Saints waiting patiently to turn Vilma loose

Jun/19/08 07:26 PM Filed in: Jonathan Vilma
JonathanVilma
Since his signing in late February, Jonathan Vilma has been held back by the New Orleans Saints. Come September, they're going to turn the linebacker loose.

After two years of captivity in New York, that's precisely what Vilma needs. After watching their defense keep them out of the playoffs last season, having Vilma roam the field might be exactly what the Saints need.

Nobody's really seen a glimpse of it yet because the Saints were extremely cautious with Vilma throughout the offseason. Coming off knee surgery, the Saints severely limited Vilma's work in team drills during organized team activities and minicamp.

But Vilma's expected to be completely healthy for the start of training camp in late July. He'll take his spot at middle linebacker and the Saints are hoping he'll become the heart of their new-look defense.

That will be a nice change for Vilma, who spent the last two seasons looking and feeling out of place in the 3-4 defensive scheme the Jets went to when coach Eric Mangini took over in 2006. In a 4-3 scheme the two years prior to that, Vilma was viewed as one of the NFL's best young linebackers.

In New Orleans' 4-3 system, Vilma could be a perfect fit.

"I look at it as a new start, a new beginning,'' Vilma told the New Orleans media a few weeks ago. "I think it's an ideal situation. You come in and they obviously want me to play a leadership role and a starting role and being in a defense that I'm comfortable with and just being able to go.''

(espn.com)