Are the New Orleans Saints Following the Seattle Seahawks' Secondary Blueprint?

The NFL is a copycat league, and the Seattle Seahawks are currently the cats to be copied. 

The Seahawks' "Legion of Boom" secondary will go down in the annals of NFL history as one of the game's greatest units. It's only natural for teams around the league to try to emulate its success. 

The Saints are merely the latest example of a team taking a similar path in how it is building its secondary. 

A new emphasis is being placed on length, aggressiveness and physicality at the cornerback position due to the Seahawks' success. A safety's ability to cover sideline to sideline will constantly be compared to Seattle's Earl Thomas. Kam Chancellor is now the benchmark for an intimidating strong safety. 

These are the standards by which the rest of the teams around the league will measure their secondaries as the Seahawks get ready to play in their second straight Super Bowl. 

It's a nearly impossible task to duplicate, but it won't stop teams from trying. 

Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan built his system under similar principles throughout his career. It appears he's doing so again as the Saints attempt to improve upon last year's 25th-ranked pass defense. 

New Orleans' current path became evident with the signing of CFL standout Delvin Breaux. The cornerback signed a three-year deal with the Saints Tuesday, according to The New Orleans Advocate's Nick Underhill.   The Seahawks once made a similar move when they plucked Brandon Browner from the Great White North to complete the original iteration of the "Legion of Boom." 

While Breaux doesn't present the same size as Browner—Breaux is 6'1" and 193 pounds, while Browner is 6'4" and 221 pounds—the recent Canadian product still provides length and could make an immediate impact like the former Seahawk once did. 

The Times-Picayune's Evan Woodbery noted that the 25-year-old cornerback was a difference-maker during his time with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 

The comparison goes beyond circumstance, though. 

It's the current makeup of the Saints cornerbacks that is beginning to look more and more like the Seahawks' DBs. On average, Seattle's corners stand 6'1", with Richard Sherman and Tharold Simon being the tallest at 6'3" and Marcus Burley being the only one under 6'0". 

With Breaux added to the Saints, one cornerback on the roster is under 6'0" while the other six average just over 6'1". 

Length and the ability to dominate with a jam are more crucial in the NFL than ever due to the league's emphasis on opening up passing games, which is the result of more stringent pass interference protocols. 

No one knows this better than Jeff Ireland, who served as the Seahawks' draft consultant in 2014. The Saints hired Ireland a week ago, and he will be in charge of the team's college scouting. 

SI.com's Doug Farrar spoke with Seahawks defensive backs coach Kris Richard about what the team sees in each of his starters and how it applies to their scheme. 

The Saints are one of the few teams with the type of talent on the roster to even pseudo-replicate Seattle's system. 

Free Safety

David Goldman/Associated Press

Seattle's vision began with the selection of Earl Thomas in the 2010 NFL draft. The Texas product was selected 14th overall, and multiple teams should be upset about passing on the current standard-bearer at the position. 

Richard described what the Seahawks saw in Thomas prior to the draft and how they helped him become the four-time All-Pro player he is today. 

"

Talk about a pack of dynamite. His speed and his instincts stood out the most. We were projecting him to be a middle-of-the-field safety at the time, and he was just an explosive, committed football player who ran a 4.3. When you take a guy like that and put him in the middle of the field, you're looking at something special. We knew we were going to have to capture him, and coach him, and get him to play the kind of football we desire. And he's stood true.

"

Thomas' range is unmatched, but the Saints' Jairus Byrd is one of the few safeties in the NFL who has proved to be of a similar caliber during his career.

Despite coming into the league one year earlier, Byrd has played in three fewer games than Thomas. Yet the Oregon product leads the former Texas Longhorn in forcing turnovers during their careers. 

Player	Games	Tackles	Interceptions	Deflections	FF
Byrd	77	378	22	35	12
Thomas	80	442	16	38	8

Byrd is a three-time All-Pro selection as well. Like Thomas, he can patrol the field and erase mistakes. 

The only concern for the Saints safety heading into next season is properly rehabbing a torn lateral meniscus knee ligament he suffered in October. Once Byrd is back in the lineup, Ryan can be even more aggressive with his play-calling, as he will be comfortable in the fact that he has a top-flight free safety roaming the last line of defense.

Strong Safety

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New Orleans general manager Mickey Loomis spent a first-round pick on a safety from the University of Texas, much like Seattle did with Thomas. 

Instead of selecting a free safety, though, Loomis chose a versatile strong safety with the 15th overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft. 

Kenny Vaccaro doesn't provide the same type of physical presence as Chancellor—no safety has his imposing 6'3" height and 232-pound frame. 

Chancellor's size made him enticing to the Seahawks before he became a fifth-round pick in the 2010 draft. 

"We knew we needed that kind of safety, someone who could come down in the box, take the hits, take on the blocks and all that good stuff," Richard told Farrar. "To bear the brunt of the load. This dude, he's just so rock-solid. He just runs through people. He's a seek-and-destroy hitter."

The Seahawks are a pure Cover 3 or man-press team. Chancellor is usually found in the box or covering the flats. Vaccaro might not be as specialized, but he certainly adds flexibility to the Saints defense. 

As a rookie, Vaccaro's level of play was surprisingly on par with Chancellor's. In 2013, he was actually better in combined tackling efficiency and tied in run stop percentage, according to Pro Football Focus. 

Vaccaro's play dropped off during his sophomore campaign, but he was still close to Chancellor in combined tackle efficiency. Pro Football Focus also graded the Saints safety higher in coverage during the 2014 campaign. 

Vaccaro may be three inches shorter and 18 pounds lighter than Chancellor, but the former first-round selection has the potential to become a similar presence. He'll just do it in slightly different ways. 

Left Cornerback

Michael Thomas/Getty Images

Unlike the Seahawks, the Saints don't run a left-right designation within their defense. Sherman only plays on the left half of the field for Seattle, and he completely shuts down that side. 

What Sherman can do as one of the NFL's only lockdown cornerbacks sets up the rest of the defense. The Saints are currently searching for that type of player, and Richard told them exactly where to look. 

It starts with the cornerback's ability to defend the fade route. 

"

I think the beauty of it is when [Sherman] is consistently in position and gets the football the way that he does. He did it [at Stanford]. So, when you see him do that so naturally, to go for the football, we said, 'That's what we desire.' We don't have a defense without cornerbacks who can stand up and defend that play. It's the No. 1 play we demand must be stopped, and our guys do a great job of that.

"

That player may not have been on New Orleans' roster last year, but it doesn't mean someone currently on the team can't develop into one. 

The Saints selected Stanley Jean-Baptiste with a second-round selection in the 2014 NFL draft. It's eerie how similar he and Sherman are. Both played wide receiver in college before being converted to cornerback. And their physical skill sets are nearly identical.

Player	Height	Weight	Arm Length	40-yard dash	Vertical	Broad	Shuttle
Sherman	6'3"	195	32"	4.56	38"	10'5"	4.33
Jean-Baptiste	6'3"	218	32 3/8"	4.61	41.5"	10'8"	4.33

Jean-Baptiste struggled during his rookie campaign and only played in four games. That's OK, though. Sherman wasn't an instant starter, either. The Seahawks cornerback, however, went on to eventually start 10 games during his first season.

It's difficult to heap these types of expectations on a second-year player, but the Saints expect Jean-Baptiste to be a much bigger contributor in 2015. He clearly has the tools to succeed and become a top-notch cornerback. Whether he continues to follow in Sherman's footsteps is purely up to Jean-Baptiste and his willingness to be the best. 

"I told [Seahawks general manager John Schneider] that I’m not playing football for the money, that I want to be the best to ever play," Sherman wrote in a cover story for Sports Illustrated. 

Right Cornerback

Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

This is the one position in the Seahawks secondary that has changed over the past four seasons. It may also be the one position that's easily solved for the Saints. 

Browner was once the towering presence opposite Sherman. After a couple suspensions, the organization allowed the cornerback to walk via free agency, and he will be playing against them in the Super Bowl as a member of the New England Patriots. 

Byron Maxwell competently filled in for Browner and eventually replaced him. Now, Maxwell might bear the heaviest burden among Seattle's defensive backs.

Playing opposite Sherman is both a blessing and a curse. Sherman essentially shuts down one wide receiver, while Maxwell has to deal with being targeted more than any other player on the defense. 

Richard explained how the fourth-year pro deals with the pressure yet still excels in his role: 

"

It's his technique, and his attention to detail. It's his competitive nature -- he's a profile guy. He gets up on the line of scrimmage, he challenges people, he consistently gets his hands on guys, and he consistently sticks in coverage. When you're checking off the boxes of what makes a desirable cornerback, he hits all the checkmarks: somebody who can run, who gets his hands on people, somebody who sticks to people in coverage, and somebody who can play the ball in the air. Check, check, check, check, check -- put him out there.

"

This role is reserved for the Saints' Keenan Lewis. 

Despite a down season by his standards, Lewis is the veteran presence in New Orleans' secondary. He was the one who stepped up to the plate and covered the opposition's top receiver each week. He leads by example, and the rest of the secondary follows. 

Lewis was one of the few bright spots for the Saints this past season. He remained up to the task each and every week, which is exactly like Maxwell. 

Not Too Far Away

A year ago, the Saints were the NFL's second-best pass defense. 

The Seahawks finished first. 

Injuries and disappointing play led to the collapse of the Saints defense in 2014. But the unit isn't far removed from being one of the league's best. 

While Ryan's secondary can't be expected to truly rival the Seahawks' historic group, the talent is in place to return to the level seen during the defensive coordinator's first season in the Bayou.

Brent Sobleski covers the NFC South for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.