Canal Street Chronicles · Feb 3, 2018
New Orleans Saints 2017 Position Grades: Linebacker
All New Orleans Saints linebackers will inevitably be compared by football historians to "The Dome Patrol"; the fearsome group of Hall of Famer Rickey Jackson, Pat Swilling, Sam Mills, and Vaughn Johnson that terrorized NFL offenses from the mid-'80's through early 1990's. Living up to comparisons against one of the best linebacking units in NFL history is an impossible task, to be sure, but in recent years the New Orleans linebackers have been arguably the biggest liability on a struggling defense. They have been athletically overmatched in pass defense, consistently out of position, and unable to make game changing plays in recent seasons, often the weak link on what was at times a historically bad defense. The Saints brought in a few free agents, and used a draft choice in an attempt to upgrade the talent on an underwhelming unit. In today's postseason grades, we take a look at how well the 2017 Saints linebacking corps performed.
