New, from the writers of Saints Scoop, Eyes On The NFL is a blog devoted to giving its readers the news of the NFL is a fun and upbeat manner. You can check it out at http://www.eyesonthenfl.blogspot.com.

Today, the New Orleans Saints announced that they have signed former Atlanta Falcons All-Pro defensive tackle Rod Coleman to a one year contract. This is just one of the few recent signings that the Saints have made to one or two year deals.

Coleman, a Mississippi native, is 32 years old.

The former Pro Bowl selection was originally drafted by the Raiders in 1999 and has compiled 293 tackles and 58.5 sacks in 109 career games with Oakland and Atlanta.

As far as the Saints’ defense is concerned, its out with the old and in with the new. On Thursday, the team cut safety Kevin Kaesviharn who had been with the team since 2007. This comes after the Saints signed safeties Darren Sharper and Pierson Prioleau. Kaesviharn has been only a part of the Saints secondary issues in 2007 and 2008.

Safety Josh Bullocks and cornerback Mike McKenzie were both released earlier this season.

The Saints are officially trying to fix their secondary problems.

Today, Saints general manager Mickey Loomis announced that the Black and Gold have signed safety Pierson Prioleau just around a week after they signed safety Darren Sharper.

Prioleau is sure to be famaliar with the Saints’ defensive scheme as he played for current Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams on three other teams.

Prioleau has previously played with San Francisco, Buffalo, Washington, and Jacksonville with the last three teams being where he played under Williams.

In his career, he has made 313 total tackles, 5.5 sacks, defended 15 passes, and one interception. He is in his 11th season out of Virginia Tech.

The NFL Network just recently released it’s “State Of The Saints” video. It can be viewed at:
http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80f6db77

After being hampered by an injury last year, Reggie Bush is back and he’s ready to play some football.

His two punt returns for touchdowns against the Vikings last year were only a sample of what he can do.

With the releasing of Deuce McAllister, Pierre Thomas will most likely step into the starting role while Reggie becomes a 1-2 punch along with Thomas.

Bush will likely keep returning punts but will likely not return kicks as the Saints resigned kick returning specialist Courtney Roby earlier this year.

Bush hasn’t had “his” year yet, some may argue that his rookie year was his breakout year but I don’t believe that he has reached his full NFL potential yet, the Saints just have to figure out how to use him.

Before the knee injury last year, Bush looked to be trying to run more up the middle instead of trying to always run around tackles and he was doing a pretty good job. Of course, he isn’t the Saints every down back, but along with Pierre Thomas, the Saints running game is looking pretty good this year.

Go #23 and Reggieeeeee

In a move that had been predicted for some time, the New Orleans Saints signed former Minnesota Vikings safety Darren Sharper, rumors indicate that that deal may be for $6.5 million dollars over two years. Sharper is expected to help the Saints with their leaky secondary.

The Saints also have cut cornerback Mike McKenzie. McKenzie, who is 32, had been one of the Saints’ more dependable players in the secondary but he has suffered two knee injuries recently. Many had speculated that McKenzie would be moved to safety but with the acqusition of Sharper, that doesn’t seem to going to happen.

For the latest NFL free agency news, visit http://www.nfl.com/transactions

Within the last two days, the New Orleans Saints have signed defensive lineman Paul Spicer and offensive lineman Nick Leckey. The team also resigned wide receiver/kick returner Courtney Roby who was with the team last year.

The Saints signed Spicer, a former Jacksonville Jaguar (above), to a one year contract but financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Spicer, who is 6′5 and 295 pounds has played most of his nine seasons with the Jags, Spicer also spent time with the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions.

In his career, Spicer has played in 117 games and racked up 252 total tackles, 28.5 sacks, made one interception, and defended 15 passes.

The Saints also signed Leckey (above) to a one year contract and and financial terms were once again not disclosed. Leckey, 6′3, 291 pound center/guard has played for the Arizona Cardinals as wells as the St. Louis Cardinals in the latter part of his career. He has played in the NFL for 5 years.

Roby (ab0ve), a 6′0, 189 pound wide receiver/kick returner was resigned by the Saints but no terms of the deal were disclosed.

In his career, Roby has caught 23 passes for 317 yards and a touchdown.

In the kick returns department, Roby has returned 46 kickoffs for 1,068 yards. He hasn’t scored a touchdown yet.

You can follow all of the latest NFL transactions at http://www.nfl.com/transactions

Every offseason, Saints fans from around the Who Dat Nation begin pondering on the Saints’ chances of going all of the way in the next season, they also think about various other things like if Drew can keep it up, if our secondary will be a dumpster fire this year, and if Reggie Bush finally have his breakout year.

It seems as if Reggie is right on the borderline of being labeled as a bust. The Heisman trophy running back out of USC was called the best athlete prior to the 2006 NFL Draft and many mock drafts had the Houston Texans taking him with the first overall pick. It was not to be however, as the Texans elected to take North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams and Reggie Bush dropped right into the laps of general manager Mickey Loomis and brand new head coach Sean Payton.

Bush performed alright in his rookie season while Williams looked to be suffering from the rookie’s welcome to the NFL party. It looked as if the Texans had made a bad decision on draft day.

Then came 2007.

Saints’ starting running back Deuce McAllister went down in Week 3 with a season ending knee injury and Bush became the Saints’ new starting running back. Saints’ fans soon found out that their golden boy, Reggie Bush, would never be a decent substitute for the Deuce, while Deuce was a pounder, Reggie relied more on his speed and elusiveness. Bush usually ran east to west instead of north and south which is a nice way of saying that he would run across the whole field and back just to gain two yards, if he was lucky enough not to get stopped for a loss.

Simply put, Bush was no starting NFL running back, or at least not the type that the Saints needed.

With the signings of Mike Bell and fullback Heath Evans, as well as the emergence of Pierre Thomas, Bush’s role in the running game should decrease even more.

He refuses to switch to wide receiver, a role that he should excel in since he could burn most NFL defensive backs quite easily.

He is an adequate punt returner, of course he’s no Devin Hester, but he is the next best thing.

One thing that many Saints’ fans would like to see him do is to return kickoffs. With his amazing speed, Bush should also excel in that role.

So basically, the running back that the Saints drafted to replace Deuce McAllister is going to have to play receiver or become a great special teams returner to stay on this team for any long amount of time.

If Bush continues to switch to wide receiver, then the Saints may need to explore possible trade options while Bush still has some trade value.

Sure, he’s a fan favorite, the #25 jerseys around the Superdome on gameday and the chants of “Reggie, Reggie,” prove that but at this point, it would be better to lose a fan favorite and become a winning team than to retain Bush and continue to lose.

Former Saints fan favorite fullback Mike Karney (above) signed a contract with the St. Louis Rams on Wednesday. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Karney spent his entire five year NFL career with the Saints but was released last week in favor of former Patriots fullback Heath Evans. Evans is expected to be more of a running fullback  while Karney was more of a blocking fullback. The Saints were in need of an “up the middle” back after they cut another fan favorite, Deuce McAllister earlier this year because of contract and injury issues. In his career with the Saints, Carney rushed 39 times for 79 yards and 5 touchdowns, he also caught 53 passes for 295 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Former Saints safety Josh Bullocks (above), who is the identical twin brother of Detroit Lions safety Daniel Bullocks, signed a one year contract with the Chicago Bears. Bullocks was a second round pick by the Saints in 2005. His struggles in pass defense hindered the Saints last year and led to Bullocks, 26, losing his starting job to Kevin Kaesviharn going into the 2008 season.

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