Your Monday Morning Draft Grade
 

You have read all the draft grades and read profiles learning about the players. Now you grade the Saints draft.

RE: Your Monday Morning Draft Grade
 

LIKE
Reggie Bush
http://2006.ontheclockdraft.com/pro...919104352853297
Mike Hass
http://2006.ontheclockdraft.com/pro...721053046102624
Zach Strief
http://2006.ontheclockdraft.com/pro...721053033159848
Marques Colston
http://2006.ontheclockdraft.com/pro...223340882538236

Reached
Roman Harper
http://2006.ontheclockdraft.com/pro...916325160455548
Jahri Evans
http://2006.ontheclockdraft.com/pro...223352272409313
Bruce Eugene
http://2006.ontheclockdraft.com/pro...223330736640144

All in all this was a fun draft. Payton kept us guessing all the way. He does like high wonderlick scores. He also likes players who like to play and love the game. I see alot of change in 2 to 3 years. This could wake up some off the players on the team already, they now see what Payton calls a New Orleans Saints TEAM player. B+

My grade is B+. To get the overall best player, and the highest rated RB in many years for nothing was a gift. They were successful in not trading for less than market value. Beyond the overal team aspect you cannot discount the immediate impact of ticket sales and media attention suddenly skyrocketing for a disarrayed team in the tragic aftermath of Katrina. As I have mentioned elsewhere besides getting Bush we were additionally blessed to not take on Mario Williams. The guy may pan out bigtime but there is certainly high risk attached to his success in the NFL.

Harper, another safety was a reach but the more I have read on him the less that reach has looked. Get used to this new FO is not going to go after players with character issues like justice, Wroten, or Jimmy Williams. He's very smart and a tough hitter. I am trusting there is some master plan at work with Smith to corner or trade, etc. Whatever you think about him the kicker is getting Faine, a former first round pick who becomes an immediate starter with a low cost contract for another three years. Whodi, we're waiting for you to get your rant on him out of your system.

Round Four I count Thomas and Evans as the pick. Yes, there were highly rated players I liked available but adding a plug like Thomas on first and second down will go a long ways to helping the porous run D. Again for only 9 spaces like at Rd2 is a minor coup. Evans is massive but a project. Did you look at all the videos of the picks? It looked like he was playing in high school stadiums against kids. LOL.

Ninkovich- high motor, overachiever, good stats for not being an every down player. I am seeing more guys in the new regime that figure as high quality special teams/situational players. He can long snap too. The biggest reach of all picks IMO.

6th- Hass is on many lists as a second day steal. He does nothing but find openings and make catches in the mold of Abramowicz or Eric Martin. You do know he won the Biletnikoff Award as the best receiver in the nation last year I hope.

Lay- about 20th on most CB lists I checked so no surprise at the 6th rd. A big corner, I see his height listed at 6-0 but more have it as 6-2. Profiles say will do best in zone coverage same as Harper. That could be some insight into defensive scheme emphasis.

I loved the Strief pick. Projected to 4th rd by some so great value at 7. He is a wooly mammoth 6-7/335 that can engulf people. If he can get conditioned enough to move good enough for run blocking he could develop nicely.

Marques Colston- like Hass, not afraid to go across the middle. Giant target, great leaping ability

Mike Hass will be the best player to come out of the late rounds. With our pro bowl quarterback, pro bowl receiver, thunder and lightning running tandom, and a Wayne Chrebet type possesion receiver. we shall become the greaest show on turf.

more votes please

only reason people are giving us such a good draft is bush i feel we didnt get what we needed like a good quality cb and no lb

from Peter King today-

5. I think New Orleans got a no-lose deal when it swapped the 99th pick to the Eagles for the 108th pick and a very useable defensive tackle in Hollis Thomas ... and getting him for $710,000 in the last year of his contract. He'll be a valuable guy in the Saints' DT rotation.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...b.draft/2.html

I wanted to give it a B-. The way I see it, we HAD to take Reggie Bush, we really didn't have a chacne. It's a great pick because he's one of the best players to come out of the draft since I've been alive, but it wasn't a great pick for obvious reasons with Deuce and Bennett. Overall, I'm happy with the pick and happy with the way it seems to have energized all Saints fans.

Picking up Jeff Faine and turning one pick into two players was a smart move, we just took the wrong player with that 2nd round pick. I think we should have addressed LB or CB there, but if there's anything I can say for Roman Harper is that he seems to be a high character guy that isn't going to give anything less than his all. I guess in the big picture, it's a dumb pick, but it could have been worse considering the guy's character.

The trade in the 4th round also has two sides for me. We did pass up on Jean-Gilles, but we got Hollis Thomas. I hope that he's going to be an upgrade on the DLine, but he's getting kinda old. Evans in the 4th was also a reach and was probably my least favorite move in the draft. He's extremely raw, and it's going to take a long time to develop him. I also think that there were other players on the board at that time that we should have taken.

I can't believe we took another DE. Ugh. LB???

The later picks were surprisingly good even though I wanted a kicker!

Overall, good draft. We got some solid players, and we got some good character players. The only thing I can say against this draft is that we didn't really fill our biggest positions of need (LB and CB).

On the subject too I want to shout out a big thank you.

Thanks Jim Haslett for your infatuation with the super athletes, for sticking with Leon at QB (and to Bouwoman even worse), for keeping Venturi at DC, and staying the course with your style. It did all have to crumble. I wish it would have been about two years sooner than later. But the hope for another erratic undisciplined 8-8 season finally did get us to the spot where we could clean house. If we would have won one more of those games like the gem to the Lions then we would not have the excitement we have today. THANKS JIM for your part in getting Reggie into da house!

at first ....i was sceaming why......but as i thought about it he did fill holes.....the holes in the character and moral of our team....like harper and lay .....both high character guys with potential...


i also like the trades solid players.........


and BUSH nothig else needs to be said...

I began yelling in round two. Not because I didn't like Harper, but because I felt if he was the guy we wanted...we could have traded down again, picked up more picks, & still got the guy. Jahri Evans in the 4th through me for a loop. I think we could have snagged him later also. The Ninkovich pick...I'm still torn. I mean he's a solid 5th round pick, but did we really need another DE? Hello....LB? Rounds 6 & 7 were wonderful. They were all steals in the late rounds. I initially hated the Josh Lay pick, but then I found out three things about him. (1) He's a student of the game with tremendous work ethic. (2) He's progresses every year he's played CB. (3) And the kicker.....he's Ty Law's cousin. What better CB to learn from than Ty Law!!!

To sum it up, we came in the ring & got a 1st round knockdown. We took some punches in rounds 2-5, but we came back with a flurry in the late rounds. I give Payton & crew a B- to C+.

I like the guys we acquired in the trades. I only wonder how many years Hollis Thomas has left.

Ya know.....B+ seems to be the grade of choice. Did they fill everything? No. Did they acquire players that can make an impact on our team? I think they did. Bush......obvious. Harper....I'm not sure why....I guess we'll know once this whole Smith nonsense plays out. Hass?.....the guy sounds pretty resourceful to me. A couple of trades for picks....we got a center...(needed)....another DT (needed for the 3-4)....shhhh...I didn't say that...hee hee. Seriously though....it wasn't perfect....but I feel it was definitely helpful. Unfortunately....the ONLY thing nopt addressed.....a good LB. But I assume there is still plenty of time.

Oh I don't know... Reggie at number two was a total no brainer. I'd like to know who would have been our pick if Bush was not there? (I think it was gonna be either M. Williams or Hawk). I like Hass at 6 better then anyone else we picked before him... Defense is still gonna be slow in the LB's and weak in the middle against the run. C+ on the strength of Bush.

yup, to get the most exciting offensive player in a decade does equate to an average draft. LOL I can't help it, as some articles have said, Bush alone would be an A grade. Honestly, I could find things to nitpick on but I am giving Payton & Co. a free ticket into the season. I may not agree precisely with every personnel move made thusfar but I am enthused about the direction and stamp that he is putting on the team. I don't even have a giant W/L objective yet for the coming season. I just want to see good solid play. Turnaround from being the most penalized and turnover prone would be a giant step. I'd love to hear the commentators start referring to the team here as overachievers rather than underachievers too. Win, lose, or draw you can tell when a team is well coached and the organization is running cohesively and effectively. The proof is in the puddin' but I like how things are cooking up so far.

I voted a C, although it's a C plus. Reading some glowing articles isn't gonna chnage my mind on that. Even if you grarde it a B, it's kinda disappointing to draft the best football player on the planet, then end up with a B grade. But I give it a C for who we passed on as much as who we did actually draft. I liked Haas late though. But outside of Reggie, if Harper doesn't work out, and we get an up front and close look at the reason Cleveland was willing to overspend for Bentley in order to dump Faine, this could easily fall to the D range, even with Reggie bush. I agree with most, that was the biggest no brainer of almost any draft, so it's hard for me to give credit for that. But brain cramping afterwards due to giddiness, ot not figuring Daniel Bullocks to be gone or whatever is inexcusable. Soi'll stay with a C, C plus for now.

Whodi, what's your beef with Faine? I really doubt that you know all that much about the guy. Yes he was dumped by Cleveland, but that happened to be for LECHARLES BENTLEY. He was a former first-rounder, so the guy obviously has talent. Also, don't forget that he ripped his bicep muscle, so I'm sure that was just extra incentive for the Browns to favor Bentley over him and coin him expendable. Sure he might suck arse, but all I'm saying is that we should at least wait until the guy suits up in the black and gold before we label him as a bad player. Besides whodi, what was your alternative plan? What other center did you want to pick up? IMO, Faine was one of the best options for us. Also, we turned one pick into two players, so that's really a pretty good deal. I honestly don't know a lot about Faine besides the fact that he was a first-rounder and he is talented, but he just never put it all together in Cleveland, but what I'm saying is who did put it all together in Cleveland over the last few years, and let's just wait til we seem him with these Saints.

From foxsports.com:

They liked it more than Mel Kiper did.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5559064

What's my beef with Faine? Clevelend OVERSPENT for his replacement. How much more do you need to know? CLEVELAND. When the Brons feel like they can dump a player from THEIR O-line, I am gonna hitch my horse to the he can't be all that great wagon. I can buy the argument we may not have had a better option, but what is that saying? If we go from bad to below average, is that really great? I can;t get excited by a player CLEVELAND was eager to get rid of. And I trust head coach Romeo Crennel's opinion of a player a smuch as I do anyone in the league. Everyoen on the planet knows Bentley was a better guard than center, so do they get him and play him at guard and justify the money? Nope. They overpay him to replace their first roud pick. Somehow I can't dance a jig for that. He hasn't played a full season since he was drafted. And if the best argument is "he was a former first round pick," well so were Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith, Tony Mandarich, and Lawrence Phillips. Doesn't make him good cause he went in the first round. And seriosuly, how much do YOU know about him? you paid that much attention to Cleveland before they got Bentley? Come on man, that's no argument at all.

I give us a B. We drafted the best prospect to enter the draft in years. I would have liked to of seen a lb chosen at some point and a cb earlier. We may have reached for a Harper but we had no 3rd and I think he'll be a solid player down the road, I do like the guy. Came on stong in the end with some oline and wr help. We also traded down and got 2 starters in Thomas at DT and Faine at C which I liked.

Whodi, I told you I didn't know a lot about Faine. I'm just being honest. I could lie and say I know all about him, but all I know is scouting reports that I've read about the guy.

Yes they overspent because if they didn't, then Bentley would have come back here. This situation is no different than any other free agent signing: the new team in the picture usually has to spend more money than the encumbent team in order to get the guy away.

What is that saying? That says that we didn't have a better option! I mean it's really that simple whodi. We couldn't afford to pay Bentley that kind of money, anybody who thinks we could is nuts. Ideally would I have liked to get the best center in the league to replace LeCharles? Absolutely. Was it possible? Absolutely not. IMO, did we do the best possible thing to address the center position? Yes. Every team has to undergo players leaving, and a lot of times its not possible for a team to upgrade every single position. You win some you lose some. However, all I was trying to say is that it could have been a lot worse than getting Jeff Faine. I think in all of the REALISTIC possibilities that faced our team concerning the offensive center position, turning one pick into two players, one of them a three-year starter is pretty good. He might not be amazing, but let's just see what he does for the team first.

Here's my 2 cents:

I'm happy we got Bush, he was a must pick and we're fortunate to have him. I'm sad that Deuce will be leaving next season most probably, but that's life.

I'm glad we picked up Hollis. That will help the D well. He's a solid run stopper. I understand our #2 pick, but with Smith, Bellamy, Stoutmire, Bullocks, and Gleason we have plenty of safeties. Why didn't we get Abdul Hodge?

The rest of the picks are good ones. As for Faine, I know he is productive when he can play, but is injury prone so I'm concerned he will turn out like Bosselli did for the Texans.

The only reason anyone is even considering this draft a B is because we did took the no brainer approach and picked the best player in the world. We didnt address any needs through the draft.

Now, we got Faine, who will be more than serviceable, but we could have nailed some needs with our PICKS. We didnt do that.

The truth is this draft should get only a C. I feel we blew the second round big time. We needed LB or CB which we could have gotten. We go with Harper who we could have maybe traded down got more picks and still got Harper. Without, Bush this is an easy D or F. Bush gets it a C. To give it an A..thats just rose colored glasses. No way its an A, B is a stretch. C is where it should be.

Uh, no. LeCharles already said he didn't wanna come back here AND that he wanted to play for Cleveland before FA even started. We didn't even franchise him, so NO he would not have come back here, and NO Cleveland did not HAVE to overpay to get him. What they did was make sure that he didn't visit anyone else. But he openly said he wanted to play for Cleveland.

So "we didn't have a better option" is supposed to make me happy? Please. We don't have a better option than Sully at DT and it makes me wanna puke. "We didn't have a better option" is not a winning argument. But so what I gave them a C and I am not enamored with a former number one pick the Browns couldn't wait to unload. So what? Does it kill you that much? I AM NOT EXCITED ABOUT GETTING A BROWNS THROWAWAY. Apparently you are. Kudos. Maybe this will be the first year out of his career he plays the whole season. But it's MY OPINION, you have yours. Why can't that be good enough?

C+ just because the 6th and 7th round picks were outstanding... and we got a couple of vets. 2-5 blew monkey poop and whether or not Bush was the sensible pick, you really can't pass up on the best player in the draft. He gets an A regardless.

If he wanted to go to Cleveland so badly, don't you think that he would have signed with them as long as they offered the same amount as the Saints? If he wanted to go there so badly, the Browns would have known that they didn't have to overspend because he was going there regardless.

No, not necessarily. It doesn't make me happy that we don't have a Pro Bowler at every position, but that's just how it is. Seriously, what do you think we should have done about the center position? The way I see it, we did the best possible thing. Hell, if we could do the impossible, then things would be a lot easier, but of course, we all know that the impossible is, well, impossible.

And also, he's not exactly a "throw away" either, we had to trade for him. :wink:

I give us a solid B -- more than I can say for my high school grades....

We got Bush...nuff said. Dude is a blessing and this time last week I was simply hoping we wouldn't nab Williams. Don't get much better. I'm convinced that Haz would have jumped ona trade that wouldn't have gotten us value...or reached for a player.

All of our other picks give us great young depth. Something we can really use. And the more I read about Harper, the more I like him. Haas is gonna be a special guy...our Ricky Proehl. And it looks like we got some solid FA pick ups afterward. We also did a great job of using our picks as force multipliers to get solid vet talent without giving up a ton (Washington on the other hand raped themselves once again -- dumba****)

I think the draft also helps us inanother area. We had to pretty much sell out to get Brees here. We all knew getting some , not all, FAs to come here would be hard. Now with the prospect of playing with Brees, McAllister, Horn, Stallworth and now Bush will help us get some of those big names that will come up soon, and at the June 1 cuts.

Okay, um wow. The Saints didn't offer him ANYTHING, but there were other teams interested. LeCharles stated his desire to play for Cleveland, and Cleveland gave him a contract that would keep him from even visiting anyone else. LEt's get this clear, the Saints DID NOT have the option to keep LeCharles given that they did not franchise him. You can stop using them as an example.

I would have rolled with Nesbit or Goodwin. From what Faine's career has been, he;s not THAT much of an improvement. I still see Cleveland RBs getting mauled in the backfield and their QBs chased all over the field. AND if Romeo Crennel doesn't want a guy, I have my doubts about him too.

I don't think we had to. He has been rumored to be on the block or set to be cut since they got LeCharles. I think he woulda been a June 1st cut anyway. But we traded for him, moved back, and drafted a reach at a position we don't need. Yippee. Again, you have your opinion, I have mine. I have no idea why it can't be left at that.

Here's me leaving it at that.

I know you need to unwind some on the Faine issue Whodi. I won't get into debate about it. In time I think you will at a bare minimum realize he is most definitely a better option than Goodwin or Nesbit.

I have my own questions about all of the picks too actually. I do give the new regime a lot of leeway to show me what they got though. To move down nine picks in the 2nd and 4th round and acquire two veterans that get penciled in as starters in addition to picks I count as very saavy moves.

Also I will state again we should realize this regime will not be signing any T.O.s or Dale Carter types. Plenty of other teams passed on Justice, Wroten, and Jimmy Williams for the character issue primarily. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes we do not know about. Not much of the public knows Rodrique Wright, a DT projected as a 1st rder last yr, will have to have major shoulder surgery before the season- thus 7th rd.

The two veterans added as a part of the draft in essence and Strief and the Hass picks pushes the draft grade higher than just Reggie IMO.