I knew they were gonna bring somebody in, whether it be a draft pick or a free agent. But in my mind I was the only guy here, ... Every day I competed against myself. I didn't compete against the guy next to me.

Nugent's a little different -- he's a draft pick and I was a free agent. I felt like I had to go out and perform every single day and prove myself. You feel like you're always 20 minutes away from being fired.

You enter the game and see what kind of game plan they have for you defensively. If they bring a bunch of guys down in the box that you figure are going to pressure a lot, there are big holes in the defense to take advantage. I felt like we were able to do that today.

There's always a little bit of personal satisfaction when you prove somebody wrong.

I needed New Orleans so badly back in 2006, just somebody to believe in me, somebody to care about me.

Sometimes all you need is just for somebody to believe in you in order to be able to accomplish maybe what you never thought you could.