One possible positive in this whole mess is Rick Spielman. Even though it is too early to judge in many ways, I do believe he is a creative and effective personnel guy. I would not be surprised at all if he came up with a decent stop-gap solution for this season (though I still think this season is a loooong shot, but so were the Panthers last year!) and I expect him to find a quality back some time over the next year that will help us for the next five. This gives him more room to maneuver both salary-cap wise and personnel-wise.
Looking back on the trade for Ricky, we traded two first-rounders and got a nut-job who had one spectacular season, started to fade the season after that (though still produced a solid season), and quit. There was a good reason Mueller let him go, and we almost certainly paid too much for a guy the Saints knew more about than we did. If you don't know who the sucker is at the poker table, it's probably you.
I, for one, feel a lot more comfortable knowing Spielman is handling how to fill the gaps than if this were last year and Wanny were doing it, and I predict that going into 2005 season, we will be strong at back again
Looking back on the trade for Ricky, we traded two first-rounders and got a nut-job who had one spectacular season, started to fade the season after that (though still produced a solid season), and quit. There was a good reason Mueller let him go, and we almost certainly paid too much for a guy the Saints knew more about than we did. If you don't know who the sucker is at the poker table, it's probably you.
I, for one, feel a lot more comfortable knowing Spielman is handling how to fill the gaps than if this were last year and Wanny were doing it, and I predict that going into 2005 season, we will be strong at back again