Finally the predictions and the mock drafts are all over with for 2008. The vast majority of upgrades, either through the draft or via free agency, are in the books and while a few veteran additions could be added before the summer training camp sessions, the football off-season personnel hay is in the barn. 
            
When the 2007 season ended it was obvious to all that the New Orleans Saints needed to add quality starters at middle linebacker, cornerback, and defensive tackle and also insert another pass rusher at defensive end to rotate with veterans Will Smith and Charles Grant.

 To be honest the Saints with a little good luck in the injury department may have filled many of those need spots.

If former Jonathan Vilma returns to the form we all saw a couple of years ago as a New York Jet, he could become the Saints version of Drew Brees on defense.

Because of a knee injury Vilma’s football stock took a similar plunge to what happened to Brees after his serious shoulder injury, but if he is healthy the former Jets All-Pro middle linebacker is one of the two major acquisitions of the 2008 off-season.

The other is 2008 New Orleans Saints first round choice Sedrick Ellis(Left) from USC. Ellis was one of the two elite defensive tackles in this draft class and while most from the area would have loved to have seen a trade-up for LSU’s Glenn Dorsey in this spot, the deal to move up three spots for Ellis was reasonable and it does not put the long-term effect of a franchise at risk by giving up a first round pick in 2009 would have on this organization had they pulled the trigger on a Dorsey deal.

To be honest while I believe that the difference between Dorsey and Ellis is not that much, the former Trojan 1st team All-PAC star the past two seasons was as dominant in the PAC-10 Conference as Dorsey was in the Southeast Conference.

While Dorsey is the better pass rusher, it does not diminish the inside penetration skills Ellis has and his ability to push the inside pocket.

In my mind the key to this off-season is the good health of Vilma at middle linebacker and the Saints ability to get the very most of Sedrick Ellis as an every down defensive lineman on this club.

 Ellis has the potential to be the very best inside defensive lineman the Saints have had since La’Roi Glover and if he is even close to that sort of professional player it will give this defense a huge shot of talent they have lacked since Glover departed to join the Dallas Cowboys organization in 2002. 

New Saints defensive line coach Ed Orgeron is very high on the talents of former Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Bobby McCray, who the Saints signed in the free agency period, and if the former Ole Miss head coach can get him to play up to his football potential the Saints have the makings of a good “pressure” type defensive front.

Other than the defensive line spot, no other spot has gathered as much attention as the Saints’ cornerback group. Veteran Mike McKenzie is coming off maybe his best season ever in the NFL in 2007, but he is also trying to rehab from a serious knee injury he suffered late in the year and his certainty to hit the field again this coming September is still in doubt.

I like the acquisition of former LSU Tiger and New England Patriot nickel/dime cornerback Randall Gay, but this team needed another young and talented body to add to the lineup.

In Round 2 the Saints selected former Port Allen High School and Indiana University standout cover-man Tracy Porter. Porter(right) is a difference-maker in the secondary and his 16 pass interceptions tell you that he is in indeed a ballhawk and someone with very good ball reaction skills.

Porter is not a real strong run-support cornerback, but he possesses excellent man-to-man coverage skills, outstanding recovery speed and the ability to successfully mirror a receiver downfield.

While everyone would love for Porter to earn a starting post, his best spot as a rookie would be to aid the club in nickel and dime schemes. The nickel cornerback plays 35 to 40 % of the time due to so many three-wide receiver sets and this is where I expect Porter to see most of his time as a rookie and also aiding the club as a return man.

If Porter plays like he did as a senior at Indiana and we continue to see the improvement of Usama Young in his second season, the Saints may have the ingredients of a good starting young tandem at cornerback for the future.

And then the Saints can jettison the non-fit cornerback Jason David sometime next off-season.

Saints 2008 fifth round draft choice, defensive tackle DeMario Pressley is also an interesting add to the lineup. As a prepster Pressley was regarded by two of the top recruiting services in the country as the best defensive tackle in the nation and in his first two seasons at North Carolina State Pressley flashed those type skills, but injuries and a semi-warm motor dipped his draft stock.

 Pressley(below) is strong, he has excellent athletic ability and he can run the field very well from side to side, but he seemed to lack the intensity he flashed as an underclassmen when injuries started to take their toll in 2006 and 2007.

Now it is up to head coach Sean Payton, defensive coordination Gary Gibbs and defensive line coach Ed Orgeron to pry those 1st rate physical gifts out of him.

Not a bad off-season right?  Vilma, Ellis, McCray, Porter, Pressley and maybe even an added bonus if former Carolina Panther All-Pro linebacker Dan Morgan can recover from an Achilles tear he sustained last season and he can stay from the concussion problems that plagued him in Carolina. Not to mention maybe being able to stir up another solid season out of former Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Aaron Glenn, who will turn 35 years old in mid-July.

Most of the offense we saw in 2007 seems to be in place for 2008. No one knows just how effective halfback Deuce McAllister will be after undergoing his second major knee surgery over the past three seasons and if McAllister can not return to form the Saints don’t have a heavy-duty inside runner they needed in so many critical times last season.

Without being able to consummate a deal for New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey, the short and intermediate passing efforts of Drew Brees will have to be placed in the hands of Eric Johnson and Billy Miller again at tight end.

 Those are two areas I still have major concerns about.

On the two days of the draft most of the efforts of the Saints were made to upgrade the defense, but the Saints may have come up with a gem of a player in Nebraska offensive tackle Carl Nicks.

Nicks(right) has only started one year at Nebraska after attending both New Mexico State and Hartnell Junior College, but the 6-4 ½ and 341 pound left tackle was just not a good player last season at Nebraska, but he was at times a dominating one.

The powerful run blocker and very improved pass protector who seems best suited to play right tackle in the pros looked like a first day selection before being involved in a fraternity party that got a bit out of hand and he was arrested for suspicion of being an inmate of a disorderly home and failure to disperse when ordered to at the party.

That incident saw his draft stock plummet and he ended up dropping into the latter part of Round 5. While the incident does raise some eyebrows on why he would put his future draft stock at risk, I also believe that while Nicks is a bit rough around the edges as a technician he also has the ability to give this team an impact player along the offensive line like starting offensive guard Jahri Evans did in 2006.

This is a young man to keep a close eye on during training camp and during the pre-season and watch and see if he doesn’t make a play for a starting spot somewhere across the offensive line in the very near future.

The Saints also traded back up into the draft in Round 7 to draft Michigan wide receiver Adrian Arrington(Left). The 6-2 ½, 200 pound end caught 67 passes for 882 yards and 8 touchdowns as a junior in 2007 and he was named the Wolverines’ Desmond Howard Award winner, which is given to the team’s top wide receiver.

That is pretty strong for a team that had Mario Manningham, a 2007 Fred Biletnikoff Award finalist on the club last season. Arrington also has had a scrape or two with some off-the-field issues, but he has caught passes in 26 straight games for the Wolverines and he adds a tall wide-out, with deceptive speed and excellent eye-hand coordination to the Saints lineup.

 While I thought it best served for Arrington to return to Michigan for another season, he has shown the skills to be a very solid possession type end in the pros, if he works hard enough.

 The Saints also used their sixth round choice to upgrade their kicking game in selecting Wisconsin place-kicker Taylor Mehlhaff.

Mehlhaff, a left-footed kicker, has been a very consistent kicker at Wisconsin and he has shown the leg strength, accuracy and athleticism to succeed in the NFL.

Playing for Wisconsin, Taylor has kicked in bad weather and windy conditions, so kicking in the SuperDome should make him even a more accurate kicker, but how he handles the pressure kicks of the NFL won’t be found out until given a chance to kick to kick in those type of settings.

There are still concerns for me about the tight end and halfback spots, and even the talent level at safety, other than Roman Harper, but give the Saints management team of Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton full credit for making trades, free agent acquisitions and draft choices that seem to have this team back into being at least a solid team on the defensive side of the ball.

As long as quarterback Drew Brees stays healthy the Saints are in the playoff hunt, but what could aid him more than any other offensive acquisition is to build a defense that can slow down an opponent’s passing attack and create some defensive turnovers.

Give the Saints a solid B+ grade in the off-season combination of trades, draft and free agency.

Just remember that the team does have the elite quarterback in the division, a few good young cogs on defense, finally, and history on their side.

 Since the NFC South Division was formed no team that has won the division has repeated as champions the following season or have they posted a winning season after capturing the division.

The grade for the off-season is a strong B+ and if this team can get a good dose of medical good luck thrown their way, they are back in the hunt to return to the playoffs.