Latest / AFR Saints / Saints Insider Mike Triplett Talks Saints Injury Report, Saints-Giants & Mickey Loomis' Future

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Saints Insider Mike Triplett Talks Saints Injury Report, Saints-Giants & Mickey Loomis' Future · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: Much New Orleans Saints coverage with some madlibs mixed in play.
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  Speaker 2: Don't you just go by Mike.
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  Speaker 1: It's time to talk black and gold with the Mike
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  Speaker 1: Triplet of New Orleans Dot Football, presented by Benny's Carwash,
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  Speaker 1: family owned and operated since nineteen fifty one.
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  Speaker 2: All Right, the Saints they head up to Meadowlands. They'll
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  Speaker 2: face the New York Giants because it's on the schedule
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  Speaker 2: and they kind of have to. I guess, really the
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  Speaker 2: intrigue isn't mainly around the games anymore. With the New
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  Speaker 2: Orleans Saints, it's around big picture. We're gonna talk about both.
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  Speaker 2: Uh here with Mike Triplet of New Orleans Dot Football.
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  Speaker 2: You can get him on Twitter at Mike Triplett. Joins
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  Speaker 2: us every Thursday here on AFR and with us again, Mike,
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  Speaker 2: We appreciate the time as always. How are you do good?
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having.
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  Speaker 2: Me of course, man, absolutely, thanks for making the time
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  Speaker 2: as always. You know, I'm kind of going back and forth.
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  Speaker 2: I want to start big picture or the game. I
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  Speaker 2: think I'm gonna lean with the big picture. And obviously,
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  Speaker 2: the report from Jerey Fower of ESPN about Icky loomis
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  Speaker 2: likely remaining the Saints GM shouldn't come as a big surprise.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think everyone knows Mickey's connection with the
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  Speaker 2: organization and things of that nature. What I'm more interested
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  Speaker 2: in from you is kind of a take on. Look,
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of people that wanted change there, and
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  Speaker 2: again the door's not obviously closed, but likely to remain.
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  Speaker 2: What does that kind of say about the future and
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  Speaker 2: the direction of the Saints franchise.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm really curious to see how they approach things,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, even if he's a part of it.
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  Speaker 3: When I had a chance to sit down with him
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  Speaker 3: after they've fired James Bell, and I asked if he
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  Speaker 3: would consider, you know, his role changing. So maybe they
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  Speaker 3: could bring in an executive or a coach who wanted
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  Speaker 3: to work with his own GM, or a coach who
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  Speaker 3: wanted to have his own GM powers. I mean, that
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  Speaker 3: could include Bill Belichick or Mike Brabler. That could include
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  Speaker 3: kying of copy what's going on in Detroit with Dan
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  Speaker 3: Campbell and Brad Holmes coming in together. You know, does
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  Speaker 3: he take more of an ownership executive and let a
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  Speaker 3: young GM kind of be groomed under him and pass
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  Speaker 3: the torch for the future does he completely retire? You know,
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  Speaker 3: all those things are possible when you consider his age
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  Speaker 3: and how long he's been here, and that this is
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  Speaker 3: a good opportunity to bring talent in not only as
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  Speaker 3: a coach, but as a whole structure for a team
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  Speaker 3: that needs change and needs rebuildings. So he said everything
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  Speaker 3: is on the table and everything would be considered. I
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  Speaker 3: don't think he's playing to retire. I don't think he's
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  Speaker 3: going to be fired, but I am curious to see
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  Speaker 3: if the overall structure could change for you know, the
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  Speaker 3: long term future of the team.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think one of those scenarios in the change
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  Speaker 2: of the structure. I mean, you just went through a
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  Speaker 2: lot of do you think one of them might be
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  Speaker 2: more likely than the other?
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  Speaker 3: Not necessarily, I mean I think the most likely scenario
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  Speaker 3: is still he remains the GM and hires a coach
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  Speaker 3: that reports to him. That is the most likely scenario.
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  Speaker 3: I mean the day Thats Allen left, I you know,
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  Speaker 3: put out my prediction that said, like Aaron Glenn would
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  Speaker 3: be the front runner for a number of reasons. Obviously
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  Speaker 3: there's familiarity with Aaron Glenn, but also he's coming from
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  Speaker 3: a program that's doing things right right now and a
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  Speaker 3: model that you would like to follow. But would I
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  Speaker 3: be shocked if if you know, they also brought in
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  Speaker 3: a young personnel person and he goes into a president role.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it kind of reminds me of the David
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  Speaker 3: Griffin trade end language structure that we saw just across
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  Speaker 3: the parking lot. I would not be shocked if they
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  Speaker 3: consider something like that.
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  Speaker 2: Not at all, certainly interesting times. I mean again, the
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  Speaker 2: big picture is what so much of the focus is on,
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  Speaker 2: obviously at this point, but I kind of do want
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  Speaker 2: to This question is kind of in two veins here, Mike,
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  Speaker 2: because I mean, man, you have Dennis Allen fire, Darren
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  Speaker 2: Rizzy comes in, lights a fire under the team. They
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  Speaker 2: win two straight games, go into their buy, and everybody's like, okay,
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  Speaker 2: wait a minute, Hold on a second, how are we
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  Speaker 2: really supposed to feel about this now? They come off
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  Speaker 2: the buy, lose to the in disappointing fashion. What how
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  Speaker 2: are we supposed to feel about this team now going forward? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: We you know, I just did our members only podcast
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  Speaker 3: that we do each week with with Kevin Washington today
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  Speaker 3: and we were kind of talking about we do a
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  Speaker 3: stock watch like stock got stock down every week. And
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  Speaker 3: and you know, technically Darren Rizzy's stock went down from
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  Speaker 3: when he was the two and zero interim coach to
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  Speaker 3: the two and one interim coach. But I don't think
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  Speaker 3: this did like severe damage to to all the good
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  Speaker 3: vibes he brought in to the reputation, you know, that
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  Speaker 3: that he developed for himself. If they go and beat
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  Speaker 3: the Giants as they're supposed to and then come back
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  Speaker 3: and beat the Commanders at home, you know, and and
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  Speaker 3: he's four and one, you know, I mean that that
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  Speaker 3: could all still exist. You know, I don't think the
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  Speaker 3: team's spirit is broken yet after one loss, So one
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  Speaker 3: loss alone didn't didn't completely evaporate all of that, but
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  Speaker 3: it probably means they're one loss away from that. All
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  Speaker 3: elaborating now, I mean, he probably had the wiggle room
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  Speaker 3: of one or two total losses. I think he had
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  Speaker 3: to go seven to one or six and two. Seven
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  Speaker 3: and one probably would have gotten him the job, and
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  Speaker 3: six and two would probably make it about a fifty
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  Speaker 3: to fifty proposition. So he's gonna need a signature win.
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  Speaker 3: Losing by a touchdown in the final minutes when he
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  Speaker 3: got to the red zone against the Rams there's not
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  Speaker 3: a ton of shame in that they were supposed to
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  Speaker 3: lose the game, and it was super close leading at halftime.
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  Speaker 3: So that alone is not going to undo all the
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  Speaker 3: you know, all the goodwill he'll he built up. But
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  Speaker 3: he's gonna have to win when he's not supposed to
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  Speaker 3: win at some point. It's gonna have to come against
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  Speaker 3: Washington or Green Bay. If he just goes out and
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  Speaker 3: beats bad teams and loses to good teams and finishes
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  Speaker 3: five and three as the interim coach, then then I
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  Speaker 3: think he probably will not be the next six such.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Well, their opportunity to get back on the
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  Speaker 2: right track is Sunday against the Giants. Let's touch on
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  Speaker 2: that for a little bit here. Start kind of with
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  Speaker 2: practice report today. I saw Caesar Ruiz back at practice.
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  Speaker 2: It's obviously good news for the Saints. Was out with
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  Speaker 2: the concussion, but obviously would imagine there's still some protocol
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  Speaker 2: that he has to go through. It being on the
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  Speaker 2: field's a big thing. What can you what's the ladyt
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  Speaker 2: you can tell us on Ruiz?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the way Darren Rizzy described it yesterday,
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  Speaker 3: he said he had already gotten through a few stages
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  Speaker 3: of the concussion protocol early in the week. Getting on
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  Speaker 3: the practice field is obviously a big one. You have
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  Speaker 3: to then feel good and not have any you know,
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  Speaker 3: symptoms you know from after practice, and you know that's
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  Speaker 3: the next stage of the protocol. So his clearance wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: come quite yet, but this is this is a valuable
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  Speaker 3: step along that process, which which hopefully signifies that then
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  Speaker 3: he won't lose any games if he doesn't have any
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  Speaker 3: setbacks and if he plays and Aeron McCoy and Lucas
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  Speaker 3: Patrick play. We've seen them out of practice too. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: the first time since week three that they have their
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  Speaker 3: full starting offensive line would obviously be huge for this team.
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  Speaker 3: And they you know, lost Taysom Hill, but do still
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  Speaker 3: have Alvakam. They're going to get Kendre Miller back. There's
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  Speaker 3: a chance that their run game could do really well.
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  Speaker 3: And this is this is a matchup where you want
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  Speaker 3: to lean on your run game. You're hoping you're playing
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  Speaker 3: with a lead in a game against a team like this.
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  Speaker 3: Uh what you know, you could take weather out of
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  Speaker 3: the equation if you can run the ball, and New
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  Speaker 3: York has a lousy run defense, So for a number
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  Speaker 3: of reasons. This would be a good week for for
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  Speaker 3: them to have a fully intacted offensive line and rely
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  Speaker 3: heavily on the ring Week three.
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  Speaker 2: My goodness, Yeah, I mean I knew it had been
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  Speaker 2: a while. Yeah, that just that really puts it all
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  Speaker 2: into perspective there, Mike, And yes, right, run game could
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  Speaker 2: be huge, especially with no Dexter Lawrence on the other
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  Speaker 2: side of the Giants. But yeah, you brought up Taysom Hill.
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  Speaker 2: I did want to touch on that. Look, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: if there's been one narrative that stood out most with
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  Speaker 2: this Saints offense, it's been when Taysom Hill has been
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  Speaker 2: out there, they've been really good. When he hasn't, they
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  Speaker 2: seem to fall off of a cliff. How do they
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  Speaker 2: avoid that here down the stretch with no more Taysom
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  Speaker 2: that year.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not one hundred percent sure it's a direct correlation.
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  Speaker 3: I think Eric McCoy's been a direct correlation. And they
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  Speaker 3: happen to miss a lot of games together. There. There
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  Speaker 3: have been a couple of games where where the you know,
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  Speaker 3: the run game has really been good, dating back to
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  Speaker 3: and it was the game where Taysom Hill came back,
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  Speaker 3: dating dating back until when they went out to LA
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  Speaker 3: and played the Chargers. Even when they played the Panthers
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  Speaker 3: and and lost those two games, the run game had
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  Speaker 3: been pretty good. It was really good in this game.
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  Speaker 3: Uh And that was even without Eric McCoy. So I
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  Speaker 3: do think it's still possible that they can have a
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  Speaker 3: really good run game. But obviously Taysom Hill helps you
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  Speaker 3: in so many ways. He he manipulates the defenses you're
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  Speaker 3: gonna see based on how they decide they have to
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  Speaker 3: match up against you. Darren Rizzy had a really good
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  Speaker 3: point when he said, you see a lot more of
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  Speaker 3: vanilla defense. This is because they need to remain flexible
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  Speaker 3: in case Taysom Hill is a fullback or a tight
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  Speaker 3: end or a wide receiver on every given player or
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  Speaker 3: the quarterback. So you see more of vanilla defense is
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  Speaker 3: when he's out there. And obviously all the shifting and
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  Speaker 3: motioning they do with him. He let the team in
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  Speaker 3: or in receiving yards in this last game, even though
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  Speaker 3: it was only thirty seven. So no one player can
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  Speaker 3: replace all that.
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  Speaker 2: Expectation for Kendre Miller in his in a potential return,
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  Speaker 2: who do you think you see from him?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, the thing about him is it has been frustrating,
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  Speaker 3: how how how many injuries he's dealt with, But every
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  Speaker 3: single time he's been healthy and played, he's splashed. And
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  Speaker 3: I expect him to flash again in this game, especially
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  Speaker 3: knowing that you know, Darren Rizzley is going to give
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  Speaker 3: him that clean slate and be intent. I'm giving him
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  Speaker 3: every chance to prove himself and and kind of wash
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  Speaker 3: away all the negatives that have that have hung out
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  Speaker 3: hung over him like a black cloud away, you know.
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  Speaker 3: Kind of in a very different way, but similar to
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  Speaker 3: what we've seen with Cam Jordan. Gam Jordan was down
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  Speaker 3: to playing ten snaps a game and and he got
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  Speaker 3: a clean slate. He's made the most of it. I
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  Speaker 3: think we're gonna the same type of opportunity as Henry Miller,
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  Speaker 3: and when he gets opportunity, he usually does well with it.
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  Speaker 2: Chatting with Mike triplet New Orleans Dot Football on Twitter
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: at Mike Triplett, conversation has always brought to you by
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Beany's car Wash. Mike, one more for you and we'll
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  Speaker 2: get you out. Flip sides of the ball a little
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  Speaker 2: bit here to Saints defense. I mean, the rush defense
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  Speaker 2: has just been an issue kind of all year for them.
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  Speaker 2: It reared it zugglyhead again in the second half against
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  Speaker 2: the Rams. They're facing a Giants offense. Now this go round,
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  Speaker 2: that's gonna be quarterbacks by Drew Locke. How does the
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  Speaker 2: Saints defense kind of match up with the g Men.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, hopefully this is a team they can finally stop.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's been probably the most disappointing aspect of
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  Speaker 3: this entire States season. The front seven hasn't dealt with
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  Speaker 3: a ton of injuries, the defensive line hasn't dealt with
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  Speaker 3: any injuries at all, and they're just getting run through
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  Speaker 3: like a knighte through Butter's. It's been really disappointing, frustrating.
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  Speaker 3: It was as bad as it's ever been last week. Now.
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  Speaker 3: The Giants don't look like the kind of team that
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  Speaker 3: should be able to do that to you. They don't
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  Speaker 3: have a ton of talent at running back. Their superstar
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  Speaker 3: running back is in Philadelphia now. And you would hope
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  Speaker 3: you're playing with the lead against the Giants and they
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  Speaker 3: have to abandon the run, and you would hope you're
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  Speaker 3: putting in Drew lock in positions where he has to
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  Speaker 3: win this game. But you know, if the Giants can
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  Speaker 3: run the ball, and keep Drew lock out a third
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  Speaker 3: and long and keep the game closed. Uh then then
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  Speaker 3: they take that advantage away. So it's definitely put up
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  Speaker 3: each other up time for the Saints.
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  Speaker 2: Run decent Saints and Giants Sunday up in New York.
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  Speaker 2: See the Saints can get back to their winning ways.
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  Speaker 2: They are a five point favorite in the game. Mike
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  Speaker 2: Triplet New Orleans Dot Football always generous with his time. Mike,
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  Speaker 2: we appreciate it for another week and we'll do it
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  Speaker 2: again soon.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, all right, thank you,