Looking too much into a press conference. What is he going to say? "The defense sucks, a lot of the guys suck. Going to take a lot of hard work to get these losers back on the right track."
Liked what he said about emphasizing teaching and technique - starting from square one and moving up at the players' level. That's been one HUGE issue in our secondary during the Kubiak era. Agreed with others that he's being smart sidestepping any criticisms or openly saying things like "Okoye isn't going to work out at all for me at NT" Didn't like the latest subtle hints that McNair doesn't plan to spend on free agents.
I'm sure yes. But reading that press conference you'd think we'd be starting the same 11 on defense next year. Highly doubt that happens.
I'm really just taken aback by that one exchange where the reporter asks him about telling Bob that they didn't need to make significant changes and Wade responds with "whatever the owner says is right." Did that conversation even happen or is that just the internal company line to justify not going after free agents and Wade is not necessarily on board with it? If I'm the linebacker/db coach I want extra money to come take this job...
I'm not worried about that at all, he is talking about his boss. Better for him to say "Bob is always right" Instead of "Bob is wrong, doesn't know anything about football." Any ways I don't think that means we are not going after Free Agents. It just means major changes are not needed and he's right. A few pickups are needed to make this defense better. That's really what it is all about, one year just seeing the defense improve. A NT, a FS, a CB, LB not a major change of personnel that you see sometimes when a new coach is coming in. I think that's what they mean by not a major change.
He was asked about an alleged specific conversation and his answer basically was "if Bob says it happened, it happened." Not "Yeah I think we can do it without major changes" or "Yeah we think we can really do something with the talent we have." No, it was "whatever the owner says we discussed is what we discussed."
The hand-wringing today is silly. Highly entertaining but silly. He's been on the job a week. He hasn't met any players and he sure as heck hasn't coached any. Let's give the guy more than 5 days before we start drawing definitive conclusions about the direction of the team. If anything, we should be encouraged that after 5 years of bringing in underqualified, inexperienced, cheap defensive coordinators, that they've kicked off this most critical of offseasons by opening up their wallet and bringing in a big name, likely expensive defensive coordinator. Indicates they may have *finally* learned their lessons and are ready to throw some money at their biggest problem. The one thing I've taken from the totality of Wade's comments thus far, BTW, is confidence. He believes in his system and doesn't seem fazed by the expectations. So far, so good. Everything else, at this point, is pretty insignificant, IMO.
They got him on the super cheap. which is why he was hired so fast. Something like 3 years for 1.4 million.
Yeah, I saw that too. I couldn't find anything on his Saints contract, only that Payton offered to pay 250k of the first year.
