Former basketball player Greg Paulus joined Saints as quarterback

The New Orleans Saints are actually in lack of an experienced veteran quarterback to be back up for Drew Brees, but at the moment they just add more rookie quarterbacks and it seems that they may get a quarterback from the green-hand group.

Two days after the rookie minicamp ended, the Saints signed another undrafted free agent, quarterback Greg Paulus, who used to play basketball in college but converted to football in senior year. Now the Saints have as many as three options in backup quarterback, including Chase Daniel and Sean Canfield.

"I think anybody that could be put in the same category as Drew Brees, that's something you want to be a part of,” Paulus told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “He's just won a Super Bowl, he's had an unbelievable career in the NFL and just to be considered for something like that—trying to be a part of his team—that's something that I'd love to have."

By so far, the backup quarterback of last season, Mark Brunell, is still uncertain about whether to continue wearing Saints jersey. It’s been reported that the New York Jets hold interests in him, but the player himself seems still like staying with the Saints. If he returns, Daniel, Paulus and Canfield will be contenders for the No.3 quarterback.

Addition of Charles Brown caused trade discussion on Jammal Brown

The New Orleans currently have two outside linebackers with surname of Brown: restricted free agent Jammal Brown, and rookie Charles Brown. At first it was considered to be a good thing to Saints defense, but later people began to worry whether the addition of young Brown could make elder Brown expendable to the Saints.

Basically, Jammal Brown has done a good job with the Saints as a left tackle. Being drafted by the Saints as a first-round pick in 2005, he started at left tackle from 2006 to 2008. However, he missed all of the 2009 season because of injuries and became a restricted free agent in March. As he has not signed a new contract offer of $3.6 million a year, there is simply good chance for him to take off Saints jersey and play with a new team. Missing all the team’s offseason program by so far, Jammal seems ready to leave the New Orleans. But reportedly, both sides still have the intention to retain the relationship, so what we are sure now is that Jammal is going to play for 2010 season, whichever team he is going to play with.

As for Charles, who was taken from the second round of 2010 NFL draft, he is totally a green hand but his performance during college football career was just amazing enough to make him a good fit in Saints defense. With the experience of starting at tight end and left tackle for the Trojans respectively in 2008 and 2009, the young Brown has been highly expected to improve Saints’ defense a lot, or at least offer the team with more freedom to rearrange the line.

Chance for LB Thomas to join Saints is small

While the New Orleans Saints did not address much help to their defense after the three-day 2010 NFL draft, there is a good defensive lineman available now as the New England Patriots just released 11-year veteran Adalius Thomas. However, analysts pointed out that Thomas would not be a good solution to Saints’ defensive problems.

Solely looking at Thomas’ statistics could give us an impression that he could do well both at linebacker and defensive end, and his versatility could help the Saints a lot in improving the relatively weak defense line. Joining the Patriots in 2007 as a free agent, Thomas has had 146 tackles, 14 sacks, 14 pass deflections, 2 forced fumbles and 1 interception returned for a touchdown. During the first seven seasons he spent with the Baltimore Ravens, Thomas made two Pro Bowls respectively in 2003 and 2006. However, the main factor preventing him from putting on the Saints jersey could be the 3-4 schemes he has been used to play in.

Both the Ravens and Patriots hold 3-4 schemes and thus Thomas has been a 3-4 defensive player for his entire career and it would be hard for him to adjust to Saints’ 4-3 scheme. Although there are good examples of 3-4 linebacker making successful transition to 4-3 defensive end, it’s just unlikely to happen with Thomas. Even if the Saints are interested in signing him, Thomas himself may just hesitate to accept the offer. Instead, he could possibly choose the New York Jets, who are also interested and hold a 3-4 scheme.

Saints still made some good choices with late picks

Winning the team’s first Super Bowl championship last season, the New Orleans Saints were given late picks in all rounds of this year’s NFL draft and really have few choices when it was their turn to pick. However, they still managed to make some good choices that are expected to improve some positions with the team.

First let’s have a look at Saints newly drafted players from all rounds. The team used the 32nd pick of the first round to draft Florida State cornerback Patrick Robinson, interestingly the same choice with the one they made in the first round of last season’s draft and with the first pick of the Vikings, who also made their first choice with a cornerback. Then the Saints selected a tackle from USC, Charles Brown and tight end Jimmy Graham from Miami-Florida. The last few choices in the final rounds included defensive tackle AI Woods from LSU, center Matt Tennant from Boston College and the last one was quarterback Sean Canfield from Oregon State.

Then we can have an analysis on what help these newly drafted players could offer to this season’s defending champion team. First of all, the addition of another cornerback is highly expected to bolster the team’s defense, which was a relatively weak point with the Super Bowl XLIV winner.

The selection of tackle Brown was not taken as necessary but it simply is not a choice. Tight end Graham could be a perfect backup for another former Hurricanes tight end, Jeremy Shockey, who is now wearing No. 88 Saints jersey. Woods has proven his talent in football and is expected to develop into a great defensive tackle if he sticks with the position and learns well.

There is no doubt that the Saints had a lucky pick with center Tennant, who was previously rated as one of the best two centers with Maurkice Pouncey from Florida. With Tennant’s arrival, the Saints could finally find the right answer to problems with this position.

Then it turns to the last pick quarterback Canfield, who is definitely not the worst quarterback in the draft. While it is for sure that Drew Brees will keep his starting job with the Saints, there is good chance for Canfield to be given the backup job in his first or second season.