Super Bowl Victor New Orleans Saints Setting Aggression Trend?

Did the Saints performance in their Super Bowl Victory mark a trend for teams to follow the aggression model when building their own teams?  Not necessarily with reference to bone shattering hits, though New Orleans delivered its fair share of those across the playoffs, but rather aggression as an overall football philosophy.

This was already considered the year of "going for it" on fourth down.  Increased offense led to an upward trend that yielded mixed results.

Bill Belichick took a tremendous amount of flak when he tried against the same Colts.  Sean Payton elected to try and failed, had the ball not come back, it would have been a move filled with second-guessing by the media.

Instead the Saints turned a failed fourth down conversion into a field goal anyway.  The Colts conservative play-calling to try and end the half, gave Brees just enough time to march into long field goal range.

Not only did the fourth-down call end up garnering the Saints a field goal, it also worked as a defensive tactic.  Given the time on the clock and their longtime success in the two-minute drill, Indianapolis could very well have worked its way into a field goal attempt of its own.

It was not the only case of aggression.  Don’t be surprised if you see a few more teams attempting on-side kicks in atypical situations next year.  New Orleans’ perfect execution of the play (along with wide out Hank Basket’s less than stellar try for the ball) starting cogwheels turning in purported “offensive genius” types league-wide.

The Saints also found a counter to Indianapolis that will likely be a model for dealing with high-powered veteran teams.  Instead of trying to light Manning early, the team broke its defensive scheming into three distinct sections- first half, third quarter, and fourth quarter.

The fluidly evolving style of defense, which never got comfortable in one scheme or style for too long, did just enough to keep Peyton Manning unsettled.

At 31 of 45 for 333 yards Manning was never skunked as effectively as the New York Jets defense had accomplished early in its all-out approach.  Yet ultimately it held the Colts to only 17 points as the team never had the opportunity to analyze then exploit, as they did when carving up those same Jets in the second half of the conference championship.

Keeping Manning off the field obviously helped considerably, but how many teams playing to just that strategy have been truly effective?  Without holding the Colts to six plays when they did have the ball, there isn’t nearly the same level of clock-eating effectiveness.

The model for building the Saints team also figures into other team’s plans for the future.  Obviously finding an MVP-caliber quarterback via free agency is a near impossibility, but the importance of securing that lead guy, as well as the multiple avenues to do so, was underscored today.

Houston pried Matt Schaub away from Atlanta for a relatively lean price tag, Chicago unloaded a bundle to land Jay Cutler, Arizona picked Kurt Warner up as he was nearing the scrap heap, and the New York Jets traded up to ensure they could land Mark Sanchez.

If Philadelphia hadn’t yet established interest in other team’s looking to land one of its quarterback commodities, it certainly has now.  The days of Trent Dilfer-led teams earning the title are likely over. 

Beyond the obvious importance of a lead quarterback, the team-building model of the Saints appears quite doable on paper.  While the execution of that plan can easily be lost in translation when the wrong mind attempts it, several teams will still try.

The backfield is a combination of role-guys with talent.  Mike Bell and Pierre Thomas are good backs, but tandem guys with very modest paychecks.  Bush’s salary is obviously not in line with his role, but fits the trend of having a Leon Washington, Darren Sproles, smaller swiss-army back to distract defenses.

Pair in adding a few vets allowed to go because they were past their primes in Darren Sharper and Jeremy Shockey, and you have a team that, despite great players, exceeds the sum of its parts.

Landing Gregg Williams also emphasized finding the right staff to make things work.  The unusual up-trend in coordinator and assistant coach turnover (rather than just focusing on the names at the top) will probably continue as teams try to land that Gregg Williams type of impact guy.

 The results will be very mixed across the league.  Some teams will find a measure of success trying to follow the Saints model, others will fall flat because emulation is almost always less successful than innovation, but regardless of the end product, don’t be surprised to see your fair share of teams gleaning from Saints philosophies in play-calling and personnel next year.