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OLBs Shanle, Fujita survive Saints’ changes on ‘D’

About the Author

Dan Parr

dparr@pfwmedia.com
Associate editor

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By Dan Parr

Making an upgrade over OLBs Scott Shanle and Scott Fujita was one of the Saints’ biggest offseason needs, but the team will enter with the duo as its unquestioned starters once again. The Saints made several significant changes to their defense in the wake of a disappointing 2008 campaign, but the only move made at linebacker was spending a fourth-round pick on Wake Forest LB Stanley Arnoux. Any hope of him contributing in ’09 ended when the rookie tore his ACL in May. Shanle and Fujita are decent players — they were not as big of a problem as the Saints’ porous secondary and lackluster pass rush last season. However, they don’t make big plays and don’t bring the speed off the edge that new coordinator Gregg Williams desires for his aggressive scheme. As the Saints look to carve out a new identity on “D,” the same old outside ’backers could hold them back.

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Saint007
Shanle and Fujita are solid! What they lack in speed, the more tham makeup in smarts. Last year's Defensive failure was the inability of the Defense Ends to put any pressure on the QB and that made an ordinary set of Corners and Safties look evan worse.
s88fan
Dan, that wasn't a torn ACL that Arnoux suffered...it was a torn Achilles tendon. Get your @#$% straight before 'reporting'.

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