could have been sleeping,

eh? It's Sunday.

It's one of my few days.

I'm with you.

Get up and enjoy the day.

No, I'm not going to spend a day with my family.

I'm going to spend a day watching this crap, and then I'm going to go do a short on it and be mad about it, and then I'm going to be mad the rest of the day, and nobody's going to want to be around me.

Meanwhile, again, after the Dennis Allen experiment failed, right? So this is failure number two in a

38 carries, 175 yards.

I'm going to say this.

I'm going to give Kellen Moore some props because there's been nothing but grief over the past three weeks.

And even the numbskulls yesterday, they weren't even going to give him props yesterday.

Like, oh, you put in Spencer Ratner and you put in the backup.

I mean, it was for two plays.

Come on.

If we have seen them, it's just been spotty here and there.

Mm-hmm.

So when you do something and you're talking about, we've now talked about two different things in historically bad context for this football team in the course of just either yesterday or in the course of a three game home stand, and you have to start questioning whether this guy is in over his head.

So that's the first thing that I think of.

But, you know, then you start looking at, and you and I have talked about this before, but the lack of depth on this football team.

We have said before, and I think that it's just getting multiplied or amplified now, that when you lose players of significance, and you're a team that can't afford to lose any players of significance, much less multiple players of significance-

Oh.

This team was completely and utterly unprepared, and, you know, again, your coach looked lost.

So to me, you can...

How did they become a more consistent football team?

I think when you look at yesterday, I think you have to look at Asim Richards and the fact that he hasn't started.

When's the last time he played four quarters? It's probably been a while.

I'm not making excuses for the dude, but he clearly either was out of shape or not ready to go or not ready to play four quarters.

I mean, I agree with you.

I think he was fine for the first two and a half quarters, maybe three quarters, but he got absolutely destroyed in the fourth quarter.

Fulaga did too, but at least he had Max Crosby going against him for most of the afternoon.

What are your thoughts about Monday night?

pretty amazing it really is i mean you look at at again where he was last year to where he is now and and look there are certain attributes you look at when you're looking at a quarterback in the nfl and look he's got him you've seen it now there's a sample size big enough right now where you can look at it and say okay this guy's got it

well and that's all you've really wanted right i mean nobody's asking anyone to be Drew Brees and you know you had some quarterbacks coming here you know Jameis was fun um he is what he was uh you know Derek Carr never endeared himself to the city he was never going to make it here I mean I don't think any of us knew well maybe some people say they knew but I don't think any of us really knew what was going to happen with him right off the bat but this this kid has come in here uh and I call a 27 year old kid because I'm old but um You know, this kid has come in here, and he's endeared himself to New Orleans, and he's fought to obviously have a rapport with his teammates that he clearly has.

I mean, he and Olave obviously are more than just passing partners.

They seem to be friends, and they take up for one another.

And, look, I love it.

It's a different kind of team.

If you look at Sean Payton's best teams and the ones that – That did something.

Your thoughts?

How do you feel about that?

Well, I mean, I do think that maybe he should have played a little bit in that last preseason game.

And at the same time, I mean, is playing one half of a preseason game, would it have changed that much in what we saw yesterday? Not sure.

I certainly don't think it would have changed enough to think that he would have been a completely different quarterback to start.

I think it's part of, look, he's got a lot of new people.

I mean, Travis A. Chan, obviously a new running back.

You know, the whole backfield is new.

The two controversial calls, what did you think about that, the illegal low block and, of course, the forward pass?

With that said, Jim, as we open up, your thoughts on the Saints' first 53?

Pretty much to script, I would think.

There are some areas of concern for me, but it's hard to have a lot of concern right now because it's August the 31st.

This thing is going to be an ever-changing script.

The fact that there are only seven wide receivers and tight ends combined is certainly going to change before August.

September 13th, probably will change before the end of September 1st.

You can't imagine they're going to stick with just four receivers in their active roster for very long.

Your thoughts?

The NFC South is a mirror image of each of these teams, a mirror image of each other, because if there are significant injuries, all those teams are going to take a step back.

They really do.

And look, what's the difference, though? I think Tampa Bay probably has a better set of backups than the Saints have.

So, I mean, when you look at the Saints, the backups, they're just not good.

I mean, that's part of the problem.

That's what we saw.

When you look at – when you make a Stetson Bennett look like a starting quarterback, you've got problems.

What's your take on all this?

You know, so I've

already said I said this this morning, too, and this is part of the whole argument.

I said, if if if it comes down to either Rattler or Wilson, the under seven and a half is going to be the easiest bet you could possibly make on the betting wheel this year.

So of the guys that played, who stuck out to you? You know, interestingly enough, we talked about this this morning, and before I looked at the stats, I really thought Trey Palmer was the guy that I was most interested in.

And then I looked at the stats, and they were a little mundane, and I didn't realize there was – but just the – I don't know if it was the way he caught the ball or the fact that he was – how much he was involved or uh he made tough catches can play on special teams he brings a lot of versatility bub means had better numbers than he had um i just think to me trey palmer brings more to the table than bub means brings and i don't i don't think you're going to see a world in which both of those guys make the team barring injuries so those two guys stuck out out at me um you know how could you not like the the undrafted free agent uh along the line uh I'm drawing a...

Is it Heldman? Heldman? I'm drawing a...

Yeah, Heldman, yeah.

Do you want to ask you before we go your thoughts on the passing of Skip Berman?

You can

go down the line all you want, but I'm going to give you a stat, okay? And look, I say this with a grain of whatever condiment you want to use.

Tony Chachere's.

PFF, there you go.

PFF has its rankings out.

They had their rankings out from last year on offensive linemen, and they ranked 81 guards who played enough to be ranked.

Okay? 81 guards in the NFL.

You can't wait for teams to be able to waive an offensive lineman and bring them in on a flyer.

Ceiling for this team, in your opinion, how far can they go? What's the best record you think they can have in this upcoming season?

I talked about it today.

I think for the Saints to have any chance to win 10 games and win the division, first of all, that's the absolute ceiling.

I don't think there's any way they win more than 10 games.

That's the absolute...

I don't think that's going to happen.

But if they are going to do that, some things need to happen.

You first.

Most Saints fans feel like this is a 9-10 win

team.

I'll put it this way, okay? So this isn't every year, obviously.

But last year, the Seahawks, at this time last year, were about 60-1 to win the Super Bowl.

The New England Patriots were somewhere along the lines of 85-90-1.

So they don't always get it right.

There aren't always, you know, they're not 100%, but they're a good barometer.

And I think, again, you know within the division they got a chance to maybe split or, again, maybe come out with a winning record in the division if this team can stay healthy and they are the team that a lot of people believe they are here in New Orleans.

First of all, I want you to tell me where you were and what you remember about June 8, 1996, LSU versus Miami, and, of course, the incredible walk-off homer by Warren Morris.

Yeah, Warren Moore's day.

Oh, I remember exactly where I was.

I was in my apartment on the West Bank in Stonebridge Apartments watching all by myself.

Why I was watching by myself, I have no idea.

I think I did go to work that evening.

I was on the copy desk at the time.

What do you think is the strongest position on the Saints team,

And now this talk about trading Per- Trey Murphy for, for draft picks, are you kidding me? I mean, [laughs] if you, if you have any chance of anybody coming to the arena, you better have players that are coming for Trey Murphy that, that again, can make this team better, or Trey Murphy better be on this team when they open up in October.

I mean, the difference is, though, either they don't, they don't care, uh, if the Pelicans stink.

If they end up having to move, so what? I mean, I really do th- I, I, I think that's the way they feel right now.

I mean, I don't think they have plans to move the Pelicans anywhere, but it's not like the Saints, where they...

This city can't afford to lose the Saints.

They just can't.

I mean, you, you lose the Saints, you're losing all sorts of things that go with the Saints in the future, okay? Some people who don't, who don't follow sports and don't understand sports don't understand the economic, uh, value of the New Orleans Saints to the, to the city.

You know, what's the hold up in terms of a contract? Is it that maybe the Saints are looking for guarantees, uh, that in case there's an injury, uh, that, that, uh, that, that ultimately, again, they, that, uh, they're, they're gonna get burned by the contract? Uh, or is this a situation where, again, Al- Olave's asking for more than they're willing to give? Uh, let's take Olave first, your thoughts.