Saints Sign LB Dan Morgan, Agree to Terms With TE Billy Miller

The Saints Agreed to terms Wednesday with Panthers line backer Dan Morgan, which, I think, was not the best of moves considering Philadelphia just let go of Tikeo Spikes, another linebacker, one that would be much more effective in my opinion. Plus, Dan Morgan never even played a full sixteen games in his NFL career. He’s injury prone having gotten injured every season in Carolina. We all know though, the Saints love injuries; they must with every player that gets hurt every year. Anyway, he can’t be worse than Simoneau and Shanle.

“The addition of Morgan, a player the team knows well from having faced him numerous times as a member of the NFC South’s Carolina Panthers from 2001-2007, represents the addition of a playmaking and tackling defender who has averaged nearly eight tackles a game throughout his career. He was named as a starter for the 2004 NFC Pro Bowl squad after registering a career-high 109 tackles. Morgan was released by the Panthers prior to the start of free agency, perhaps the result of having missed portions of the last two seasons due to two separate, non-related health issues.

But the fact remains that when healthy, Morgan has proven to be one of the top playmaking linebackers in the NFL. The hard-hitting and versatile defender has shown a knack for being around the football and being a disruptive and heady player, as evidenced by his ancillary statistics, which display forced fumbles (four), fumble recoveries (five), passes defensed (18), interceptions (five) and sacks (seven).”

—NOS.com 

Oh, when healthy, wow. See; this is the kind of mindset, along with numerous other things, that keep the Saints from being successful.

The Saints have also resigned tight end Billy Miller, another inconsistent player. Does this end all talks of Jeremy Shockey, well it can’t, right? A guy named Billy Miller end talk of Shockey? No! But with the Saints, it’s highly probable. Besides, Giants GM Jerry Reese already told the Saints over the phone that Shockey would not be available. Whatever, just get a team that can actually fork up some bucks, and he’ll be gone in a heartbeat.

Miller, a 6-3, 252-pound tight end, will return to the Saints for his ninth NFL season and third in New Orleans. A veteran of 99 career contests, he has caught 155 career passes for 1,669 yards with nine touchdowns. To date, he has started nine of 26 games for the Saints since signing with the club in 2006, with 41 catches for 457 yards.

The USC product and Westlake Village, Calif. native was the only Saints tight end to play in all 16 games in 2007 as he started seven contests, posting 27 receptions for 328 yards with a pair of touchdowns. His career-long grab came on a 57-yard catch-and-run against Jacksonville that set up a Saints touchdown on the next play.

PS: Sorry for the delay on FA updates. The Saints sight was down for a while. I rely on it for info. When do you see an NFL site ever down? You can probably blame this Justin Macione guy for that. He might even be the same guy who signed that stupid exclusive TV deal with CST for the Hornets, not allowing them to air anywhere else. Probably not, but I wouldn’t be surprised. There are tons of other guys that could be behind the incompetent operation, but he’s the first name that popped into my head and looking at his name, seems to be the incompetent mind behind this whole thing. So there, take it, look with shame when your name pops up on the internet.

 

Hornets Beat Nets At The Hive

Chris Paul and the Hornets took care of business Friday night cleaning up the New Jersey Nets 107-96. The Hornets led this game by as much as 20, but the intensity dropped off a little toward the end of the game with a 7-0 Nets run to close the gap and, at one point, close to as much as 8 points behind. The Nets got off to a quick 8-0 start which quickly turned into a 20-13 Nets lead. The Hornets then called timeout to regroup. The Bees were able to stay in the game through halftime, but never led up to that point. The Hornets took the lead for the first time early in the 3rd and never trailed after that. They grew their lead to as much as 20 points and won by 11. This was the second straight game the Hornets were without their power forward David West. Looks like he’s questionable for tomorrows game against the Rockets too. Julian Wright had a big game for the second game in a row, racking up a career high 20 points with a couple ally-opp dunks thrown in. Chris Paul briefly went down after turning his ankle, but got right back up and continued playing. Attendance was 17,225. A sellout.

Field Goals				Rebounds
	pos	min	fgm-a	3pm-a	ftm-a	+/-	off	def	tot	ast	pf	st	to	bs	ba	pts
C.Paul	G	41:55	7-14	0-3	11-11	+9	0	3	3	16	2	3	1	0	0	25
M.Peterson	G	25:46	4-7	1-3	0-0	+5	0	2	2	0	1	0	1	0	0	9
R.Bowen	F	24:37	4-7	0-0	1-2	-2	1	3	4	0	2	1	1	0	1	9
P.Stojakovic	F	36:13	5-14	1-5	4-4	+12	1	4	5	1	1	1	3	1	1	15
T.Chandler	C	37:16	6-9	0-0	7-8	+10	4	6	10	0	0	1	3	1	0	19
J.Wright		29:22	8-9	1-1	3-4	+6	1	7	8	1	2	2	0	0	0	20
J.Pargo		22:14	1-5	0-0	0-0	+6	1	2	3	3	0	0	1	0	0	2
M.Ely		16:32	3-6	0-0	2-4	+7	1	4	5	1	1	0	3	0	1	8
M.James		06:05	0-2	0-1	0-0	+2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

NEW ORLEANS, March 7 (AP) – Hornets rookie Julian Wright sat in front of his locker with a bag of ice wrapped around his right wrist, which was sore for all the right reasons.

“That’s from dunking,” Wright said, a reference to three alley-oop jams.

Wright had career highs of 20 points and eight rebounds in about 30 minutes as a reserve Friday night, helping the Hornets win their third straight game, 107-96 over the New Jersey Nets.

“I feel like I’ve learned a lot, the nuances and things that really make it much easier to make the transition in terms of being effective,” said Wright, who spent the first half of the season mostly watching from the bench. “It’s not just God-given ability.”

Chris Paul led the way with 25 points and 16 assists as the Hornets won for the fifth time in six games.

In keeping with a growing trend this season, several of Paul’s assists came on alley-oop lobs to Tyson Chandler, who finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Wright, the 13th overall pick in last summer’s draft, has seen an uptick in playing time the past two games with starting forward David West (ankle) sitting out. He has responded with career highs in scoring in each game, starting with his 13 points in a victory over Atlanta last Wednesday night. Called Ju-Ju by teammates, he was 8-of-9 shooting against the Nets, mixing in mid-range jumpers, a 3-pointer and tip-ins with his authoritative, crowd-pleasing dunks.

“Ju-Ju brings a lot of energy to us,” Paul said. “He can really shoot the ball well now. … As he continues to play he’ll get more and more confident.”

Richard Jefferson scored 27 and Vince Carter had 19 points and 10 assists for New Jersey, which has lost four straight and five of six while trying to cling to the eighth and final playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Devin Harris scored 17 for the Nets and Nenad Krstic 14.

Acknowledging he was frustrated, Jefferson showed little interest in going into great depth about New Jersey’s slide.

“Blah, blah, blah. Blah. Cliche 1, cliche 2, sports cliche No. 4 and sports cliche No. 7,” Jefferson said. “We didn’t do a very good job. We didn’t give 110 percent. We’ve got to give it all we got. We’ve got to leave it all on the court, and we didn’t do that.”

Peja Stojakovic scored 15 points for New Orleans and helped the Hornets, who trailed the entire first half, surge into the lead for good with a 16-2 run to open the third quarter.

He and Paul each converted three-point plays by hitting fades as they were fouled. Morris Peterson added a transition 3-pointer during the run.

The Nets briefly halted the surge when Harris made a driving layup and Jefferson a driving dunk, but the Hornets began to pull away again when Paul found Chandler on two straight alley-oop dunks, with Paul using a mesmerizing behind-the-back dribble on the second before throwing up the lob.

Early in the fourth, Wright made a steal and threw down his second alley-oop while running the break with Jannero Pargo. Wright then hit a jumper, soared in for another alley-oop from Paul, then hit a 3-pointer a few possessions later to make it 89-71.