Well I do not have any specific articles to reply on but people were slobbering all over Brees. There were a lot of kudos for the Saint's defense. You already mentioned the WRs.
Just about every position other than RB got some kind of love in the past year.
But as I said I can't point to a specific story and I don't care enough to go look either.
If you don't feel New Orleans was puffed up by the media this last year or other SB winners in years prior that is fine with me.

"MassPackersFan" wrote:

No way. He had a great season but like the story says he is still raw. He has only been a CB for a couple of years.
Look for him to really up his game in years 3 and 4.

"macbob" wrote:

That's fine. I don't require you to think it one but I do.

With Woodson, Williams, Collins, etc as the alternative targets, I'd have expected Shields to get targeted early and often.

When you consider the expectations and the concerns for that position at the beginning of the year and compare it to the expectations at the end of the year, that's a break out year to me.

"macbob" wrote:

I read somewhere, if we had 3 Sam Shields back in the secondary, we would be ranked about 14th in the league in opponents QB rating.

Considering he is a nickle back behind Tramon Williams and Charles Woodson, thats pretty impressive. Throw in the fact he is a rookie, it is astounding. Throw in that he was an un-drafted FA that only played CB for one year in college, it starts to sound like a fantasy.

"Dexter_Sinister" wrote:

With Woodson, Williams, Collins, etc as the alternative targets, I'd have expected Shields to get targeted early and often.

"macbob" wrote:

That was the thought, but it didn't happen much until the final two regular season games. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman talked about it.

"macbob" wrote:

I understand. For me a break out year is one where you have a certain level of production for a while (maybe even a slight increase over time) and then the player makes a quantum jump to a new level then plays at that higher level for a number of years.

"macbob" wrote:

Sniff it? It's my hat, foo! :)

Just like some are quick to put down, hey Packers have JerMichael Finley next year, they'll be unstoppable! ... I need to see consistency and reliability first.

"DakotaT" wrote:

To be honest Zero, I didn't like our early season offense and hate to say it but the injury to Finley was a blessing in disguise. Rodgers was forcing the ball to him instead of finding the open guy. Maybe this year will be different.

"dhazer" wrote:

I read somewhere, if we had 3 Sam Shields back in the secondary, we would be ranked about 14th in the league in opponents QB rating.

Considering he is a nickle back behind Tramon Williams and Charles Woodson, thats pretty impressive. Throw in the fact he is a rookie, it is astounding. Throw in that he was an un-drafted FA that only played CB for one year in college, it starts to sound like a fantasy.

"Dexter_Sinister" wrote: