That’s right, it’s a very special Saturday episode, bitches.

If you don’t regularly read the Yellow Blog, you’re missing some damn fine Saints commentary. Jeffrey’s the only blogger I’ve run across whose Saints schtick amuses me as much as my own schtick amuses me. Go for the football posts, stay for the rest of his content, which is consistently hilarious and scathing.

I’ve never plugged Adrastos before, but I’m a fairly regular visitor to First Draft as well, and you should be too. Hold on, I promise I’m going somewhere with this. I’d have posted this over at First Draft, but my "there’s a pretty good chance that that’s bad manners" alarm went off when I considered posting a big long comment at someone else’s place in response to another comment and not the blogger’s original post. At a loss as to what to do, I of course went in search of pictures of sexy UPS chicks. Oh I suppose you’d have done something different?

Firstly, let me offer my two cents on Jeffrey’s jersey conundrum: Go with Jack Hunt.

I don’t think the issue of Devery being perpetually on the bubble is of much concern anymore. They did give him a 4-year contract in the offseason. Sure, that in and of itself doesn’t guarantee anything, but it doesn’t hurt. Nor does Devery’s long-awaited emergence into a reliable, vital cog in the Saints’ offense. Even if you indulge yourself with the (tongue in cheek) notion that owning a player’s jersey is bad luck for the player, something tells me it’d take a whole lot more bad luck than that to jeopardize Devery’s status with the team at this point.

In fact, I’d say that the other two options (Morstead and Fujita) are in more jeopardy than Devery already. Morstead, because he’s a kicking specialist on a Sean Payton coached team. Scotty Badass, because something tells me Kenny Chesney, Rascall Flatts, etc. might have a bit of a problem with his stance on the issue of gay marriage. And god help him if coach finds himself having difficulty scoring tickets to various boot-scootin’, McCain Raisin’ hootenannies all because some Japanese linebacker’s spoutin’ off about things which are an abomination to the lord, like equal protection under the law.

So, clearly the best option here is to rock the 19. All I ask… no, BEG… is that you go the custom route and put "HUNT" on the back.

But that’s not why I’m sitting in front of the laptop right now instead of trimming hedges. It’s this:

Jeffrey in the comments @ First Draft: Bushrod was fraudulently promoted over last year’s back-up Zach Strief in what I think was an attempt by the Saints front office to force Brown into obsolescence so they can excuse dumping his salary at the end of the season. With Bushrod in the line-up, Brees has been sacked a disturbingly frequent (for Brees) 4 times in the first 3 games. Bushrod has been badly pushed around in pass protection and is thankfully out this week with an ankle injury. The more reliable Strief will play left tackle.

Brown, BTW, is out for the year so we’re going to have this Bushrod problem for the remainder of the season.

It’s not an unreasonable take at all, but I do think it’s unfair to Bushrod.

Now let me just state for the record that I don’t necessarily have any dog in the hunt regarding Bushrod vs. Strief. I honestly don’t care which of the two ends up becoming the Saints’ permanent left tackle. Or someone else, for that matter. As long as it isn’t Wayne Gandy or Darryl Terrell, I’m pretty sure it won’t be this particular issue that’ll eventually take what’s left of my sanity.

But, first of all, I don’t think Brown’s descent into obsolescence needed any kind of assist from above. That was happening anyway, and it’s been happening for quite a while now. Far as I know, Brown’s hernia isn’t the result of Sean Payton or Mickey Loomis kicking him in the nuts or anything. Nor are they responsible for Brown’s issues with his knees. You could argue that the coaches do in fact tell him to hold if necessary to protect Drew, but you can’t blame them for the fact that he has to do so as often as he does. And they’re certainly not instructing him to false start and line up too far back off the line of scrimmage.

It’s not their fault that he’s gonna be a 30 year old free agent at the end of the year, and some chump GM is gonna place a ridiculously large and risky bet on him. Six years, sixty million, my friend. That’s the buy in. I’ll pause for a second while you shout "Fuck that!!!"

It’s not about forcing Brown out. He’s injured, for crying out loud. That’s the hand the Saints were dealt, and they’ve gotta play it. Would starting Strief instead of Bushrod have helped Brown’s chances any? Were they not supposed to establish a two-deep in his absence? Were Brown healthy, is there any doubt that he’d currently be the Saints’ starting left tackle? If he would, what does that do to the hypothesis that the Saints were/are actively trying to ride Brown out of town?

If anything, Brown’s injury, which nobody was hoping for, is forcing this on the Saints. Not the other way around. But the Saints will eventually be better off for it, if only because they don’t have any other choice but to establish options now, which makes it less likely that it’ll be the Saints who have to place that ridiculously large and risky bet because they don’t have any other choice.

Apologies for the semantic hair-splitting here, but the Saints don’t need any excuse to dump his salary. Because A) his contract is expiring anyway, so there’s no dumping involved here, and B) refusing to pay his eventual ransom is the smart play, and the smart play requires no excuse.

Meantime, I disagree that Bushrod’s perceived promotion over Strief was fraudulent. The Saints have been woefully shallow at tight end since camp. Strief is the tackle-eligible emergency option in lieu of an actual blocking tight end in 2-TE sets, and they’ve been using it quite a bit in the early going. Strief can’t do that if he’s playing left tackle.

I don’t think it’s as much about some kind of blindness on Sean Payton’s part to the fact (assuming it is fact) that Strief is the better option at left tackle. I think it’s more about Strief being needed elsewhere, in a role that he’s really the only guy left on the roster who’s capable of filling, until the Saints get healthy at the tight end position. Were it not for the situation at tight end, Strief might have been starting at left tackle all along.

And then there’s the issue of whether or not Bushrod blows. I disagree with the assertion that he does.

I mean, for one thing, don’t you have to grade on a curve for a guy who’s seeing his first real live NFL action? That’s what they do for stunningly handsome quarterbacks who played under the most stunningly handsome college head coach of all time, right?

But, setting aside for a moment the curve that I believe a guy thrust into a starting role straight off the bench (at left tackle, no less) is rightfully owed, and ignoring for now the possibility that with a little experience under his belt, there’s every chance that he could (gasp!) get better (maybe a lot, and maybe quickly) I think it’s quite a stretch to conclude that he blows, even right now.

I agree that Drew being sacked 4 times in 3 games qualifies as "disturbingly frequent." Hey, one time in 19 games disturbs me.

But let’s keep it in perspective here. We’re talking about a pace for 21 sacks over a 16 game season. Which would be a high for Drew since he’s been a Saint, but only by three. He was sacked 18 times in 2006. And 21 sacks, based on last year’s full-season stats, would still rank in the top third of the league. (And by top third, I mean top third FEWEST sacks, not top third most sacks.)

And let’s keep in mind that it’s not like the disturbingly frequent (based on one hell of an unforgiving curve) sack numbers are all on Bushrod. Only two of those four sacks so far have been "credited" to Bushrod. And the dude was going up against Trent Cole in his second NFL game and Aaron Schobel in his third, for crying out loud. Talk about trial by fire. (Shit, I’m pretty sure I just gave Kenny Chesney an idea or two about how to deal with Fujita’s heresy.)

Four sacks in three games "with Bushrod in the lineup" is specious reasoning.

And while, sure, protecting the god in our own personal golden cloister is the prime directive, let’s not ignore the fact that Brown was flagged eleven times last year.

Eleven.

Bushrod through (his very first) three games? One. That counts.

I’ll concede that it’s entirely possible that Bushrod is in fact the absolute worst option at left tackle for the Saints right now. Maybe. I don’t think it’s a lock, but it’s certainly possible. But assuming for a second that that’s true, it’s not like it was by choice, and it certainly wasn’t because of some conspiracy to bury Brown. It was because of injuries to Brown and a veritable gaggle of tight ends.

And in the meantime, Bushrod doesn’t blow. To the contrary, he’s done a damn fine job, all things considered. If the over/under on Jammal Brown or Zach Strief were 2 sacks + 1 flag over 3 games, vs. Trent Cole and Aaron Schobel, all I know is that I damn sure wouldn’t be taking the under.

Now, on that jersey issue… come on, the 19 with Hunt across the shoulders. How can you resist? Hell, I’ll pay for it if that’s what it takes. Name your price. One way or another, this MUST happen.