In our New Orleans Saints roundtable for week three we’re talking running backs, the fear that Cam Newton has put in our hearts, and the possibility of Jimmy Graham one day becoming a Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n
Chris Trew <\/strong>– Oof, tough call. Darren Sproles is making us puff out our chests in the present tense and Mark Ingram has all the future tense potential. I\u2019m going to be faithful to my new favorite player and go with D. Sproles. This might change if I see enough puns with his name. Chris Trew-<\/strong> 110. I\u2019ve been saying this for months now. I don\u2019t like it. Seriously, we should all be hoping that Carolina finishes 8-8 this year because the last thing I want to see is Carolina draft another stud on offense. Chris Trew<\/strong>– Still real early in the game to go higher than a 5 in the NFL Hall of Fame, but I\u2019ll go with a 7 for the Saints Hall of Fame and a 10 in WWE World Championm Mark Henry\u2019s Hall of Pain, but that would require Jimmy Graham to become a three sport athlete. In our New Orleans Saints roundtable for week three we’re talking running backs, the fear that Cam Newton has put in our hearts, and the possibility of Jimmy Graham one day becoming a Hall of Famer. 1. If you had to pick only Darren Sproles or Mark Ingram as your running back for the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJonathan Christensen <\/strong>– I\u2019ll take Sproles, simply because he can do more. Ingram was drafted to simply be a between the tackles runner; Sproles does that along with catching the ball out of the backfield and contributing on special teams. He, along with Brees and Graham, have been the most valuable players on offense this season.
\nJake Madison <\/strong>– I\u2019m going with Darren Sproles. He contributes in the rushing game, passing game and on special teams. For the rest of their careers I\u2019d take Ingram, but currently he is averaging 3.5 yards per carry compared to Sproles\u2019 7.1.
\nJake Lipsman<\/strong> – If we\u2019re talking about this year, I\u2019d go with Sproles. \u00a0Sproles has a more versatile game at this point, with his pass-catching skills combined with his tough running. \u00a0I think eventually Ingram can dominate between the tackles, but this offense calls for players like Sproles to star and for players like Ingram to supplement an already explosive passing attack.<\/p>\n2. On a scale of 1-10, how worried are you about having to face Cam Newton twice a year for the foreseeable future?<\/h3>\n
\nJonathan Christensen<\/strong> – 8. The biggest thing I took away from watching Newton this week: he looks physically confident as an NFL quarterback. He doesn\u2019t shy away from contact. He will get better with both time and better pieces around him. I know he hasn\u2019t won a ton of games, but the Panthers will be competitive for years to come with Newton behind center.
\nJake Madison –<\/strong> 7. There is no denying that he has tremendous potential, but he\u2019s going to need to start winning football games before I\u2019ll go higher. But once he does that? Then I\u2019d be very worried.
\nJake Lipsman<\/strong> – 7. \u00a0Newton is obviously better than most expected he\u2019d be right away at the professional level. \u00a0But this question isn\u2019t just about Newton. \u00a0My worry meter is based on whether or not I think the Panthers will beat the Saints, and as long as Drew Brees is still playing, the Saints QB will be better than the Panthers QB. \u00a0This division will belong to Brees until (barring a Brett Favre imitation) Brees retires. \u00a0Ask me again when that happens.<\/p>\n3. On a scale of 1-10, how likely is it that Jimmy Graham winds up in the Hall of Fame?<\/h3>\n
\nJonathan Christensen<\/strong> – 3. It is extremely difficult to predict future success for players, especially ones at skill positions. Change in offensive philosophy, injury, and depth chart competition are all future variables that cannot be accounted for. Graham certainly has all of the skill in the world to be one of the all-time greats, but he has to be extremely lucky to even get a chance at Canton.
\nJake Madison <\/strong>– 4. Tight end is a very deep position in the NFL which means that a player can be replaced fairly easily (see Jeremy Shockey). Unless you have a Tony Gonzales or Shannon Sharpe type of career it\u2019s very hard to make the Hall of Fame. Give Graham six more seasons of putting up numbers like he is now and then we\u2019ll talk.
\nJake Lipsman <\/strong>– 4. \u00a0I go with 4 here because it\u2019s unfair to predict something like that in year two, especially for a tight end. \u00a0It took Shannon Sharpe several tries, and it may even take Tony G. several tries just because of all of the QBs, RBs, and WRs he will be going up against. \u00a0The TE list is deep as it is and those guys aren\u2019t coming off the board as fast as guys at other positions. \u00a0That said, if Graham completes this year at his current pace and adds another 10 like it, he can push his way to the top of that list pretty quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"