Breakdown of Jairus Byrd's Last Season With The Saints

[Saca312]

Just found this online. You guys might be interested.

https://www.canalstreetchronicles.com/2017/1/30/14421848/new-orleans-saints-2016-year-in-review-jairus-byrd-found-groove

Snippets:

Byrd, however, improved immensely through the season. According to Sporting Charts, a stats aggregation site that attempts to chart less tangible stats, the Saints gave up 29 big plays in the passing game (25+ yards). While not great or even good, it puts the Saints at the middle of the pack in big plays allowed (16th) and it gives them a differential (big plays vs. big plays allowed) of +12. A lot of this comes down to safety play, and it was partially due to how Byrd was used in the Saints’ scheme.

...

Byrd’s best game of the season and arguably as a Saint came against Tampa Bay in the penultimate game of the season. The Saints run an inverted Cover 1 (or a Cover 1 Robber, if you will) in which rather than playing over the top the high safety undercuts the routes being run. It’s just man-to-man with a rover, essentially, the rover being Byrd in this case.

The idea of Robber plays is that they’re high risk high reward. Best case, it’s an extra set of eyes on the field. Worst case, it’s a liability that’s taking themselves out of the play. Jameis Winston played a bad game in this particular game against the Saints, but only the sense that his inexperience showed. He looks topside to Shepherd on this entire play, and rather than dropping back Byrd plays horizontally on a level field. He begins to drift to his left, following Winston’s eyes.

As a roaming safety, when the QB’s hips open, your hips open too. That’s the general rule. Winston times the route correctly, hitting Shepherd right out of his break, but as soon as Winston makes the throw, Byrd breaks on the ball with him. It’s the kind of throw that a quarterback wants back as soon as they see the guy break.

Easy(ish). Winston has an impressive arm, but Byrd only has to go about 10-15 yards to get to the ball in time. He’s able to undercut Shepherd’s route and make his second interception of the game, and his third as a Saint.

The potential is clearly there. Byrd certainly had his embarrassing plays, but he was still third on the team in tackles at 56. A lot of the Saints’ defensive problems are systemic, and Byrd is diagnosing plays fairly efficiently. When only the middle linebacker and the other free safety (Bell) end up with more tackles than the free safety, that simply means that players are getting into the secondary entirely too easily.

Byrd was at his best when he was in Buffalo and given a bit of rope to freelance. Keeping him 30 yards off the line of scrimmage doesn’t let him make the plays he’s used to making. If the Saints get some corners and the Saints still continue to give up big plays, then worrying about Byrd would likely be warranted, but to say that he hasn’t had a lot of secondary help would be an understatement.

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TL;DR - Byrd's awful against the run, decent against the pass. He had no help from the pass rush or any surrounding DBs at all and often had to add to carry a large load in the Saints secondary.

He'll be good depth here, and a solid place-holder for Kurt in coverage. Run defense may take a hit, but pass should be fine.

[Saca312]

Good video to go along with it.

 

[Rags]

I'm. Cautiously optimistic.

 

But at worst he'll be servicable. Better than the last Saints Saftey we signed (and he was pretty solid for us.)

[The Huddler]

Good teams buy low on players and get the most out if em. Its called value.

 

 

Not every signing is going to be a slam dunk. Thats impossible and irrational to expect that. 

 

You maintain your core guys who fill out and support your identity and scheme (multiple philosohy and schemes work if you have everyone and everything on board, not one foot in one sceme roster wise and another foot in another. This isnt twister folks ). Yiu have that core, and you can only afford that really good core. Teams that can buy low on players that can come in an have high production and upside vs what we paid for them, thats where the train gets rolling and teams get really fugin good. 

 

Heres to hoping BYRD was a great value signing where something that cost kittle pays out big. 

 

Its better to have your core identity players tajen care of and have buy low players with upside around them then be a team with no real identity (redskins) buying high on players just to throw em at the wall to see if it sticks and at the end of the day you have a lot more disapointments and bad value... 

 

i could rant forever in a running sentence all night to finally make clear what im trying to say but its late and i need to go the fug to bed

[Saca312]

8 minutes ago, Rags said:

I'm. Cautiously optimistic.

 

But at worst he'll be servicable. Better than the last Saints Saftey we signed (and he was pretty solid for us.)

I can promise he’s 1000x better than Colin Jones lol.

[Fright]

Whatever keeps Jones on the bench I’m more than happy with.

[outlaw4]

I hope this isn't another Michael Griffin.

[Snake]

Serviceable is all we need. 

[Jeremy Igo]

There is a reason he was on his couch waiting for a call. 

 

Don't get your hopes up. 

[t96]

13 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

There is a reason he was on his couch waiting for a call. 

 

Don't get your hopes up. 

Not disputing this but Finnegan and McClain were very solid for us in '15. Yes they were hidden quite a bit and schemed around but they both contributed to our defensive domination in the playoffs that year.

[*FreeFua*]

Cox blew back to back plays in the 3rd just before the 10 minute mark.

He got bailed out on a Brady underthrow and completely whiffed on Gillislee in the hole giving up 10. 

Dont need Byrd to be a pro bowler just need him to make a tackle here and there and not get caught out of position. 

[rhyslloyd]

49 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

There is a reason he was on his couch waiting for a call. 

 

Don't get your hopes up. 

Where would Colin Jones be if not protected by Rivera?

[grimesgoat]

Can we not be happy we signed someone without s-hitting on one of our players?

[DaveThePanther2008]

Outstanding write up.  Players move from place to place for the money.  Sometimes they go and they just don't fit in.  Ted Ginn is a prime example.  He left us for Arizona and did nothing.  He came back and helped us to a 15-1 record.  

Byrd might be one of those types of players.  Went to the wrong scheme and failed. 

Hopefully, he comes here, learns our system and thrives.  It wouldn't be a huge surprise if he becomes a steal.