I'm looking forward to watching the NFC playoff games. Eagles, Rams, Saints, and Seahawks all have a legitimate shot of making the Super Bowl. I'm not sold on the Vikings.

The 2007 Patriots told me all I'll ever need to know about banking a championship at any point in the season before it's a done deal.

I don't see any way the Seahawks contend for a Super Bowl, especially after losing Richard Sherman for the season.

They have exactly one quality win: October 8th against the Rams.

Their other wins have come against the 49ers, Colts, Texans, Giants and Cardinals.

Not a winning team in the bunch.

They still face Atlanta, Philly, @Dallas, @Jacksonville and the Rams again. That looks like 1-3 at best if not 0-4.

Answers to some questions
 

How did the Saints turn it around?

Mostly through the draft and some changes in coaches.

The 2015 draft was mostly ok, with Andrus Peat in the first, who has been great this year at LG and LT when needed. PJ Williams in the third who is now their #3 CB and Tyeler Davison DT, in the fifth who has provided some quality snaps this year.

The 2016 Draft was solid. They only had 4 picks, but hit on all of them.

First Round, Sheldon Rankins DT, might not show up on a stat sheet, but he has been playing great, he takes double teams on almost every snap.

Second Round, Michael Thomas WR, 92 catches for 1137 yards last year as a rookie in a very complicated offense, this year through 9 games, 59 catches for 662 yards. His production made Brandin Cooks "expendable"... more on that later. And Vonn Bell S, who has been VERY solid, started last year and plays a pretty good bit when needed in the nickel and dime packages this year, has lost some playing time to a 2017 rookie.

Fourth Round, David Onyemata DT, who has been a great interior sub player, was VERY raw last year, but has all the makings of a very solid pro.

I forgot, Ken Crawley, UDFA, now a starting CB and playing great. Did not play the first two games of the year.

2017 Draft, quite possibly the best draft in the history of the franchise.

First Round, two picks:

Marshon Lattimore. I won't bore you with things you won't believe, even though they are true, but he's having the best rookie CB season ever and is on pace to have one of the best seasons ever by a CB. Teams don't even throw at him anymore. When playing man coverage, he has more interception return yards than he has given up in coverage. Should be Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Ryan Ramczyk OT, has played at a Pro Bowl level at RT all season. Unbelievable rookie season and had played every snap until Buffalo game, not sure if they took him out in the end. Superb run and pass blocker. (This was the pick from the Bradin Cooks trade, without Ram, the Line would have been in trouble.) Has graded out by PFF every week as no worse than 12th best RT. Extreme consistency.

Second Round:

Marcus Williams S, he has taken nearly every defensive snap and is a starter. Extremely solid player, deep range and incredible ball skills.

Round Three, three picks:

Alvin Kamara RB, amazing talent. Just incredible. Has been Offensive Rookie of the week twice and will be again this week. In the running for Offensive Rookie of the Year. (I know KC has a guy...hahah)

Alex Anzalone LB, he started early in the year and was injured. He looked very good when he played. Injury setback, but a "hit" on the draft pick.

Trey Hendrickson DE, has been really coming on lately.

Sixth Round, Al-Quadin Muhammad DE. Made the team, raw talent who has not seen much of the field because there are too many players ahead of him.

Coaching changes have really helped. I rather not say too much more, they don't need more publicity. :) We like them!

A few really nice additions in Free Agency have also helped. Ted Ginn Jr., Manti te'o, A.J. Klein and Alex Okafor

And for those who say the Eagles are so much better, consider this (From a fellow member of Saints Report):

Eagles:
8-1 overall
Their opponents record (removing games vs. Eagles): 22-35, .386
Vs. winning teams: 1-1 (Panthers, Chiefs)

Saints:
7-2 overall
Their opponents record (removing games vs. Saints): 42-28, .600
Vs. winning teams: 4-2 (Panthers, Lions, Packers, Bills, Vikings, Patriots)

***************

I have always liked the Chiefs, you are very passionate fans. I don't like the Broncos, the Raiders are punks and the Chargers....hahah, they are the Chargers. :)

Oh, by the way, in that beat down of the Buffalo Bills, the Saints ran 24 straight running plays in the third and fourth quarters. The Bills KNEW what was coming and could not stop it. They score six rushing TD's and never punted. That hasn't happened in the NFL in decades.

Never bet one team against the field with 7 games left in the regular season. Don't give two shits about NO unless they have another HOF LT they want to trade for a mid to late round pick.

Aside from Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara being great weapons, look at their revamped OL.

Terron Armstead
Andrus Peat
Max Unger
Larry Warford
Ryan Ramcyk

That's a very good OL

I don't think the Chiefs make it to the SB due to the poor defense. But if I can dream for a minute, I think a match up of KC vs NO or KC vs PHI would be my choices.

I had not even recognized that Armstead was back from injury. Yeah, that's not an OL to underrate. 1st in run block dvoa and 3rd in pass... and that's not even updated from this weekend's games.

Would be so funny to see Alex shove another postseason loss down Sean Payton's throat... but no way do I see our bottom tier defense being able to hold their own... oh well.

We could see the same type of threads with the chiefs in it if they chief it up and beat the also rams they're about to play.

7-0 heading into the playoffs? The homer boner here will be rock hard

Agreed.

The only two teams, IMO, that look like true Super Bowl teams are the Eagles and Patriots.

The eagles for sure.

The pats, I dunno. They have Tom and bill so I get it, but I'm not sure the d can stop a decent offense.

Joe Haden breaking a leg might shift things a bit

Yeah he was playing well

The afc is weird. There are 3 teams at the top who all match up with one of the other two and not the other. I think Pitt is potentially the best all around team but ben looks weird.

The NFC is a dog fight and I'm not sure how it plays out. Will be fun to watch.

The chiefs basically have to win out to have a chance at the top seed. I'm skeptical

I'll co-sign on all this. Additionally, the house cleaning of assistant coaches this past offseason can't be understated enough, especially to those outside trying to understand how the team turned it around.

For those that aren't familiar with our coaching staff in New Orleans, a number of our assistant coaches (mostly on the defensive side and the special teams coordinator) were long-tenured and known to be "Payton's boys" and regardless of how inept the performances were by their units on the tape, they seemed untouchable. Instead, the blame was continuously placed only on the shoulders of *insert defensive coordinator's name here* and the hiring and firing carousel spun on in attempts to fix what we were trying to call a "defense" instead of entirely cleaning house and starting from scratch.

Every hire we'd make at DC would be stuck with Payton's minions, which many fans felt was a way of Payton micro-managing the DC after the Williams fiasco. It became obvious when Payton hired Dennis Allen (our former secondary coach from our Super Bowl run before his stints in Denver as DC and Oakland as HC) as a "defensive assistant" which we knew was code for "soon-to-be defensive coordinator as soon as we fire Rob Ryan" which came to fruition a few weeks later after losing to the Redskins, 47-14.

Finally this offseason, whether voluntarily or by way of his own seat warming, Payton bit the bullet and cleaned house on the defensive side the ball and special teams. Joe Vitt (LB's/assistant HC), Bill Johnson (DL), Greg McMahon (STC) and Stan Kwan (assistant ST) were moved out and replaced by Mike Nolan, Ryan Nielsen, Bradford Banta and Kevin O'Dea respectively. From our first preseason game, there was a marked difference in the performances in those units from previous years.

Nugget for those saying the Eagles are the top team.

Eagles:
8-1 overall
Their opponents (removing games vs. Eagles): 22-35, .386
Vs. winning teams: 1-1 (Panthers, Chiefs)

Saints:
7-2 overall
Their opponents (removing games vs. Saints): 42-28, .600
Vs. winning teams: 4-2 (Lions, Packers, Bills, Vikings, Patriots)

The Eagles have played a cupcake schedule.

As of right now the Saints are clearly the top team in the NFC.

Somebody needs to send this to Clark Hunt/Brent Veach.

EAGLES

A fourth week at No. 1 it is - http://besreport.com/week-10-bes-rankings-2017/

Fatty Night Fever!!!

All the teams the Saints beat were shit teams. the two good teams they've played they lost.

The Saints drafted good players from college that weren't development players that have to learn a completely new position...and they've been successful.

What a marvelous concept. Someone fax this info to One Arrowhead Dr please.

Explain how anyone is stopping the Saints from winning it all.
 

Someone scores more points than them during a playoff game.

End of thread.

I'll tell you how you stop the Saints.

#Clayed

LMAO

Please dear god let your initial takes on Mahomes be the jinx

I see why you pound the Alex Smith shit all the time. It's literally the only thing you've been right about.

ROFL


Well that didn’t work out.

The Claynus jinx strikes again

Their secondary sure as shit prevented the team from winning. ROFL

ROFL

Stephen Clay Smith

Make a thread about the unbeatable Patriots. Do it.

#43

Jimmy the Geek strikes again.

So what has Williams said? WTF was he thinking?

Fake pussy and French Toast?

getting roasted already


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here’s comments on Marcus Williams’ Instagram page right now: <a href="https://t.co/4rgZ7W5HBs">pic.twitter.com/4rgZ7W5HBs</a></p>&mdash; Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/DannyParkins/status/952722883700281345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Way Clendler

I hope you become sterile and yo wife leaves you for a male stripper has to be a cp poster

That's pretty tame for Instagram

One of my friends and colleagues, a brilliant professor, has a step-son on the Saints roster as a rookie, a smart kid that walked onto Northwestern, where he excelled (http://www.nusports.com/news/2016/12...-american.aspx), and then made it into the NFL as an undrafted free agent. He did well for the Patriots in preseason and the Saints picked him up after the Patriots released him. Today was only his second game not listed as "inactive". It's gotta be tough to be on that team today and see the grief Marcus Williams is going to be getting from disappointed fans. Here's hoping all the players come back strong next year.

Explain? A picture is worth a 1000 words...

https://www.sltrib.com/resizer/TCgj-...TU55VK3CQ.aspx

first time someone misses a block and Mahomes gets hurt this board will be on their Instagram before the next series.

Here's your explanation

https://i.imgur.com/AZ3SyXm.jpg

Clayed: That feeling that comes over you when you realize you like the smell of stepping in dog shit.

The Vikings outscore the Saints that's how.

Saints should Welch on the loss and show up in Philly. Full Clay.

Because Vikings...

What a crazy play. Clay was 10 seconds from being right. LOL.

Horseshoes and hand grenades...

A wr that had no business making that catch made the catch. Hmm ��

ROFL

Two reasons why they were never winning it all this year no matter what:

- Sean Payton
- The Cheatriots

You just got Clayed.

Prescient
Make this smart man a mod.

It's good that these things get bumped to counteract his constant know-it-all act

Drew Brees cost them the game with being down early and his costly ints, especially the one in the redzone.

lol

He did have to dig the team back out of his errors. That much is true.

This was a very entertaining game, and could have easily gone either way. Saints have no reason to hang their heads, putting up a game like that on the road.

Sorry George, Bree's owns this as much as Claynus owns this "thread". They both screwed the pooch (sorry Mr Diggity)

Your dad cost us several IQ points from reading your posts by not pulling out and busting all over your mom's face.

What stopped the Saints from winning it all?

ClayCoMo predicting the Saints would win it all.

Mahomes is ****ed.

Not true.

Don't forget that ClayCoMo predicted that Mahomes wasn't a 1st round QB, that he played like Manziel and didn't believe he was a franchise caliber QB.

So, thanks Clay? That all but guaranteed that Mahomes went in the 1st and will in fact be a Franchise QB.

Nah, remember Mahomes has the "IT FACTOR".:thumb:

First let me say I enjoy reading your posts and I think you are a good poster but I completely disagree with the comment they have 'no reason to hang their heads'.

They definitely have a reason to hang their heads they lost and the way they lost that on that last play was absolutely horrible and should never happen at this level. If the Chiefs lost that way would you still say 'they have no reason to hang their heads'? I seriously doubt it.

The Chiefs haven't gotten that far in the playoffs since 1993, so....

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sean Payton mocking Vikings fans right before Minneapolis Miracle? <a href="https://t.co/ynbHc2AbZy">https://t.co/ynbHc2AbZy</a></p>&mdash; Lou Raguse (@LouRaguse) <a href="https://twitter.com/LouRaguse/status/953098181654573056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

We were there just last year. Divisional round.

That wasn't the NFC Championship

This isn't possible, the game was fixed by the powers that be. Players practiced how the Vikings would win ahead of time. errr....something, something, something.

[/certain idiot CP members]

Yeah but but but...... Clayanus!!!!!!

True. Watching Harrison rape franchise fisher all game was pretty disappointing.


I figured franchise fisher would have some pride left in him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"> <a href="https://t.co/OpaMvTcuy9">pic.twitter.com/OpaMvTcuy9</a></p>&mdash; DipseŦ (@Eastside_Brody) <a href="https://twitter.com/Eastside_Brody/status/953111894247854080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

ROFL - suck it, dipshit!

What a knob.....

Marcus William's?

I'll take Why You Should Never Post Prediction Threads for $1,000, Alex. LMAO

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’M CRYING REAL TEARS! ���������� <a href="https://t.co/sZe2vi2ztA">pic.twitter.com/sZe2vi2ztA</a></p>&mdash; TotalProSports (@TotalProSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/TotalProSports/status/953075790471512064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2018</a></blockquote>
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