Saints: Adding Brandon Marshall is a strong move for New Orleans

Item number 4: Shouldn’t we look for more help on the back end of our defense?

Yes, we should. But there aren’t any difference making free agents out there. As we moved to the trade deadline, we didn’t see anything we could use at the price we could afford. We got Eli Apple and that’s been an upgrade. We’ve already traded away some draft picks and we must be careful not to give our entire draft away next year.

As for free agents, there simply aren’t any just hanging around the house waiting to be called up to come play. Brandon Marshall started this season in Seattle. He didn’t do much there, but Seattle’s offense isn’t much. Their line is not good and they leave Russell Wilson consistently scrambling. We know what a difference maker Drew Brees is and how he can help make decent receivers look very good. We also know that he can make great receivers even better. If anyone can help Marshall get back to relevance, it’s Brees and this offense.

Item number 5: Marshall in the locker room

Marshall’s issues started way back in Denver with Mike Shanahan then Josh McDaniel as coaches. He did stints in Miami, Chicago, with both New York City teams and then earlier this year in Seattle. He was recovering from a couple of surgeries earlier this season and that could be the reason for a slow start. But he’s been seen widely as a malcontent. He has a clinical diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. He can be abrasive and tough to deal with.

But here’s a note. Every team he’s been with had poor leadership. And that often is directly in line with a poor locker room. We know from our own experience here how locker rooms can be tainted. Winning doesn’t cure all, but it does often help locker rooms get along better.

But this is a great locker room. The Saints weeded out all the bad seeds and left in its place guys of high quality and character. Brees. Benjamin Watson. Cam Jordan. Terron Armstead. Demario Davis. Even though they show the exuberance of youth, even Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram are good character guys. The winning is in part a result of that character. We have hard working people.

Marshall coming in, like Bryant, will find acceptance and a new beginning. He will be part of a winning team and positive aura. That should rub off on him, as it has on so many others here. Even as a veteran, he will be caught up in the youthful feel of this team and hopefully it will spark in him the magic that led him to eight 1,000-yard seasons.

Whatever ills he had before coming here, should be washed away. All we are looking for is production from a guy who has been one of the best of the first quarter of this century.