Top 5 breakout candidates
By Ty Anania
Delvin Breaux
Delvin Breaux has lofty expectations, both from fans and from himself. We all know how good he can be. Outside of a few fluke plays in 2015, Breaux had all the makings of an All-Pro CB. 2016, on the other hand, saw a different player. Breaux gets a bone for the injury that he suffered early in the season, a broken fibula. That’s not an easy thing to recover from, and there’s no doubt that it had a role in his rusty, stiff play later in the year. But the good news is that the injury is not a recurring type.
Assuming that he’s fully recovered after an offseason of rest, Breaux has a real shot to breakout in the most meaningful sense of the word. He was a blip on the national radar in 2015, but a generally poor secondary and some outlier plays kept him out of Pro-Bowl consideration. In an ideal world, the only thing holding Breaux back from the Pro-Bowl in 2017 would be the emergence of Marshon Lattimore. But I think Breaux makes it to Orlando.
The Saints secondary is easily the most exciting aspect of this offseason. And it could, in turn, be the most disappointing. Delvin Breaux is coming off a bad year, and P.J. Williams is coming off of one of the most serious concussions I’ve ever seen. Marshon Lattimore is a rookie, albiet with loads of potential, and behind them we have only Sterling Moore. This strength could turn out to be a weakness if a few things don’t go right. We can only hope that possibility doesn’t come to fruition. If a few things do go right, namely if Breaux plays like he did in 2015 and Marshon Lattimore meets the hype, this could be the best CB group the Saints have had since they won the Superbowl. And let’s be honest, this group has a chance to be better than even Jabari and Tracy Porter in 2009. They could be legit.