Saints tackle Zach Strief isn’t a frequent Twitter user, but he did hop on last week to call former Saints Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith the “benchmark for leadership and professionalism” after current Saints linebacker Junior Galette said that their replacements in New Orleans were better players “across the board.”
Professionalism was on Strief’s mind again on Monday when he spoke to the media about the team’s 41-10 loss to the Panthers. Strief called it an “unprofessional” performance fueled by low energy and poor preparation for the game by players that Strief accused of thinking they could just show up and win because of the Saints’ recent history.
“The teams that created that perception here, it wasn’t like that,” Strief said, via ESPN.com. “It wasn’t that we expected, or they expected, to show up and they just win. There was that sense of urgency, that emotion, that energy that you have to have.”
It didn’t take a wild leap to tie those comments to Strief’s comment from last week, although Strief insists that nothing he said was directed at Galette personally. He also said he didn’t think Galette’s feelings on the past and present Saints were creating any issues in the locker room.
“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,” Strief said. “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.”
The Saints will try to find more of the urgency, emotion, execution and beyond that’s been missing from the team this season when they travel to Chicago next Monday. If they can’t, the argument that the team has better players across the board will be pretty hard to defend.
