So here’s something you might not have realized. Did you know that last year the Saints were 11th in the NFL in receiving yards from the tight end position?

Six of the ten teams ahead of the Saints got (basically) all of that TE production from a single guy. A single guy who who eats up a big chunk of their payroll. A guy who’s just as likely to get injured as anybody else in the league.

Meantime, the Saints appear to be headed into 2008 rolling once again with the two-headed monster of Billy Miller and the big fat sack of Yale. This is a good thing. One of the more prudent moves of the offseason so far, in my opinion.

The natural fan tendency is to want an alpha male at any given position. An all pro. Or, at the very least, a young stud who we can convince ourselves will eventually be an all pro. Especially when there are players available who fit either description. To most fans, "adequate" simply isn’t good enough. But the thing about that line of thought is… it’s bullshit.

When you can be "adequate" at a position where you have precious little resources invested, you’re ahead of the game. When you’ve got a $10MM/yr stud quarterback, two first round tailbacks, a stud wideout who’s about to cost you about 60 metric assloads of well-deserved dollars, one defensive end you just paid "market value" (for better or worse) and another one who you may soon find yourself paying even more, and a newly-acquired middle linebacker who you’re hoping will prove worthy of top-dollar, you have to budget elsewhere.

"Adequate" may not be sexy, but the bang for the buck Miller and Johnson give the Saints at an obviously tightly-budgeted position is pretty damned sexy as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it’s just me.

A lot of people seem to like to play the "Antonio Gates Card" when it comes to the Saints’ TE situation. And it’s a complete non-starter. Brees and Gates have gotten along just fine without each other. Drew didn’t "make" Gates, nor does Drew need a god at the TE position to maximize his potential. It was a marriage of convenience, not necessity. It was serendipity, nothing more, nothing less. Kinda like Drew and Big Number Twelve are these days.

If only we had an Eric Johnson and a Billy Miller in the defensive backfield…. If only.

I was also confused by the apparent popular wisdom that A) the Saints were only gonna bring back one of the two, and B) that if that were the case, it should be Miller. This despite that Johnson is more than two years younger than Miller, Johnson’s best season came two years more recently than Miller’s, Johnson produced about 200 yards more in his best season than Miller did in his, Miller has been released by four teams to Johnson’s zero, and Johnson produced 50 more receiving yards than Miller did last year for the Saints.

Oh sure, I understand that the other side of that coin is Johnson’s injury history, including missing two games and parts of two others last year. His yards per reception was among the lowest in the league among tight ends, while Miller’s was far higher. Johnson also fumbled once, and had that nightmare of a game where not one but two passes bounced right off his fuckin’ hands and into the hands of defenders.

It’s not surprising that people who have the "Screw stats, watch the games" attitude prefer Miller. And there’s some merit to that attitude, as long as you can show your work. Unfortunately, with sports fans, that attitude is often just another way of saying "When the facts don’t back up my own perceptions, clearly it’s the facts that are wrong. Remember that one time Miller had that 40-yard catch? And remember that one time when Johnson had two balls bounce off his hands for INTs? Clearly…" Bullshit.

But the bottom line is that the Saints did the right thing by bringing them both back, and for this team, right now, this situation is preferable to going out and giving assloads of cash to a "stud" tight end like Chris Cooley or a former "stud" like Alge Crumpler, or worse yet, doubly screwing yourself by giving up assloads of money and draft picks for a jackass like Jeremy Shockey.

I’d still wholeheartedly endorse the drafting of Kentucky’s Jacob Tamme, assuming the Saints are planning on carrying four TEs again this year (which is downright stingy compared to the FIVE they carried at times last year… sheesh.)

In other news, word broke yesterday that Steve Gleason is retiring.

News like that invariably brings out a bunch of message board assholes who like to demonstrate how ruthless and cutthroat they are when it comes to the "business" of being a sports fan.

Fuck them.

If you’re capable of mustering a single discouraging word about that guy, on the field or otherwise, you’re a heartless bastard. Life is bigger than football, and Steve Gleason is a winner at life. In fact, he kicks your ass at life. And he was one damn fine football player to boot. He will be sorely missed, as was sometimes painfully evident on the field last year. The guy deserves a ticker tape parade, but something tells me he’d decline the offer in favor of the occasional chance meeting with an appreciative Saints fan who truly gets it.

Rock on, Steve Gleason. Rock on.

Meantime, silver lining? Between Gleason’s retirement and the apparent non-return of Fred Thomas, the distinction of longest-tenured-Saint now belongs to this guy:

Hey! It’s that guy!