This week our Saints writers are talking Drew Brees vs Peyton Manning, just how good Greg Williams is, and the surprising fact that Jimmy Graham played basketball. Who knew?!?<\/p>\n
Jake Lipsman <\/strong>– The value of a good quarterback in this era of the NFL is priceless, and I think you\u2019re splitting hairs if you\u2019re trying to discern between Brees and Manning. \u00a0The fact is, there are about five QBs in the NFL who are good enough to get their team to the Super Bowl (not to say others couldn\u2019t reach this level eventually), and the Saints have one of them. \u00a0Granted, I don\u2019t think that the Saints would be winless if Chase Daniel were starting, so in that way I guess you could make a case for Manning, but I don\u2019t think either team makes the playoffs with their backup, which is really the only measuring stick that matters. Jake Lipsman –<\/strong> Fact. As a guy who loves watching defense, nothing is more exciting than watching the millions of blitz packages Williams throws at QBs every weekend. \u00a0The pass rush is there, but time will tell if Williams can get the secondary straightened out. \u00a0If he can, the Saints defense could improve in a hurry by forcing turnovers and limiting the big plays. Jake Lipsman <\/strong>– Thankfully, I was at the game and was spared what I\u2019m sure was something to the tune of Chris Collinsworth making the groundbreaking connection between Graham, basketball, and Tony Gonzalez\/Antonio Gates several times throughout the night. \u00a0It\u2019s worth noting, though, that I would expect this trend to continue. These basketball player turned tight ends are not just good–they\u2019re really good. \u00a0Most of the tight end receiving records are now held by Gonzalez or Gates, and Jimmy is on pace to close in on or break some of those records this year. *The last question was intended to be a joke. Apparently I\u2019m not as funny as I think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week our Saints writers are talking Drew Brees vs Peyton Manning, just how good Greg Williams is, and the surprising fact that Jimmy Graham played basketball. Who knew?!? 1. After seeing the destruction of the Colts last Sunday Night and then the odd loss to the Rams, who do you think means more to […]<\/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-986","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\/986","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=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pelicansreport.com\/saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJonathan Christensen<\/strong> – Both players are obviously greatly valuable to their teams. It\u2019s hard to judge who is more valuable. However, it seems that Manning means more. The no-huddle nature of the Colts offense requires a top-notch signal caller, and it was clear Sunday night that Painter has issues handling that. At least with the Saints, it seems that Chase Daniel has a decent understanding of the ins and outs.
\nJake Madison<\/strong> – Manning. He doesn\u2019t play defense so it\u2019s not like he could have stopped the Saints\u2019 offense on Sunday night. But the Colts team is completely demoralized without him. If Brees were injured the Saints would certainly be hurting, but I don\u2019t think they would completely throw in the towel like the Colts have.
\nJoe Gerrity<\/strong>– Manning seems to not require as much coaching during games as Brees does. For that reason alone I’ll say Manning. The loss of Brees would be just as devastating as that of Manning, though.<\/p>\n2. Fact or Fiction: Gregg Williams is a top-ten Defensive Coordinator<\/h3>\n
\nJonathan Christensen<\/strong> – Fact. Williams is a very good defensive coordinator, but not in the class of Lebeau or Capers. He relies on the blitz almost to a fault, but it seems to work for the most part.
\nJake Madison –<\/strong> I thought he proved this during the Saints Super Bowl season. I\u2019m a big fan of blitzing and Williams does that a lot. So, yup, top-ten. Now fix the secondary.
\nJoe Gerrity-<\/strong> I\u2019ll say yes, but it\u2019s going to be interesting to see how if he can be retain that ranking year in and year out. Even Saints fans have started to sour already.<\/p>\n3. On a scale of 1-10, how surprised were you on Sunday when you heard that Jimmy Graham was a basketball player?<\/h3>\n
\nJonathan Christensen <\/strong>– 0. Dude has mad hops, and if he were 2 or 3 inches taller, Graham might be on an NBA roster. He boxes out people in the endzone like a power forward, and possesses a basketball skillset.
\nJake Madison –<\/strong> 0. I already knew he played basketball. What I\u2019m surprised about is how quickly he has adapted to the NFL.
\nJoe Gerrity-<\/strong> 10. Shocked. I can\u2019t believe I\u2019d never heard it mentioned before. \/sarcasm off<\/p>\n