskas of ESPN reports:

Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter are having very nice camps and I’m guessing they open the season as the starters. Randall Gay also was having a good camp before suffering an ankle injury that should sideline him for a short period. Even the much-maligned Jason David is having a strong camp.  

All that could be enough to keep Jenkins from seeing much of the field and having an impact for the first half of the season.  But regardless of the names and numbers on the field, rest assured, the Saints’ defensive backfield will be a much-improved unit from years past. 

Playoff Quarterbacks Who Wouldn’t Cut It Elsewhere

Ahhhh, the blessed and the cursed… Some NFL QB’s are fortunate to be surrounded by such class and talent, that even after their worst performance, they can still chalk one up in the victory column. Other Quarterbacks, no matter how great they play, find themselves dealt the Sisyphean task of winning with a defense, receivers, or offensive line weaker than a wet tissue. Today, rather than delving into the “Archie Manning Dillema”, lets talk about the playoff QB’s who most likely would not make the playoffs, if they played someplace else. Quarterbacks were choosen only from the 12, 2008 playoff qualifying teams. The Question: Based off of each QB’s 2008 performance, which quarterbacks would most likely miss the post-season, if playing on a team with a mediocre supporting cast? Here we go…

New Orleans Saints: Tormenting the Nerds

Over the span of three seasons, the New Orleans Saints have been unable to compete against the NFL’s quality ball clubs.

Much like a school house bully, the Saints have been targeting the “nerdy kids” of the NFL (Lions, Chiefs, Raiders, and others). Although lacking many trademarks of the bullies arsenal, such as wedgies, swirlies, and verbal harassment, the Saints have badgered their way to mediocre records at the expense of the league’s worst teams.  

The Saints are a team loaded with talent, and even won a total of 26 games in three years, but when matched up against winning teams, the Saints lose; so much so, that over the last three years, including their run to championship, the Saints have only beat six teams with winning records. Six teams in three years! 

In 2006, they beat Philadelphia twice and crushed Dallas in Sean Payton’s return to Big D. In 2007, they defeated Seattle and Jacksonville; in 2008, they only managed to defeat Tampa, Atlanta, and the dorks, nerds, and geeks of the league en route to an 8-8 record.

To put that in perspective, last year the New York Giants defeated six teams with winning records in the regular season alone. Essentially, they did in one year what it took the Saints three years to do.

If the Saints remain unable to beat tough, well-rounded teams, they are going to have a long and frustrating 2009.

After opening the schedule against the biggest “nerd” of them all (the Detroit Lions of 0-16 infamy), the Saints will be facing the Eagles, Jets, Giants, Dolphins, Falcons, Panthers, Bucs, Patriots, and Cowboys, for a total of nine games against teams with winning records in 2008. 

Although some of these teams, such as the Bucs, Dolphins, and perhaps the Jets, are expected to drop off in 2009, the Saints are clearly going to need to do a better job of beating the winners if they want to be successful.  

The Saints will at least need to double their annual win total against successful teams to have any realistic shot at the postseason. It won’t be easy getting so many wins against tough teams, but once the Saints can do that, they’ll be considered contenders.

Until then, their just a bully with a nerd in their cross-hairs. 

I’ll wrap things up with a message from Coach Harris to nerds everywhere, “Nerds! Well, if I was you, I’d do something about it. I would get up and redeem myself in the eyes of my father, my maker, and my coach!”

-Revenge of the Nerds

Hang in there, nerds!

Madden Ratings for the New Orleans Saints Secondary

The wildly popular Madden franchise is scheduled to release the next installment in the series, Madden 10, on 28 August 2009.

Although the game title may cause some to assume that it’s the 10th game in the series, there have actually been well over 20 releases dating back to 1988 when John Madden Football was released on the IBM, and two years later ported to the Sega Genesis, The Amiga, and the SNES. 

In anticipation of the release just two months away, EA has published some of the player rankings including the complete player rankings of the New Orleans Saints.  Although bearing no real importance or significance I thought it would be interesting to see how the Saints stacked up against each other in terms of positional overall ratings. 

What jumped out at me most was the ratings of the Secondary as shown below.  Being that there are so many new DBs on the team, this is probably the most controversial and biggest question mark of all the ratings on the team. The players and overall rankings are as follows-

1. Sharper   87

2. Jenkins    79

3. Greer      77

4. Harper    75

5. Gay        75

6. Porter     68

7. Prioleau   66

8. Vaughn   63

9. Young     51

10. Reis      51

11. David    50

Sharper is first, Jenkins is second, and Jason David is ranked dead last with an overall rating of 50.  That makes him the third lowest ranked player on the team above only MLB M. Mitchell and hyped WR A. Arrington. 

Although David has been frequently burned, I was surprised to see him dead last and behind a bunch of rookies who have never stepped foot on an NFL turf. Other surprises were that Porter had only the sixth highest rating, and that U. Young was ranked only one point higher than David, also rating lower than some of the rookies. 

I’m sure Young is no doubt discouraged at sitting next to David in the rankings.

On a side note, Brees was of course the Saints highest rated player, and third highest rated passer behind only… you know their names.

So what’s your take?  The complete 2010 New Orleans Saints ratings can be seen here;

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=27

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