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Former Saints OL Explains Why It's Finally Time For Rebuild In New Orleans · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: AFR on Demand is brought to you by Breck Golf.
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  Speaker 1: dot org, Golf dot Breck dot org. James Hurst former
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans Sink. That's the joints for a couple of
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  Speaker 1: minutes here. I mean, thanks for the time as always.
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  Speaker 2: How are you absolutely doing? Great? Glad to be on.
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  Speaker 1: Would you want there to be an NHL team in
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans?
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  Speaker 2: I think it'd be a pretty interesting dynamic. Like you said,
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  Speaker 2: nobody showed up. I think, unfortunately that would be my
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  Speaker 2: guess as well.
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  Speaker 1: Who I mean, I'd love the opportunity to see something different,
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  Speaker 1: But my goodness that is that certainly doesn't seem like
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  Speaker 1: that makes a whole lot of economic sense. But I
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  Speaker 1: would assume they know way more than me. Anyway, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: curious your thoughts. We had had a chance to talk
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  Speaker 1: since Kellen Moore was hired. I mean, you're you know,
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  Speaker 1: you're a veteran guy, and uh, if I'm not mistaken, man,
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  Speaker 1: uh your early thirties right with a thirty three?
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  Speaker 2: Thirty three, you're thirty three.
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  Speaker 1: What would it be like if your head coach in
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  Speaker 1: the NFL was thirty six?
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  Speaker 2: It would be very different. It's not something that I experienced.
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  Speaker 2: I think you're putting a lot of trust in your
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  Speaker 2: players to be able to maintain that sort of respect
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  Speaker 2: that a head coach should have. Instead of a peer
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  Speaker 2: to peer relationship, this has to be you know, he's
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  Speaker 2: in a superior role and he has to be treated
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  Speaker 2: that way and respected that way. So I think I
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  Speaker 2: think you're really trusting your players that the culture in
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  Speaker 2: the locker room would be able to handle that similar
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  Speaker 2: of an age you.
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  Speaker 1: Played with the veteran guys Cam Jordan and Mario Davis,
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  Speaker 1: guys like that. Do you think they would handle it well?
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  Speaker 2: I definitely do. I feel like this is the way
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  Speaker 2: the NFL is moving. There seems to be a youth
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  Speaker 2: movement and coaches and some of them have had a
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  Speaker 2: lot of success, so I think it's a good thing.
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  Speaker 2: I think the Saints front office. They have to have
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  Speaker 2: the confidence that the leaders in that locker room would
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  Speaker 2: be able to handle something like that, and that the
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  Speaker 2: older veterans on the team would be able to instill
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  Speaker 2: that in the young guys, so that it's not a
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  Speaker 2: one or two year relationship. It's something, you know, hopefully
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  Speaker 2: that lasts for a decade or more.
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  Speaker 1: James, You're One of the reasons I like talking to
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  Speaker 1: you and guys in your position is when you're so
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  Speaker 1: closely removed from the league, you still you're very familiar
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  Speaker 1: with a lot of the players and the coaches. So
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  Speaker 1: while you never coached or played for Kellen Moore, you
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  Speaker 1: certainly played on teams against him when you were playing.
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  Speaker 1: Did you have any opinion of his teams, his offenses,
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  Speaker 1: of him at all during your time as a player.
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  Speaker 2: I really liked them, to be honest with you, particularly,
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  Speaker 2: I felt like he made a big impact in Dallas.
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  Speaker 2: You know, they had some really good seasons offensively there
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  Speaker 2: with dak Now, they threw the ball wow a huge
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  Speaker 2: portion of the time. So you know, in that type
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  Speaker 2: of way, you wonder what the offense would look like.
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  Speaker 2: Because this Super Bowl winning season with the Eagles, you know,
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  Speaker 2: they they featured saekuon Barkley and he really was the
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  Speaker 2: key reason, I believe for their success and their Super
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  Speaker 2: Bowl wins. So, you know, I don't know that I
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  Speaker 2: understand what his what his mantra is, or you know,
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  Speaker 2: what he's going to stick to when the game's on
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  Speaker 2: the line. I do know that he's He's coached some
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  Speaker 2: very talented quarterbacks and in the middle of a big
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  Speaker 2: quarterback decision, a lot rides on that. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: what is he going to be like developing a young guy.
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  Speaker 2: We just haven't seen it, you know, not that I
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  Speaker 2: know of with him, So it'll be interesting to see.
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  Speaker 2: But I know he's had a lot of success and
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  Speaker 2: from that regard, he's definitely deserving of a chance to
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  Speaker 2: be a head coach.
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  Speaker 1: James Hurst is our guest. Uh, he's a bling his
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  Speaker 1: staff right now. And you know one of the guys,
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  Speaker 1: of course, Joel Thomas, who's the running backs coach in
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans for nine seasons. He was there for all
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  Speaker 1: the years you were there. I just spent this season
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  Speaker 1: in New York with the Giants. Now is back in
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  Speaker 1: New Orleans. Well, can you tell us about Joel Thomas?
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  Speaker 1: For those who you know, maybe just don't know much
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  Speaker 1: about the same staff or no Joel on the periphery.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love I love Joel. He's a great person.
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  Speaker 2: I think he's a good coach. Obviously, I can't necessarily
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  Speaker 2: speak to him as a running back coach, but what
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  Speaker 2: I can speak to is his involvement with the offensive line.
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  Speaker 2: I think was was pretty unique in my perspective. He
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  Speaker 2: was always, you know, whether in our meetings or out
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  Speaker 2: of practice, he was talking to the guys about you know, hey,
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  Speaker 2: what run plays do you like? Or hey, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Alvin really likes these plays, what do you think about him?
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  Speaker 2: Or or what are you guys trying to accomplish with
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  Speaker 2: this sort of run blocking scheme. Same with you know,
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  Speaker 2: third down kind of pass detection and blitz pick up.
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  Speaker 2: He was always really involved with the offensive line, which
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  Speaker 2: I appreciated because you know, those things work together. If
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  Speaker 2: you're running back can read it well and the O
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  Speaker 2: line can block it well, that needs to be made
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  Speaker 2: known to all involved parties. And I think he did
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  Speaker 2: a really good job of communicating amongst the position groups
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  Speaker 2: as opposed to just you know, putting his head down
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  Speaker 2: in the running back room and making sure they were,
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  Speaker 2: you know, good with their jobs, not worrying about anybody else.
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  Speaker 1: You know, James, I think we we all, you know,
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  Speaker 1: media fans, we focus so much on the coordinators because
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  Speaker 1: they tend to be the play callers on both sides
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  Speaker 1: of the ball. How would you describe the importance of
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  Speaker 1: the role that position coaches have on staff.
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  Speaker 2: It's it's vitally important. I mean, this is who the
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  Speaker 2: players spend ninety percent of their time with. I mean
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  Speaker 2: you're in the meeting rooms, you're watching film with these coaches.
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  Speaker 2: It's not super common for the offense to meet as
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  Speaker 2: a whole and drill down into details. Those are more
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  Speaker 2: games plan overview type of meetings. So the position coach
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  Speaker 2: is super important one. As a coach, you know, they
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  Speaker 2: have to be proficient. They have to be able to
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  Speaker 2: teach the proper technique or appropriate technique to their players
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  Speaker 2: to get the job done. But but they also have
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  Speaker 2: to have the relationship right. They have to. They have
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  Speaker 2: to know their guys, they have to care about them,
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  Speaker 2: and there has to be some sort of there has
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  Speaker 2: to be more than just a coach player relationship. It
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  Speaker 2: has to be something a little bit personal because that's
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  Speaker 2: how you're going to get the most out of your guys.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we get James Hurst with us here for
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  Speaker 1: a couple more minutes. Well, you were in Baltimore, you
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  Speaker 1: played for one head coach, You came to New Orleans
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  Speaker 1: when Sean Payton was here, and you were there for
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  Speaker 1: the transition to Dennis Allen. Can you explain to us
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  Speaker 1: just kind of how the transition went because so much
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  Speaker 1: of that staff was retained as opposed to now where
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  Speaker 1: there is a lot of staff turnover, and just maybe
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  Speaker 1: the pros or cons of retention versus turnover.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, le's start with the pros. Truthfully, I feel like
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  Speaker 2: there's there's less pros and more cons in this situation.
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  Speaker 2: The pros are that you have some sort of continuity.
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  Speaker 2: The coaches know the players well, They can speak to
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  Speaker 2: their strengths and weaknesses really well because they've they've spent
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  Speaker 2: time working with them in the meeting rooms that practice,
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  Speaker 2: so that those relationships are already established and you don't
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  Speaker 2: have to spend the large amount of energy it takes
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  Speaker 2: to learn each other and learn those relationships and what
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  Speaker 2: they're going to look like. The cons in a sort
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  Speaker 2: of coaching change like that is the transition of power,
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  Speaker 2: if you will, I think gets really muddy. It's hard
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  Speaker 2: for like, let's let's talk about the Saints when when
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  Speaker 2: Dennis Allen became the head coach, he instantly became the
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  Speaker 2: boss of every coach on the offensive side of the ball.
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  Speaker 2: Whereas in the past, the oppositive coordinator, defensive coordinator, they
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  Speaker 2: were peers in a sense when when someone gets promoted
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  Speaker 2: to that head position, to me, it feels like it's
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  Speaker 2: hard for in our case, the offensive coordinators and off
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  Speaker 2: the offensive coaches to kind of get on board with
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  Speaker 2: that and roll with that, you know, change in in
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  Speaker 2: power and in position. So this is why I think
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  Speaker 2: it's much better to go outside the building when hiring
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  Speaker 2: a head coach. And this is not just the Saint,
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  Speaker 2: So I believe this for everybody because it allows everyone
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  Speaker 2: to come into the building, allows all these players to
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  Speaker 2: come into the building knowing who's in charge, who's my boss,
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  Speaker 2: who's their boss, and we can understand the flow of power.
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  Speaker 2: So that way, when decisions have to be made, it's
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  Speaker 2: very clearcut who has the final call. So that's that's
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  Speaker 2: the position room, that's the Office of Coaches. Meetings at
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  Speaker 2: the defensive coaches meetings, and then that's in the full
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  Speaker 2: staff meetings. Look, when they're going to make a decision
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  Speaker 2: on fourth and one, Hey, are we going for it
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  Speaker 2: this week? The head coach makes that call, right, and
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  Speaker 2: he sticks with it. So I think I think it's
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  Speaker 2: good for the power dynamics in the building. And I
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  Speaker 2: think it makes the players and some of the lower
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  Speaker 2: level coaches, it makes their job a little easier because
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  Speaker 2: they don't they don't have to wonder about that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: It's very clearly laid out for everybody.
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  Speaker 1: That's a really fascinating take and how this all may go.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like the transitioning the way they are might
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  Speaker 1: might actually be be beneficial as opposed to trying to
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  Speaker 1: retain the culture the way they did back in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty one. Maybe the other biggest question, James, is the cap.
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  Speaker 1: And this is look this for a decade now, this
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  Speaker 1: has been a conversation we have and I think all
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  Speaker 1: of us are sort of numb too. We just know
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  Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. Right, They're gonna restructure deals I get
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  Speaker 1: within cap compliance internally, Like among the players, did you
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  Speaker 1: all talk about about that? The salary cap, the issues
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  Speaker 1: all the contract shuffling that had to happen.
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  Speaker 2: You know, not much A lot of the times in
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  Speaker 2: the locker room, the cap situation was very personal to
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  Speaker 2: each player because the truth of the matter is we're
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  Speaker 2: all competing over the same dollars in that salary cap.
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  Speaker 2: So that's kind of one area where the players, particularly
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  Speaker 2: in the same position group, they might not be talking
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  Speaker 2: a lot about the cap situation. However, I do know
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  Speaker 2: that that everyone was aware of it. Everyone was aware that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it was keeping us from going out and signing,
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  Speaker 2: you know, a big splash free agent signing. They knew that.
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  Speaker 2: And for a while there that was okay because you know,
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  Speaker 2: we felt like we had everyone in the building at
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  Speaker 2: those big time important positions to get the job done.
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  Speaker 2: But also I think you've seen that shift a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: I think maybe the last two years, maybe maybe three years,
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  Speaker 2: you've seen us missing players at those those hallmark positions
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  Speaker 2: that are real game changers, and without the anability, without
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  Speaker 2: the ability to go out and sign something like that,
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  Speaker 2: it just makes it really hard to compete at a
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  Speaker 2: high level playoff team.
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  Speaker 1: When you look at the job that like, it was
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  Speaker 1: very clear that this organization was all in to win
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  Speaker 1: at the end with Drew Brees and they were sort
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  Speaker 1: of mortgaging the future. I'm not going to ask you,
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  Speaker 1: with the benefit of hindsight, if that was the right decision,
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  Speaker 1: But do you think that the way they continue to
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  Speaker 1: approach this cap situation is the right way to go
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  Speaker 1: or would you be in favor of so? I guess
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  Speaker 1: hard internally, James, but of understanding you're going for a
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  Speaker 1: full reset, I.
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  Speaker 2: Do think it would be hard. I agree with you
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  Speaker 2: as a player, you know, getting the feeling that, hey,
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  Speaker 2: the team's not trying to to win next year, just
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  Speaker 2: knowing that every player's career is very limited. You never
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  Speaker 2: know when your last game will be, your last play
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  Speaker 2: will be. So to have that feeling of, you know,
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  Speaker 2: my team doesn't feel like they're doing everything they can
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  Speaker 2: to compete and to make a playoff bush that would
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  Speaker 2: be that would be something that would be really, really hard.
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  Speaker 2: But I think there's there's got to be change. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you missed the playoffs three years in a row, and
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  Speaker 2: that that is the barometer of success, right Playoffs, playoff
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  Speaker 2: success and Super Bowl championships, those are the goals that
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  Speaker 2: that everyone's competing after. So if you're not even in
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  Speaker 2: contention for the Super Bowl. I think you have to
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  Speaker 2: make changes, and I do think the time is now.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you could talk about hindsight with the decision
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  Speaker 2: in the past, but I do think the times now.
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  Speaker 2: You have a natural transition with a new head coach,
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  Speaker 2: a young head coach who's hiring young position coaches. It
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  Speaker 2: feels like the tides are changing. And and I really think,
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  Speaker 2: as everyone knows it's quarterback decision, that that surely is
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  Speaker 2: coming up soon is going to tell us a lot
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  Speaker 2: about where the Saints are headed this year and into
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  Speaker 2: the future.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think they should do?
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  Speaker 2: I think it's time, I do. I think, uh, with
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  Speaker 2: with the lack of success in a weak division in
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  Speaker 2: the past three seasons, with a quarterback who's on a
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  Speaker 2: on a really limiting contract for the team, We've tried
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  Speaker 2: the restructuring, right, We've done it. We've we've kicked the
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  Speaker 2: can down the road, if you will. But I think
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  Speaker 2: it's time. You've got a new head coach who would
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  Speaker 2: love to establish himself and make a name for himself
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  Speaker 2: as a successful head coach, as an offensive guy. I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure he wants a new quarterback, you know, the quarterback
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  Speaker 2: is the hinge position right now for the Saint There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot going on. They have great draft capital this year,
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  Speaker 2: so that's something you love to see as a young
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  Speaker 2: head coach, and I think we need to utilize that
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  Speaker 2: and understand that this is not an easy situation for
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  Speaker 2: any head coach. Brian Bill Belichick could walk into the
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  Speaker 2: building and not necessarily have a ton of success just
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  Speaker 2: because of the current situation of the team and the
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  Speaker 2: cap structure. So we need to we need to have
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  Speaker 2: realistic expectations, I believe, and especially if you if you
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  Speaker 2: have a young new quarterback, I think we need to
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  Speaker 2: even lower those expectations in the near future a little
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  Speaker 2: bit more, but understanding that that can all go up
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  Speaker 2: and if you get the right guy quarterback, as we
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  Speaker 2: saw with the Commanders, anything can happen.
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  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought up Bill Belichick because as
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  Speaker 1: a former tar heel, I would love to know your
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  Speaker 1: thoughts on your new coach.
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  Speaker 2: I'm excited. You know, obviously, his brand and his status
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  Speaker 2: is bigger than being the head coach of the u
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  Speaker 2: NC football team, which is just crazy to talk about it,
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  Speaker 2: and that just speaks to his level of success that
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  Speaker 2: he experienced in the NFL. So to have a winner,
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  Speaker 2: a proven winner like that as your head coach is
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  Speaker 2: super exciting in the world of nil. That name brand,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've we've already seen it poll recruits from
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  Speaker 2: all over the place and secure some in state ones.
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  Speaker 2: The recruiting has seemed a little bit better this year
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  Speaker 2: in years past, so it's really exciting. I know the
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: fan base is excited. Season tickets have been selling like
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  Speaker 2: crazy compared to the last five years, so it's a
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  Speaker 2: it's a fresh start, it's a new beginning. But I'm
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: excited to see the products on the field. I'm so
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  Speaker 2: interested to see if it's going to look like college
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  Speaker 2: football or if it'll look a little bit more like
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: the NFL.
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be fascinating. If you wears a shot on
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the sideline, the hoodie, you know, I mean, I'm here
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  Speaker 1: for all of it. Man, this is going to be
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  Speaker 1: a show. Hey, great stuff as always, man, always insightful.
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  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, absolutely, thank you.