In New Orleans, Drew has been out with an abdominal strain. Nothing serious. However, Champ Bailey is out with a leg injury of some kind and things look a little murkier as far as he is concerned. Sean Payton became belligerent when asked about Bailey in a presser. In camp, the offense has been dominating the defense, especially in the passing game, even with backups McCown and Griffin. Graham, Colston, Meachem, and Cooks are a handful for any defense though, even those led by a member of the Ryan family. Backup QB Chase Griffin has popped a few times in camp. He's the front runner in many people's eyes for the backup spot. Which means Luke won't be offering brother Josh any tips on common foes this season. Cooks has been impressive. Very quick, very shifty. He's also been returning kicks. I personally want to see how he's going to respond after taking a big hit from someone like Goldson, or Barron. I've seen a lot of college flashers who get drafted, stir up a ton of hype in practices and then take a big hit and are thereafter scared and worthless. Not saying Cooks will be that kind of guy, but against us he'll think twice about going over the middle.In Carolina, Cam bought his entire team manicures and pedicures. No.. seriously... smh. And it seems like, and I'm not exaggerating, every single player on the damn team is or has been dealing with some sort of nagging injury. Doesn't look good in the long haul. Cam tweaked an ankle in the last practice. He still played, but if it's the same ankle he just had surgery on, that would be a bad sign for the kitties. Kelvin Benjamin has, like Brandin Cooks, stirred up a lot of excitement among fans. I wonder if he's really doing that well, or if their secondary is that just that bad. Probably the latter. Which has me salivating at the thought of that same secondary attempting to stop 83, 13, and 87. They can't even stop Kelvin 'rawer than a typical Denny's cheeseburger' Benjamin. Kony Ealy has looked good at times, but only against the backups. Their secondary, lack of playmakers on offense, and likely decimation by injury at this point make them candidates for biggest comedown in 2014.In Atlanta, the canary fans are really pumped up about their entire draft class with Jake Mathews, Rashede Hageman, Devonte Freeman, Ricardo Allen, and Prince Shembo seen as possible day one impact players. It is pretty possible that the Falcons improve, probably even substantially. But there defense is still going to suffer. Especially having lost Sean Witherspoon a few weeks ago. They have no depth behind starters William Moore and David Lowery, and Lowery probably won't be that great as it is. They're still relying on the same young corners in Trufant and Alford, while the entire front seven looks down right mediocre. But hey, Devin Hester has been wowing some people in Georgia. Hahaha.The counting crows look butt ugly on defense. Meanwhile their offensive line, Jake Mathews be damned, still looks about as stable as one of those rickedy bridges people are afraid to cross in movies. The kitties' secondary can't stop a parked car, and their entire team looks like cows entering a slaughterhouse as far as injury is concerned. Cam can't do it on his own.The 'aints', quite frankly 'are'. They look the part and they are our true challenge this season. Their offense, because of Brees, is better than ours is. However, I give our defense the upper hand. If we can get pressure from our front four alone against them, we can beat them. But if we can't, any win against the saints is going to be very, very, difficult to come by.
