I am not going to take a look at the tape to determine whether or not Kenny Vaccaro was one of the worst culprits in yet another abominable effort from the Saints defense. That's mostly because I'm not looking to lose my lunch, but it's also because I don't even even need to see a single replay to tell you why he was benched. We are talking about the vocal leader of a young secondary that was supposed to be the strength of the team, and - at his very best - he hasn't backed up one single word. If nothing else Kenny Vaccaro is expected to be the most physical and intimidating presence in the defensive backfield, and through two games his most memorable contributions have drawn two flags, a fine, and the temporary illusion of a legally forced turnover. I have no interest in making a list of who was most responsible for making Tom Brady look like he was playing against a D3 school in Western Massachusetts, but - if I did loathe my time enough to do so - I would venture to guess that Kenny Vaccaro might not reside in the Top 5 (this week, anyway). If we were grading on a curve then his complete lack of a noticeable effort could actually get him bumped up a couple of letters above the teammates that were caught consistently grasping at air. Unfortunately, a vast majority of those young teammates look to him to lead by the example, and the only lesson they got from Week 1 was how to avoid being held accountable by making sure you are so far away from the ball that no one assumes that you were the one that was responsible for covering it. The faltering of a defense falls on the most trusted members of it, so - since sitting Cam Jordan is literally the only thing that could possibly make the Saints look less competent on that side of the ball - Kenny Vaccaro became the scapegoat. Honestly, considering how rarely he's been a solution in an eternally problematic defense, I couldn't care less that he was.
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