Vilma sets his performance bar high

METAIRIE, La. — Jonathan Vilma doesn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.

The New Orleans Saints middle linebacker still says he’s not producing the sort of results he desires as the end of his first season in New Orleans is coming to a close.

“It may sound bad and when people read it and they’ll think, ‘Man, he’s still not where he wants to be and he’s hurt,’” Vilma said. “I’m thinking in terms of that I can never be satisfied. I can’t be satisfied with my play because once you are, you’re destined for failure.

“I want to play to the best of my ability all the time, and if I did, we’d have a lot more wins. That’s just the way I look at the game.”

For a guy coming off season-ending knee surgery a little more than a year ago, some, including Pro Bowl voters, would argue against Vilma’s prognosis of his first 14 games with the Saints.

No one has come close to Vilma’s tackling production during coach Sean Payton’s first three seasons in New Orleans.

Vilma ranks second among the Saints with 130 total tackles; he has seven games with double-digit tackles and 10 games with eight tackles or more. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound defender also tallied one sack, one interception, eight pass defenses, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.

In comparison, Scott Fujita led the team in both 2006 and 2007 with 119 total tackles. Vilma still has two games remaining to add to his impressive totals.

“I think in Year 1, it’s very encouraging,” Payton said. “When you look at Jon Vilma, he spent a lot of his offseason in rehab and not as much in football. So to have the season that he’s been able to have, we look forward to having a healthy Jonathan Vilma now in the offseason participating in football events as it leads to the ’09 season.”

Vilma’s stellar numbers didn’t earn him an outright bid to the Pro Bowl as he is a second alternate for the league’s all-star game. Even if he had been named to the roster, the honor would ring somewhat hollow considering how the Saints’ season unfolded.

“It’s a little bittersweet consolation,” Vilma said. “I try to focus more on the wins and losses. It’s been kind of tough dealing with the individual success when the team success wasn’t where we wanted it to be.

“I’m thankful, but I don’t want to say I’m happy because I’m not happy because we’re not in a position as a team where we thought we should be. But I’m thankful people are recognizing my hard work in coming back. It was a whole lot of work for myself as far helping this team win next year.”
Vilma’s journey back from knee surgery — in which a floating piece of dead bone was removed midway through last season, in addition to escaping a 3-4 scheme that didn’t fit his comfort level with the New York Jets — didn’t take it out of him physically. But it made his brain work overtime.

“It’s been a tougher journey mentally from here to back then in New York. Physically the muscle came back fine the muscles around the knee healed up fine. But mentally, striving to not only compete against everyone else but competing against myself to get to the level I should be playing at and the level that I’m used to playing at hasn’t been easy.

“Once I get there and if I ever do, then I’m striving to get better than what I was before the surgery. That’s been the toughest thing mentally, trying to be patient through this whole process. I know it’s not all going to come out at once.”

Vilma said although some of the league probably hasn’t seen his progression because the Saints haven’t received the national exposure of others, he and the coaching staff do see the noticeable improvements and Vilma wants next year to be his resurrection.

The problem for the Saints could be where Vilma spends his next few years. Vilma’s contract expires at season’s end and he will be a free agent by the end of February after having only a year left on his New York deal when he was traded to New Orleans in early March.

New Orleans is the only team that can negotiate with Vilma until free agency opens. But because of a stipulation in the trade, the Saints can’t sign Vilma until the start of free agency.

If the Saints did sign Vilma before free agency kicks off, the Jets would receive the Saints’ second-round pick in 2009. That would also affect the trade involving Jeremy Shockey and the Saints would have to give the Giants their first-round pick instead of the second already committed to the Giants.

Vilma made his intentions quite clear to Payton and Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis.

“I already told Mickey and already told Sean that I want to be here,” Vilma said. “I told all the coaches I want to be here. They already know how I feel. Obviously, I don’t handle the money side. I actually told my agent (Mitch Frankel), I don’t even want to hear the money side of it. Hopefully my agent and Mickey will get it done so I can be here.”

Despite his early pleas to remain in New Orleans, Vilma understands nothing is ever definite come contract negotiation time

“(Vilma is not interested in leaving), but you know what they say that unfortunately this is a business,” Vilma said. “Even with the good relationships that you build throughout your time here, it’s a business.”

(sunherald.com)