Jonathan Vilma High On Saints in 2023 For Multiple Reasons

Saints fans have a special place in their heart for linebacker Jonathan Vilma, and he gave his insight on New Orleans recently on Betway Insider. Needless to say, he's very high on the team and their outlook going into the regular season. 

"You look across the NFC, I really think that the Saints are going to be contenders." Vilma said. "Derek Carr, he’s been a Pro Bowl quarterback, a top-tier quarterback for most much of his career, and so adding that component to an already top-10 defense, with Mike Thomas, Chris Olave, they’ll definitely be a formidable opponent when it’s down to the stretch and playoff time."

Vilma was asked about Demario Davis and where he ranks among the league's best, and he naturally came in very high.

"Well, to be very honest, I didn’t want to sound like a homer, so that’s why I didn’t bring up Demario Davis. He’s my No. 2, to be very honest, but if I said top two and started talking about Demario then everyone would say: “This guy Vilma, he’s a homer, he’s biased towards the Saints.” 

"But Demario, he does it all. He gets sacks, he pressures the quarterback and he does everything that Fred Warner does, but he’s actually a little bit bigger, a little bit faster, and I love watching him play."

Vilma was asked who the better middle linebacker was for the team, and he said it wasn't tricky at all, that it was him. Why? He'll just show the Super Bowl ring and let it speak for itself.

Derek Carr is going to be a big part of successes or failures for the Saints this season, and Vilma weighed in on how far he could take them this season.

"I wouldn’t be surprised at a Super Bowl run. How far is he going to take them? As far as the defense will allow." 

Vilma added, "Derek Carr is top-10 quarterback in the NFL, he’s produced year in, year out for many years, and on those teams with the Raiders it almost felt like it was Derek Carr and nobody else. Now he has a defense. He’s always had weapons, but now he has more weapons to work with. So I see the Saints having expectations where Derek Carr doesn’t have to force the ball, and if he just plays within himself then the defense will take over and they’ll win a lot of games. Then all of a sudden you find yourself winning that NFC South and you’re guaranteed hosting a playoff game. You win that, you’re in the Divisional round. I can realistically see the Saints making it to the Divisional round and possibly farther."

Vilma shared the field with tight end Jimmy Graham for several seasons, and he was shocked just like everyone else to see it happen.

"I was so happy, and it did come out of nowhere. I was hoping he would have signed last year and end his career, have it come full circle." 

"No better way than to come back, be a complement to the offense. You have a really good quarterback in Carr and then hopefully, hey, you get into the dance, all you got to do is just keep winning, right? I know that on Jimmy Graham’s mind, he wants to win the Super Bowl. That that’s the only thing that matters to him. That’s the only reason he came back. You love to have veteran leaders like that in the locker room because he’s going to hold everyone to a higher standard, regardless of if he’s in his prime or not. Everyone has to step up their game so that they can reach their potential, which is hopefully a Super Bowl."

Vilma shared his favorite Sean Payton story too, which came from the Super Bowl season and is pretty spectacular. You can check out their exclusive interview here.

It’s Week 2 of our Super Bowl season, and we’re playing Philadelphia. Sean Payton was an assistant coach at Philadelphia for a while, and apparently they did not take kindly to him becoming a coach for the Giants and for the Cowboys. 

So they were ultimately his worst fans, and there was no place he wanted to win more than in Philly so that we could do two bus rides: The first was to drop us off at the game, then the next bus ride was to do a nice tour around Philadelphia before heading to the airport, with the bus driver honking the horn and letting everyone know that the Saints just beat the hell out of the Eagles.

So we start the game, and he says: “Look, I don’t care what you do, just give me the ball back! I want to put 50 on them! 50!”

Well, we got him the ball back plenty of times. He didn’t get the 50, He got to about 44 points. We beat them up pretty good.

And then, after the game, he tells the bus driver: “Hey, I want you to do two laps around the stadium, make sure all the fans see us, and then do a nice long drive throughout Philly before we get to the airport, so that all these pissed off, miserable fans can see who just beat their team’s ass”

And sure enough, that’s what we did. So if anybody wanted to know the competitive nature of Sean Payton, that’s it in a nutshell.

We'll see how the Saints matchup out of the gate when they take on the Titans, but there's a lot more reasons to be optimistic about how they fare this season compared to previous ones.