Spags is in! Yes!

Yeeeaaahhhh!  


From PFT.... 

Saints coach Sean Payton gave lip service to taking his time and talking to a lot of people in order to find his defensive coordinator. In truth, the Saints were zeroed in squarely on the biggest name left on the market.

New Orleans hired Steve Spagnuolo to be their next defensive coordinator, according to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports.

It’s a great fit for both sides. Spagnuolo is a talented defensive mind that knows how to create a pass rush, something the Saints sorely lacks. He can keep New Orleans’ 4-3 defense in place.

It’s an ideal landing spot for Spagnuolo because he can rehab his coaching reputation while playing a lot of games in the national spotlight with a chance to compete for the Super Bowl for as long as Drew Brees is in town.

Spagnuolo interviewed with the Saints on Wednesday. He was the only known coach to talk with Payton about the position since Gregg Williams left for the Rams.

A lot of Saints fans will feel like they’ve upgraded their defensive coordinator spot significantly. We have a lot of respect for Williams and don’t think it’s that simple, but New Orleans certainly did well to land Spagnuolo before a team like the Eagles or Colts tried to hire him.

Man, I've got to hand it to Payton/Loomis, great hire!  Was just hoping, checking for updates since yesterday's interview... again and again... and news finally just now came out!  Hope Glazer is on the ball with this one. I just had a good feeling Spags would be the best fit.  I feel really good now... this hire, plus good off season developments should really improve our defensive prowess to compliment our top rate offense... I think Spags will bring his guys too... anyway, great news!!  

Lets just hope it works. And that it wasnt due to the likes of Strahan, Tuck and etc.

I love it!!
Hey, isn't the Superbowl in New Orleans next season?  How awesome would that be to capture home field advantage?!!

I hate to say it, but maybe getting bumped from the playoffs happened at an okay time.  If we were still playing, Spags would likely be a Colt or Eagle.  Of course, I would like to see our team still in the running...

Thanks for the news, Billy Jo.

Great point Mid... never thought of if that way.  Funny, I've seen some early uproar already questioning why the Eagles didn't sign him, etc. etc.  But sure, if we were still in it... with Williams one foot out the door... quite possibly we would have missed out on Spags.  Man, I've got to really appreciate Payton, even more now, come to think of your point -- just imagining how Payton must have felt, knowing the inevitable with Williams -- yet somehow it all worked out?  I truly wonder if Spags and Payton talked previously for the trigger to be pulled so quickly?  Well, it does not matter much anyway, I believe it was a perfect match for both Spags, Payton... and our Saints.  I believe the last time Spags was with a winner... he won a Super Bowl (07 season, NYG)... so I'm really happy about this news!!  With Spags on board, I'd bet the farm what happened in San Fran last week would not have happened...  but that's just me.  Congrats to Spags and the Saints!!  

Great hire! Spags will build a pass rush on the line instead of blitzing every play and leaving our safeties to fend for themselves. Our CB's are only going to get better and Jenkins will as well. Some nice pickups and nice draft. He could easily make us a top 10 D. He will build a complete defense and not a one trick pony. Williams was great while he lasted, but two years in a row with wrong play calling was enough for me. I love Williams passion and fire. Hope the best to him. Now, lets get homefield next year and the Super bowl would really run through the Dome!

Spags does have a blitz heavy mentality as well, so I'm going to reserve my glee until I see the on-field product.

I'm not certain his most noteworthy accomplishment (the play of the front 4 of the 2007 Giants) wasn't due to the talent on the line.

The same thing can possibly be said of Fewell now.

Spags has been known to dial up a lot of extra rushers when his front 4 can't get there.

If he does anything, he needs to get fundamentals honed before these guys even look at scheme.

But if he can motivate this front 4 to get even 10 more sacks on its own without extra help next year, he's an upgrade.

YES!!!

I am excited about this hiring.  This is one of the moves I was looking forward to this offseason and I couldn't be more excited about what's to come. 

Now lets get a new d-line coach and secondary coach in here and we'll be set from a coaching standpoint.

Spags does have a blitz heavy mentality as well, so I'm going to reserve my glee until I see the on-field product.

I'm not certain his most noteworthy accomplishment (the play of the front 4 of the 2007 Giants) wasn't due to the talent on the line.

The same thing can possibly be said of Fewell now.

Spags has been known to dial up a lot of extra rushers when his front 4 can't get there.

If he does anything, he needs to get fundamentals honed before these guys even look at scheme.

But if he can motivate this front 4 to get even 10 more sacks on its own without extra help next year, he's an upgrade.

Those are good points and I agree with a lot of what you said, but he did wonders with the Rams defense and they aren't nearly as talented as the Giants d-line.  The Rams played hard in every game and fought to the very end for him.  That says a lot about the respect his players had for him as a coach.

I think his scheme will highlight players like Will Smith, Junior Gallete, & Martez Wilson.  I don't mind if he blitzes and I didn't mind when Gregg Williams blitzed, I just think theres a time and place for that.  Situational football is why Bill Belichick has been so successful throughout his career.  If Spags understands that, than I think we'll be just fine.  GW was a blitz crazed coach and gambled more often than not.  It worked when teams weren't expecting it from us, but when teams started to expect it we got exposed.  It was either Spags or Del Rio and Spags was my first choice so I'm happy with this hiring.

I was thinking the same thing that Mid Iowa was saying about maybe getting eliminated wasn't so bad after all (actually it still really hurts), but if we were still playing, its almost guaranteed we weren't signing Spagnuolo.  He would've been signed by someone and it wouldn't have been us thats for sure.  But hay at least we got the guy that was pretty much responsible for giving us our worst loss of the 2011 season.

... if we were still playing, its almost guaranteed we weren't signing Spagnuolo.

Good point.  It was almost worth losing if Spags performs well, and we have him for at least several years.

When I read about the sudden Spagnuolo hire, I breathed a sigh of relief.  At the risk of speaking too soon, I feel it's a safe bet to say we got the best guy for the job.  I hope Payton gives him the latitude to shake things up and get these guys back to basics. 

I'm completely with all of you guys, I love this signing. Grateful for what GW did, but the constant blitzing really costed us last game(still sick to my stomach). Going to be interesting to see how his style translates to our D.....new nickname, SpagNOLA?

I have to say this, and say it emphatically. Signing Spags does not even remotely in any universe make losing an OK thing. A ring this year would have been worth a milliion times more than what Spags may or may not bring. So to say that "maybe it's good we lost" or anything along those lines seems to me like an attempt to convince ourselves that the Saints didn't just blow perhaps their best opportunity left to win a title.  And you know it's possible that this was their best opportunity.

Be excited about Spags, sure.

But don't act like hiring him takes ANY sting off of the loss.

If his defense helps the team rattle off a couple of titles in the next three years, I'll stand on the mountain top and yell, "I'm glad they lost the 49ers game!" 

But right now, no way in hell I'm even considering that.

All of that type of talk is classic "bargaining" stage of grief.

I have to say this, and say it emphatically. Signing Spags does not even remotely in any universe make losing an OK thing. A ring this year would have been worth a milliion times more than what Spags may or may not bring. So to say that "maybe it's good we lost" or anything along those lines seems to me like an attempt to convince ourselves that the Saints didn't just blow perhaps their best opportunity left to win a title.  And you know it's possible that this was their best opportunity.

Be excited about Spags, sure.

But don't act like hiring him takes ANY sting off of the loss.

If his defense helps the team rattle off a couple of titles in the next three years, I'll stand on the mountain top and yell, "I'm glad they lost the 49ers game!" 

But right now, no way in hell I'm even considering that.

Couldn't said it better myself.  Bravo!!!

I'd trade Spags in right now to be playing at home against the Giants this weekend. 

Well, you can look back, or you can look forward.  I prefer to look forward.

I even said in my post that I wish my team was still in the running.  Hell yes, I'd love another Superbowl victory, over anything else, but if we were going to lose, the best case scenario came out of it, we got a (hopefully) good DC out of the deal.

You have no idea how many time I've thought about hosting the NFC Champs game again, because that's where we'd be, but you know what, it ain't happening, and I can't change the past any better than any of you, so time to move on.  I'm happy to be where we're at, all things concidered.

I will say for the most part we Giant fans are happy to still be in it... but I honestly wished that Spags could have waited and we could have gotten him back...and I know that is getting your cake and eating it too, but Spags transformed this defense into an attacking defense which he took our strength and utilized it by using stunts and disguising where the pass rushers were and maybe sending a LB blitz once in a while to keep it interesting.. Fewell does not blitz, or do stunts... he relies on the talent of the front four so I think this is a great siging for you guys... he will get the best out of the strengths of your defense. Best of luck on getting home field next year, I feel you guys are favorites with this team as is...

Come on Schmalzel, that's wishful thinking.  The Giants were never going to can Fewell after the way this defense has responded for the last 4 weeks.  Congrats on Spags, to me it's all good as long as he didn't go to the Eagles.

I here you NAVY.  If I were a Giants fan, I wouldn't want Spags going to Philly either.  They have the perfect personnel for his scheme.  Two great pass rushers in Cole and Babin and 3 good CB's even though Asante is probably gone.  And the Eagles have always been a team that tackles very well being one of the few teams that goes full contact in mini-camp, training camp, and every practice.

Come on Schmalzel, that's wishful thinking.  The Giants were never going to can Fewell after the way this defense has responded for the last 4 weeks.  Congrats on Spags, to me it's all good as long as he didn't go to the Eagles.

Hey he could have gotten hired by the Raiders... wishful thinking I know... I know this is sounding crazy, but I might be able to live with Gilbride if we did improve our DC... Fewell just agitates me way more then Gilbride and that says a lot...