METAIRIE, La. -- With so much talk about the New Orleans Saints’ maturity and professionalism after their 41-10 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, it’s natural to connect the dots to the controversial comments made by captain and outside linebacker Junior Galette late last week.
Some current and former veterans chaffed at the way Galette belittled former leaders like Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma by saying the current players are better than they were and, “it’s not even close.”
However, Saints offensive lineman and fellow captain Zach Strief -- one of the players who stood up for Smith and Vilma on Twitter -- insisted that the two issues aren’t related.
“I’m not talking about Junior [when talking about maturity and professionalism issues]. No, I’m talking about the way that this team plays, top to bottom,” said Strief, who had a great breakdown of the intensity that he feels is lacking from the team on game days, which I’ll post later today.
“I don’t think [Galette’s comments] are as big of an issue in the locker room as it is an issue for the guys that were here with those guys. My comment to that is in defense of teammates that I went through very special moments of my life with that I love and appreciate. … But I don’t feel like a rift in the locker room is the cause of our issues.”
Captain and veteran linebacker Curtis Lofton also said he doesn’t have any concern over fissures in the locker room.
“I think everybody’s on the same page. It’s just like any other team, you disagree, a lot of guys disagree with each other,” said Lofton, who had disagreed with safety Kenny Vaccaro’s decision to express some of his frustrations with the media last month. “But it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong. I think we’ve been together and we’ll stay together. Either way we’re not gonna quit, we’re gonna keep going.”
Galette has not made himself available for comment since last Thursday.
From my outside view, it’s a tricky issue to pinpoint.
There’s no question that the leadership has changed drastically on the defensive side of the ball with younger, more outspoken and more brash players like Galette, Vaccaro, Cameron Jordan and Keenan Lewis joining Lofton as leaders in their respective position groups.
At the same time, I don’t know that anyone would question the work ethic or the intensity of those guys in particular. In fact, those appear to be strengths of all those players, even though they’re not getting the expected results on the field this year.
Clearly, though, the locker room dynamic has changed from years past and we’re seeing those growing pains play out on the football field.
