Saints Legend Drew Brees Finally Gets His Day + a SB Champ Chimes In on the OL | Inside Black & Gold

The New Orleans Saints made the easiest decision of all time: Drew Brees is headed into the Hall of Fame. On the latest episode of the Audacy original podcast Inside Black & Gold, Saints sideline reporter Jeff Nowak breaks down Drew’s comments this week, plus we hear from Jonathan Stinchcomb for insight on the OL questions in 2024, and we explain how the Saints’ new-look offense will be a big win for the defense.

00:00 – Segment 1: Yes, Saints Legend Drew Brees Deserves Every Single Accolade.
…Yes, Drew Brees deserves every single accolade handed to him, and the Saints gave him one more this week with the announcement that he’d be the 2024 inductee into the team hall of fame. Jeff Nowak kicks off today’s Inside Black & Gold by diving in on his comments this week, then the accolades that are truly remarkable and a lot more.

22:48 – Segment 2: What’s Up WIth the Saints OL? Jonathan Stinchcomb Chimes In
… The New Orleans Saints have a lot of OL questions, so what does a Super Bowl champion right tackle think? Hear from Jonathan Stinchcomb on the Tigers’ shifts at both tackle spots, the return of Sean Payton, a new-look offense and more.

37:30 – Segment 3: Saints New Offense Will Help the Defense. Here’s why.
… The New Orleans Saints will have a fun new offense to watch, but how could it help the defense in some critical matchups? Jeff Nowak closes out today’s episode by diving in on that subject with insight from Dennis Allen, Demario Davis and Taysom Hill.

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hey y’all hudat and welcome in I’m Jeff Noak this is inside black and gold if you haven’t subscribed yet please do that first things first thanks everyone for listening I do want to apologize this week kind of got crazy we had the holiday on Monday so we didn’t record our typical episode and then we had Drew Brees day on Thursday which wasn’t necessarily a surprise in the sense that we didn’t know it was coming but it did take a whole lot longer I thought it would personally so I wasn’t able to record anything yesterday so I’m recording this on Friday morning it’s going to be on the shorter side for our episode it’s also going to be a little all over the place because it’s a good bit I want to cover I’m going to cover three distinct topics we’re going to go segment one segment two segment three so strap it uh first segment we’re going to talk all Drew bre it was Drew Brees’s day we’re going to give him his flowers at the top of this show and it’s about damn time he got some flowers in New Orleans and we’ll get to that in a minute second segment we’re going to play an interview that Steve Geller and I did with Jonathan stinch talking about the offensive line talking about Shawn Payton’s return talking about all that good stuff and then the final segment I want to dive into a subject that we talked about kind of in passing in the last episode but I want to play some audio that kind of explains what I’m talking about in terms of this Saints defense is going to get kind of a trial by fire all throughout training camp against the defense that that they’ve struggled against and I think that’s going to be a factor right so we’re going to dive into that but first things first Drew Brees man I love me some Drew Brees I miss me some Drew Brees uh you know uh Drew Brees got inducted or okay let me let’s be clear Drew Brees got announced as the 2024 inductee into the New Orleans Saints team Hall of Fame and that’s not a surprise it’s one of the least surprising announcements that you’ll ever hear um the only question to me was whether they would do it at the first opportunity or whether they maybe give it a year or two uh but yeah so three years removed you can be inducted into the team Hall of Fame it was unanimous they also made the I would argue very smart decision of putting Drew into the Hall team Hall of Fame by himself you know typically you’ll have two players maybe three go in at the same time Drew got his day alone and he deserved it I mean alone he also is joined by Doug Maro who’s the longtime Press Box announcer PA announcer he got the Joe jell Florida Lee award very deserving fans of the Saints you might not know him personally but if you’re ever in the Press Box you know him and he’s very helpful but I I think he he’s he’s been there forever he deserves every bit of that award and I thought his speech uh was was fantastic as well but we don’t have time to go into all of it we’re gonna talk about Drew Brees and you know one of the things that really stood out to me in terms of why yesterday or Thursday’s press conference was so poignant is that it kind of felt like a retirement press conference and it felt that way because we never actually got a retirement press conference like a proper retirement press conference for Drew Brees which is what you get you know like when pton Manning retired or you know like one of when these legendary quarterbacks retire typically going to get this kind of teer filled press conference or at least guys who are retiring from the team that they’ve played for for a long time Tom Brady was never going to get a long tearful goodbye from Tampa Bay right it just wasn’t going to happen but you know like when pton Manning left the Colts there were tears there was emotion we just never got that for the Saints we talked to Drew Brees s he obviously did the Instagram video he went on Ellen and talked about it but it wasn’t the same at least to me in terms of going to the team facility standing like think about how Shawn Payton was sent out the door right like Drew Brees deserve something like that and he never got it why because he retired following the 2020 season and covid was a thing so you couldn’t do that you couldn’t have a group of people in a room and just for perspective typically these retirement press or typically these Hall of Fame press conferences which they do every year they’re kind of a whole home Affair typically they are in the standard media room this one they knew it was going to be a room filled with people and they needed as much seating as possible so it was kind of neat because they actually did it in the team meeting room like the full team meeting room where they’ll go over film study and and such like if the Saints of rever on Hard Knocks you’ll end up seeing a lot of footage from that room I’d never been in there I don’t think a lot of the Saints media parore had been in there so it was kind of cool to get a look at how that room uh is used and what it looks like and the seats are a lot more comfortable but yeah so I mean it was it was everybody it was the the entire media or team Personnel I think Mickey Lumis had a prior engagement he couldn’t be there but you know Gail was there Dennis laa was there Drew family was there his three sons I don’t know I don’t know where his daughter was but she she wasn’t there but the three sons were there and then man they’re getting big one of them might go to LSU I don’t know if he’s uh he’s if he’s gonna play any sports but hey uh keep it in keep it in Louisiana Eric McCoy tesm Hill Josh Hill Cam Jordan were there and it was kind of cool because like they’re all there for OTA so they’re kind of sneaking in in between meetings and after Drew got off cam kind of like sneaked out because he’s got stuff to do um but I just appreciate it because Drew deserved a lot more of a sendoff than he got and to me you know more frustrating than Jared Cook not being able to hold on to a football or you know that very winnable AFC or NFC divisional round playoff game slipping away and the final memory the lasting memory being three interceptions and that kind of glance over his shoulder as he walked at the door the the most frustra ating thing for me was that it happened in front of what 8,000 10,000 fans right that afterward we only got to talk to Drew on a zoom call and it was so impersonal and it just for the career that he had for the meaningful impact that he had for this city for this state for the NFL it was so impersonal and you know one of the one of the coach from yesterday is talking about okay why why did he retire and you know it’s kind of getting this interview three years later because I think Drew is willing to say a lot more than he would have been willing to a month after two months after right and so this quote here he’s talking about you know why he stepped away and this is the quote that really kind of got picked up on and he said stuff like this before but I don’t know if he said it this matter of factly and so uh here here’s what Drew had to say about why he ultimately retired yeah no you know the I’d say I this just being perfectly honest but you know like you there’s I don’t know if there’s ever an easy way to to leave the game right I mean I guess unless you’re just you know lifting up the Lombardi trophy and riding off into the sunset you know which is what we had all hoped for you know um but um certainly to to have it be in a in a situation like that where you’re not able to really be there with the fans and and celebrate it with all all those who are you know so important um I felt like there was a little bit of a lack of closure you know um and honestly man if my if my right arm was still working I probably would have played another three years my body feels great uh my body could play my right arm can’t um and so unfortunately that’s that’s what kind of forced me to step away um and it was time too you know but yeah I I I I I try not to think about you know like the the glance back in the dome because I wish I wish it would have been with a packed house you know and just like that energy that is so synonymous with the super doome and you know that I’ll I’ll always remember and that what what we always fed off of you know every game day um you know my image of the Dome is is much different than that last that last moment Drew how seriously did you uh there was there was talk about in 21 about potentially maybe coming back for a period of time like how seriously did you consider that very serious very I’ll just leave it at that what uh what provided it was the arm yeah yeah I mean at the end yeah at the end of the day it’s like how how capable right how capable am I to do the job right um I mean I I could have I I would I would have run QB draws I would have done whatever I would have run some verer option we would have we would have pulled out all the stops I was ready pull out the High School playbook um yeah how’s your arm now I mean can you throw now you throw boys I do throw how do I throw boys I I I look I can I can drop a dime like 30 yards left-handed unfortunately you need a little bit more than that to to compete at this level but yeah I’ve I’ve I’ve uh I throw left-handed with the boys with everything um anything below anything below the uh the my shoulder below the waist you know so any racket Sports golf that’s fine it’s just when it gets up here just a lot of wear and tear and and look do Dr Andrews told me that he said at some point he’s like you’re on the fast track to a degenerative shoulder uh and so at some point you know this will catch up with you like just all that wear and tear and all the work that was done and you know so it’s like CU I I used to use this term prolong my prime it was like how long can I just prolong my Prime prolong my Prime you know and then unfortunately there will be there will be attrition at some point and yeah hung on as long as I could I would love to play the entire I would love to play a lot of this comp rest conference for you I would love to play it it was 37 minutes long the problem is any answer I play is going to be like five minutes long so it’s going to end up being a very long segment very quickly because he just had a lot to say and that’s what that’s what these press conferences that retirement type press conferences for to let it all out to tell everyone you know all this stuff that maybe were keeping you know under the vest um and so I’ll have to paraphrase a lot but you know he talked about his contributions to the T to he was asked about his contributions to the city and you know he talked about like the my the what I care most about is like the teammates and the and the people he said he has a picture of his offensive line right Jonathan Stitch Carl Nicks Jonathan Goodwin jar Evans and German bushrod I think Zack Streep’s in there as well he was a jumbo tight end from the Super Bowl year and you got a right like because this is emotional stuff it was 15 years of his life that he spent you know serving the city and obviously made a lot of money in the process and and he set a lot of records and he’s getting his accolades and he deserves them um but you know it’s it was meaningful and I I I appreciate you know as as frustrating as it’s been the last few years and kind of how difficult things have been and you know for perspective they have basically a 500 record over the last three years it’s not like they’re terrible not like the Saints have been terrible but it’s been a struggle it’s been it’s been difficult one of those years with Shawn pyton that went 9 and8 two of those years been Dennis Allen they went seven and 10 and nine and eight right so you know it’s it’s not like they’ve gone to the bottom of the barrel but I think we you know those last few years with Drew and now that we know just how much his arm was letting him down toward the end uh I think we get kind of a fresh perspective of how easy he made things look and and how how good Saints fans really had it and this isn’t a slight on Derek Carr this is just any quarterback walking into that situation following Drew Brees was gonna have a hard time it was always gonna happen and uh but I do think we you know one of the things that I appreciate is going through that stretch going through this most recent stretch has given people a greater appreciation for how good they had it with with the Heyday of Shawn and Drew and and I hope that people did appreciate it while it was going on right like I really do I really hope that people genuinely took that took the time during that period to understand hey this is a generational type thing this is not how it’s going to be all the time because now I think people are figuring that out so I hope you took the time to enjoy it while it was happening but for perspective and and like I I saw I had a comment on here and you know I should stop taking every comment not necessarily at their word this person was probably just trolling but uh there was a comment on here recently that was like I was like I think people might be overrating Drew Brees um let’s see if he makes into the Hall of Fame and I was like are you are you serious or are you um are you trolling I I think they’re probably were trolling or they’re just unaware so you know the last thing I’ll do here and uh again if if you want to go check out that full press conference I highly recommend it like it’s worth listening to there’s a lot in there um he also said he he’s interested in getting back into broadcasting at some point U the travel schedule was an issue right but I wouldn’t be surprised you know I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets into coaching at some point but it would be after his kids have kind of grown up and it’s no longer a scheduling issue for him um but what I wanna what I want to hit you with is kind of a list of accolades and this is not an exhaustive list it would take it would take hours to go through an exhaustive list but you’re talking about you know and the Saints put out some of these stats right talking about 13 Time pro bowler 571 career touchdown pass two-time offensive player of the year should have been an MVP at least once probably more than once uh you know he was he led the NFL in completion percentage six times he was the first quarterback to 880,000 passing yards he was the first quarterback to 5,000 completions now one thing that I’ll mention before going on further is I do think that it’s notable he said hey I I could have played three more years why because wouldn’t you know it the guy who passed through his records in terms of passing yardage completion whatever Tom Brady you know how many more years he had in the NFL than Drew Brees three right if Drew Brees had played three more years what would this press conference have been or what would we have had this year there would have been a retirement press conference for Drew Brees like the reason he re like the reason we were able to have this press conference today is because he retired three years ago and you have to be out of the NFL three years before you can be in the team Hall of Fame so uh you I do think the three years thing was relevant you know whether he can throw a good enough pass with his left hand to to compete in an NFL game I don’t know but here’s a list just a just a rundown of some of the NFL records that Drew Brees still does own so not even including the ones that he retired with which I still kind of give him in terms of okay if you gave him three more years of games he would still have this and you know it’s it’s unfortunate that you know we were robbed of that because that injury he had in San Diego it all goes back to that injury in San Diego right where he had to have his shoulder basically rebuilt and it was always a question of okay it’s not going to last forever it’s just going to be hey how long can you keep this I think Drew phas was prolong his prime he did it for a long time caught up with him uh but this is just a quick run down of all the records he owns so he owns the NFL record for most games with 120 plus pass rating he did it 64 times most games with a 130 plus pass rating he did it 42 times most games with 150 Plus passer rating he did it three times most seasons with a 100 passer rating over the entire season he did it nine times most seasons leading the NFL in completions six he’s tied with Dan Marino for that one he has the NFL record for most completions per game in a season that was 29.4 in 2016 so we’re not even talking about like 2011 2012 we’re talking about 2016 you know mid-30s right most seasons with 400 plus completions he did that nine times most consecutive Seasons with 400 plus completions he did it seven times in a row highest completion percentage in a single game that was recent 96.67% that was in 2019 against the Colts right and keep in mind like this right that that record is insane because if you recall in 2019 he was coming back from that thumb injury that was like two games removed from his time off with a thumb injury it completes 29 to 30 passes for four touchdowns blows the Colts out of the water continue highest completion percentage in a season that was 74.4% 2018 I think he got close to that I think he has like the top three uh it’s it’s insane most games with at least 80% completions 28 most seasons with at least 70% completions that’s five most seasons with 4,500 plus passing yards he did it eight times most seasons with 5,000 plus passing Ys he did it three times now again only 12 people have done this in like the history of the NFL Drew Brees has done it five times and I remember back when it was happening everyone was like yeah yeah yeah it’s just the NFL now like pretty soon people be th up the 6,000 yards well where are they right seems like the passing yardage is going down so uh put some respect on on my man Drew here most games with 350 plus passing yards that’s 63 most games with 400 plus passing yards 16 most consecutive 350 plus passing yard games four he had four consecutive 350 yard passing games think about that fewest games to reach 880,000 passing yard did in 286 so that’s the record I look at it’s like okay Tom did it but he did it in like 15 more games first QB ever to reach 7,000 pass completions most seasons with 30 plus passing TDS 10 most passing TDS in a game seven he’s tied with seven others which which this is such a such a crazy list when you look at it because it’s it’s not necessarily a list of like alltime great quarterbacks but there are some alltime great quarterbacks on here so you have Sid Luckman Adrien Burke George blando Yi tile Joe cap Manning Drew Brees and then Nick Foles Nick FES he did that with the Eagles that one year Brian Kelly everyone’s like oh my not Brian Kelly Chip Kelly was like oh my God Chip Kelly and Nick fos was gonna be the Talk of the Town he had seven touchdowns in the game anyway uh if you remember that game was a game against the Giants that crazy game where Eli Manning threw for six right for whatever reason all these guys have gotten to seven but no one no one’s been able to get to eight not even Dre um so we’ll see but most games with five plus passing touchdowns 11 he did that 11 times and then finally he’s he’s one of just four NFL QBs all time to beat 32 NFL teams and you know obviously there haven’t always been 32 NFL teams so you kind of got to take that for what it’s worth in terms of the time period where that could have happened but let’s listen to the list of the players who have done it so it’s Breeze Brett Favre pton Manning Tom Brady now that’s one hell of a list to be on but I will say it’s notable that of these four players Drew is the only one that did it the way he did it which is he beat the Saints back when he was with the Chargers and then he beat everyone else or at least you know you get the idea he did a majority of the rest of it with the Saints and he retired with the Saints the other three guys Brett Favre retired after as a member of the Vikings or at least his final season was with the Vikings PT Manning his final season was with the Broncos Tom Brady his final season was with the Bucks and you know say what you want it would have been I would have loved to see Drew win another Super Bowl he deserved another Super Bowl 2018 will always go down for me as one of the is one of the most disappointing garbage results of a game that will ever happen you’ll never see another game like that or I sure hope you don’t but I prefer it in terms of at least he didn’t go somewhere else and win a Super Bowl like if that’s the cost if the cost of Drew not getting another Super Bowl is that he was able to stay here his entire career and and and retire as a member of this community fine because like one of the grossest things that’s that happens in the NFL is these Hall of Fame quarterbacks just ends up having to go somewhere else to finish out their careers and you didn’t have to do that with Drew and you know you might be paying the cost of it now because one of the reasons that Brett Favre didn’t get to retire of Packer is because they had Aaron Rogers and they’re like okay we’re gonna we’re gonna go with this guy uh pton Manning well that was kind of weird but they had number one pick in the draft they took Andrew Luck makes sense Tom Brady that was probably a bad decision by the by the Patriots but whatever either way Drew Brees deserves every bit of it he is that good and if you’re you’re even questioning for a second whether he’s going to be a first battle all of Famer don’t don’t waste your time because he is and uh yeah hopefully hopefully the Saints can get back to something even close to that I’ll leave you with one final note and it’s from Shawn pton um and when I called back today someone was telling me that um that he was going in I don’t know which game will be the game that maybe I’m just saying weeks seven do it baby but all right let’s wrap up that segment again I’m Jeff Noak we’re going to come back I’m going to play you an interview Steve Geller and I were able to do recently with Jonathan stinum stick around for that and then the final segment we’re going to talk about you know one of the wild cards for this defense this year we’re going to hear from Dennis Allen a couple players on that so who at this is inside black and gold subscribe and stick around and we’re back here on inside black and gold I am Jeff Noak coming at you solo for a quick episode this is Friday morning weird schedule obviously posting a podcast episode on Friday is not optimal but I did want to get you an episode so we’re getting you an episode and this next segment is going to be an interview that myself and Steve Geller are able to do with another member of that 2009 Super Bowl championship team Jonathan stinum you know offensive lineman played right tackle uh for the Saints for a long time and I think he’s got some great sight into what the Saints are looking at this year what Trevor Penning is dealing with you know he’s also going to talk about Shawn Payton’s return how he kind of expects that and that greeting to go from fans or at least how he hopes it’ll go and kind of his ideas for the season so without further Ado here J how did you feel about the draft pick of t tesi fuaga for this team in the first round out of Oregon State I think it’s huge sadly I think we were in a predicament where we needed to have some instant infusion of not only only youth but talent and obviously they went out and got the best offensive tackle available now for him it’s going to be how quickly can he get up to speed because the Saints need him to be game ready right now and you know that’s a tall order for any rookie but uh having watched some of his film now he certainly seems like he’s got the physical traits to to really have that high ceiling you know there’s a reason why they drafted him so high in that first round yeah John you know obviously one of the storyline early on and we’ll be talking about it throughout all Camp is okay left side right side faga has been working on the left side even though he played on the right pretty much exclusively in college he did get some work in at the left side and then we moving Trevor over to the right I guess just for the average person you know it’s I think fuaga described it as kind of like driving on the other side of the road how difficult is that to make that flip across the line cuz we’ve seen guys like James Hurst do it but it does seem like something that feels like a wild card okay can can you do that successfully in one off seon and and what are the difficulties there yes I I think you can absolutely make that kind of switch I think it’s probably more of a body mechanics is different it’s all mirrored but understanding spacing and and engagement I think there’s a bigger change when you go from interior to to an edge position so like guard to tackle than it is going right to left yeah I I feel like he’ll be able to to pick that up that transition up pretty easily I it’s just a mirror if you will of body mechanics that’s the biggest transition with Trevor Penning now moving over to the right side from left tackle and called it a fresh start for him and just curious what you think about that I mean he struggled obviously on the left side and I don’t imagine things are going to be any easier obviously at right yeah I I think it’s just a matter of confidence for him I when he first was drafted the understanding was this is a really high SE ceiling player but he going to need time to develop and you know unfortunately that first season was marged by injuries he didn’t get the Reps the practice reps that he needed to develop and then year two you force him onto the field because of need and because he you know it’s a year removed from him being the first round pick and it was pretty evident that he just wasn’t ready and hopefully this is exactly what he needs he he’s had a year of good practice time time and now it’s kind of a fresh start and hopefully that’s uh that transition is one that’s a pleasant one for him I I think the bigger question is Ryan Ram’s Health overall big picture that’s going to be a question that needs to be answered relatively quickly for these Saints to to have the season that they want I was kind of looking at this today if if Ryan isn’t out there this season you end up really turning over this offensive line from a veteran kind of Laden Group with Pete and a Hurst and Ryan over there to faga you’re talking about a rookie Penning is only 24 Sal de’s 24 but I look at it as okay Clint’s bringing in this scheme and you know whe whether you were planning on this or not this scheme is going to emphasize kind of the athleticism of that group a little bit more and I kind of look at it as okay if if you ever needed a a more athletic group out there this was probably the year and this is probably the scheme with that wide Zone um blocking I’m just curious what you think about that cuz this feels like a pretty atic offensive line you look at even like Eric McCoy Caesar Ruiz they’re pretty good athletes at their position it will certainly be a transition from what we’ve seen and I think it probably plays very well to what Penning and even fuaga what they’ve done well or what we’ve seen from them is you know athleticism and physicality in the Run game and the ability to you know transition that into playaction pass more than just dropback pass which the expectations are you can do everything all the time but reality usually dictates that some players fit better and this might be a better fit for pinning than the the Carmichael offense that he was asked to to perform in so you know both guyses and and their physical traits and and what they did really well coming out of college so how they pick up the system and how they fit in is going to be a real big deciding factor as to how well this offense can perform John Benton the new offensive line coach just interested obviously to see how uh some of these guys now react to his tutelage because under Doug Marone I don’t know things weren’t going so well well yeah I mean it all starts with you have that high first- round draft pick and that doesn’t really pan out and there was such a shuffling that ended up occurring with Hurst and Pete basically switching positions this past year from where they were the year before and it was It was a rough transition so I think really if if we’re taking that zoom out that’s kind of the state of this offensive line is it’s been a little bit in flux and there’s been some heavy investment and some Youth and and high sealing Talent um and it might take a year or two for that to develop but you know no fan wants to hear that before the start of the Season yeah just kind of going a little further on that and kind of taking that wider view of this team in this season it doesn’t seem like they’re getting a lot of respect from you know odds makers from kind of the national pundits in terms of expectations but what is your kind of confidence level in this year this team it does seem like they are taking a longer view in some of the decision making and some of the investments in terms of salary cap kind of rebuilding that but what is your view on this season for this team well I’m a total Homer but I think I think it’s tempered to be uh a little bit measured here I think that you just look overall and there are some teams that probably a little further along and they’re development and there’s uh some some positions of of rebuild and I think you look at the staff and that’s been recognized as well kind of a a change in Direction with new OC new offensive line coach you’re bringing in some younger players and um that’s kind of married with some of the veterans so I I don’t think this is a total rebuild by any means and I do think this is a very winnable winnable division but it’s going to be players outperforming expectations to reach some of those goals not saying that it’s inconceivable but I I think we’re probably if you’re trying to give an un more unbiased opinion we’re probably more middle of the pack looking to kind of add pieces and project more next year potentially uh but again nobody really wants to hear that this time of year John I am perfectly okay with you being a homer just wanted to just wanted to get that out there that’s what I’m here for this is Homer time of year right now if you’re if you’re all doom and gloom in May then that’s to me that’s more about you than anything else but you know I do have one more question you know this is it’s obviously you’re changing to Clint kubak you’re doing all this is it kind of a strange feeling to kind of see this offense change just because it’s been the same for so long even sean left your left he still ran the same offense and you in that offense you know it’s going to look a lot different when this team gets out there on the field and I just as someone who was in it is that kind of a weird feeling to GNA watch this team change for the first time since 2006 at least on offense it is and and I think you know there comes a time where you almost need to infuse a new energy and obviously I think when that transition was made at the head coach position it was more of we like where we’re at we don’t need to make some major changes let’s see if we can make this run with with a lot of the pieces that we already have in place and you know I think now you’re looking at it going you know maybe maybe a little new juice isn’t going to hurt and and specifically with the offense I I’m a huge Pete carmichel fan and Shawn Payton as well but I think we all agree that this last season we were hoping to see a little more uh life for the off and you know obviously the the OC and the quarterback usually take that the heat the first and and the loudest but I’m excited I think it’s it’s a good opportunity for New Orleans to kind of uh breathe in some new energy in a space that may have gotten a little stagnant one last thing is with Shawn pton coming back to the Superdome week s what do you think that reception’s G to be like from the the hudat nation well knowing [Laughter] fans uh My Hope Is that they appreciate the fact that that he brought New Orleans it’s first and only Super Bowl and stayed committed to that City and the development of the organization uh having been a part of it before he arrived and understanding where the bar was raised I’m eternally grateful for the direction that that coach pton and Mickey Lumis and and the Benson family uh was able to invest in New Orleans and you know obviously the bar has been raised so my hope would be that fans could express their appreciation uh understand where some of the booze might come but I think for for most of the fan base they recognize all that Sean has done for the organization in our city and I’m I’m expecting at least I’m hopeful uh that there’s going to be round of cheers for him all right closing out this segment thanks again to Jonathan stinum for coming on WWL with myself and Steve Geller you can check out our show every Friday 4 to 8 p.m. you know we we they let us on there uh I don’t know why but they do um but yeah I thought Jonathan I thought JN had some you know had some interesting had some interesting points there you know and that’s what we’ve heard in terms of hey switching sides of the line at the tackle position is very doable now switching from guard to tackle switching from tackle to guard much more difficult and that’s why like people like oh try my guard try my guard that’s a shift that’s a whole new position at least at least that tackle you know and I think people are downplaying a little bit like that just switching across the line is not something that should be scoffed at is like of course everyone can do this some guys can do it better than others I will say for Trevor he at least doesn’t have all of this ingrained NFL experience that he’s got to forget um he’s only started what five games six games at left tackle so I think it should be reasonably simple for him to just verse everything um but that’s kind of where you’re at this year and I think this is the project right you have Trevor this year you’re like Hey we’re gonna we’re I still think he’s a tackle the Saints still think he’s a tackle I still think he’s a tackle like everything about him screams tackle the athleticism is there to play tackle it is all about getting the feet right getting the technique right making decisions making the right decisions doing the right things and hopefully that can be the case this year now if it doesn’t work out guard is an option but that’s a whole another project and you don’t want to you want to figure out if you can be a tackle first and frankly you just have not given him enough of a chance to do that in my opinion I think stinch would agree you know a couple other things you know I I think you know it’s telling that you know stinch would call himself a homer and and and you know I mean you’re a former player you should be a homer right like I’m a homer I try to be honest about my expectations but come on at the end of the day I’m a homer uh because I want this team to win if you think I’m sitting here you know rather being right like anytime I say I think the Saints are gonna lose this week and they win I’m thrilled to be wrong right like I would much rather the Saints win than I be right know that I think stin is in the same boat but even he you know he’s being cautiously optimistic right like he’s he’s setting the stage for like guys I think this is a two-year thing and and that’s the frustrating part is how much runway do you give this group um and uh that’s that’s the tough part is what happens if you look at you get to the end of the year and you’re like how we put in a new offense you know it didn’t work or or or people are picking it up and it look good at the end what what if you have the same season as last year right what if the exact same thing plays out where you know it it it it the offense just has kind of a failure to launch in the first half of the season but then you finish like Gang Busters and you you know you blow up and you’re like oh we do we will you know do you go into the offseason with the same mentality I don’t know but that’s a bridge we can cross when we get there hopefully it’s not the case hopefully hopefully it’s not but all right uh that’s the end of that segment I’m gonna come back I want to talk about the defense I want to talk about one element of of this offseason that’s very unique for not just the offense but the defense so all right I’m Jeff Noak this is inside black and gold we’ll be right back and we’re back one more segment on inside black and gold we’re going to talk about the defense kind of Defense offense defense this and that whatever but first things first I’m Jeff Noak you follow me on Twitter Jeff Noak this was kind of funny you know michah parsons’s uh you know he’s in he’s he’s in Dallas he’s in Dallas um I had a friend text me and say he’s a he’s a he’s a jersey uh Jersey and uh you know it seems Seems like that could be true there’s a clip of of Micah at the on the sidelines of the the Mavericks Timberwolves game five which uh they’ll be playing the Celtics and let’s see how many games it takes them to lose that series to Celtics but that’s neither here nor there but he spots Dirk nitzky and he goes over and gets in a sage Jersey and Cam Jordan responded um and they kind of went back and forth and and Mike and Parson is like ah you better have that Jersey for me when we when we play each other and Cam’s like we don’t play each other and and Mike is like yeah we do it’s in week two uh so if you you know when you when Cam Jordan tells you he’s thinking one game at a time he’s he means it he doesn’t pay attention to who the week two opponent is the week three opponent I’m sure he knows like okay we open with the Panthers and that’s it a except that week seven game that’s circled too but anyway let’s move forward so one thing that I talked about in passing on the last episode and I do want to dive a little more into it is the advantage that exists you know so we talk about Saints changing their offensive system and and great yeah like that’s something that they needed to do and I think is is important and they’ve done it but what is the secondary element of that what about the group that goes against that and and it happens to be a group that has struggled against that type of offense um we saw in week week 16 like we can we can attribute week 16 to being hey you know the Saints weren’t ready the Saints weren’t prepared it was a short week they had to go out west and they did and all that’s true but they also just could not handle it like it was running them ragged all day particularly elante Taylor in the slot and you know I thought elante had a solid year overall right like I thought that he had some really nice moments he had his first career interception or he had first two career interceptions and back-to-back weeks at the end of the year you know that Packers game in week three was probably his best game they lost that game so no one talked about it but he had a really solid game there then he had moments where he’s like ah gosh you know it’s not working out and one in one of those games where you were like man he’s got a lot to learn week 16 against the Rams and all that motion and everything caught it you know he got caught with his eyes a couple times he ended up getting benched so okay what happens when you go against that defense in practice you go against that offense in practice every day and this is what Dennis Allen had to say with all the all thetion on offense obviously it’s something that’s being Incorporated early is that helpful for a defense as you get work against that every day yeah I mean I think it’s it’s been it’s been incredibly valuable out here in these practices we’re seeing a lot of stuff um and look quite frankly we saw the same plays for so long you know you kind of knew exactly what to expect every day that you walked out here to to practice and so not only for the players but the coaches also like we’re all having to come out here and really have our thinking cap on because we’re seeing a lot of new things uh we’re seeing a lot of different stuff and I think that’s going to you know be very beneficial for us as we you know get work on it now into training camp and as we start the regular season yeah and and and I do think that’s significant right because I I think that there are points where it’s like how do you practice against certain schemes right how do you actually do that like think about it what you’re gonna have your scout team trying to come out and replicate the Rams offense you can’t it doesn’t happen like what you gotta coach that offense like you can’t say like okay guys you go out and run these plays that’s not how it works so I do think that that gives him advantage and this is De Mario kind of talking about the same thing man it’s it’s exciting um I think um kobc phenomenal phenomenal person um his name precedes him so uh on and off the field so I was excited to be able to go against uh that challenge I think the tree the coaching tree that he comes from is probably uh upper Edge line of uh the NFL right now and so you’re kind of going against what you typically see from the more explosive offenses in today’s game um coming down from that Shanahan tree and uh so it’s been I’ve got a chance to kind of pick his brain and just kind of ask a lot of those things because you know as a Mike linebacker a lot of times when I’m playing the game I’m not playing the player so much as I’m playing against the offensive coordinator and so I think that has been something that um has been a more challenging thing so now kind of having that in the backyard is is is is very helpful uh especially like when we get into the season if I have certain questions I know I can probably go to him and kind of get his thoughts and and maybe get like a little deeper little deeper backstory on certain things so it’s been it’s it’s been great it’s it’s challenging for us uh a lot of the looks that we wouldn’t get until the season we’re getting now and so that’s exciting right you know another thing uh dear talked about was Willie gay and and one thing that stood out with Willie gay the new linebacker is athleticism and I think he’s going to give the Saints the ability to be in base a lot more often um and you know that’s that could help that could hurt in in certain instances um I don’t know what percentage of of the season the Saints are going to be in base but I would guarantee you that as long as Willie gay is healthy it’s gonna be higher than than it has been okay not just wiie gay but as long as all three linebackers are healthy it’s gonna be higher than it was in the past and and we’ll see um one other thing from De Mario’s comments that he’s made clear in the past whether it be social media Instagram whatever Demario Davis a Derek Car Guy and it’s it’s interesting it makes sense because they’re both you know men of Faith right like it’s very important to their lifestyle they’re holding a a night of worship I think they’re calling it um and you know I guess if you’re trying to figure out how to create a a cohesive locker room around your quarterback around a defense it’s not bad to have a guy like de Mario Davis in your corner you know and if you’re like if if you’re wondering whether like that’s just for show like no that like that’s been talked about for a while like this is not a this is not something they’re just doing like they they do they’re close right and so you know I think if if you’re a fan of Mario Davis hey that that that should help um that group uh finally you know tesm Hill we’re gonna talk a lot more about tesm Hill in the next episode the first episode of next week we’re also gonna talk a lot about Jake haer he was able to talk to Jake and you know talk talk about some of the work he’s done and and why he looks the way he does this off season I’m not talking about the mustache but first I do want to talk about Tamm Hill and just one more element of okay the defense is adjusting and this is what he said about um Michael Hodes the linebacker coach coming to talk to him yeah I think the more that I do the harder it is to defend you know and so I like I said Clinton has been moving me around and you know I had a conversation with Coach Hodes earlier today and he was like hey what what you know trying to figure out a Personnel grouping and what that does for me and they were trying to figure out what you know what defensively how are they going to match up and you know what are they going to do against that Personnel so I think the more that we can do you know the the better and harder it is to defend yeah and so next episode I want to talk more about t Mill’s role and what that might look like and how that could impact things going forward but I I do think it’s telling that you have defensive coaches coming up to offensive players and talking about personnel and schemes and and that’s kind of what’s happening right the defenses the defense coaches and the defenses the defensive coaches and the defense are using this opportunity to scheme to figure out how to play this offense and I think that’s going to be helpful I I I really do um and I think that’s going to be something we watch throughout Camp normally early on we see the defense ahead of the offense right especially like last year because everyone’s coming in fresh and you’re learning a new offense you know this year and but the defense know there’s only so many players the defense has gone against it this year it seems like the offense is ahead of the defense a little bit uh you you you didn’t see last year Derek Carr completing seven of seven passes in a day you just didn’t um so I I think watching how that group grows to face this scheme and grows to adjust to the motion and and these new packages and the new Personnel I’m excited to watch it but all right again I know this is a quick episode but I did want to get you something I apologize it took so long this late in the week but uh we’ll be getting back onto a more normal schedule starting next week and going forward um until everything gets crazy again which I’m sure will but uh the otaa availability next week is going to be on Wednesday so keep that in mind we won’t have it we won’t have any reaction until probably Thursday or maybe a live stream on Wednesday if there’s time um but as always I appreciate everyone who reaches out everyone who follows on Twitter if you have any questions comments suggestions hit me up uh DMS are open or just at me right uh thanks everyone who subscribes on YouTube thanks everyone who follows our content on WWL um you know this is always a tough time of year in terms of like trying to take some time off but also not miss a beat in terms of everything that’s happening so we’ll keep giving you content I appreciate everyone who follows along and everyone who chimes in everyone who hangs out and uh and throws his questions in the mailbag it’s it’s always nice and I always appreciate engaging with y’all but all right hudat ghost Saints peace y’all peace