Shaken and dismayed
 

I have been joking that we would be picking the wrong people in this draft for a month now with my co-workers (who are all fans). Never could I have predicted this.

What we have picked using our highest and most valuable pick is another player to fill a roll in the second most solid position on our team (next to RB). WTF. With Grant and Howard on our team, were is this guy going to start? Answer: He's not. Just &#^$ing wonderful - nice job with our best pick.

Next we selected a 5'11" WR. I guess Haslett's comment about the corners in the NFL being short were his way of telling us he was going to even the field and give them a better chance at covering our WRs. Nice job, chum.

The linebacker pick I can't really argue with, though WE NEED a starter not a project. I just don't understand this.... of course, our LBs are so bad maybe this guy can start for us. Nowhere else in the NFL, but maybe for us....

"How many DT's are we going to carry on our roster?" is the question prompted by our next pick. Wasn't this the ONLY real move we made in FA - to pick up a DT.

We see a FB. The only pick I won't argue with.

Never in my craziest nightmares leading up to the draft would I have imagined this piece of garbage.

Shaken and dismayed
 

Garbage? Think it through man, we did better than you might first think.

Will Smith - With our first pick, we take a top ten player on many boards, and the best DE in the draft. He has the versatility and speed to move to SLB on running downs, and will be used as a DE with Howard moved to DT on passing downs. This greatly improves both our pass and run defence.

Devery Henderson - He\'s the fastest WR in the draft, and has been compared to Peerless Price, but with a better attitude ( www.thehuddlereport.com ). While this is probably my least favorite pick, because it probably means Pathon\'s days as a Saint are numbered, Henderson is the kind of player that can strike fear into a CBs heart. Sure he\'s 5\'11, but that isn\'t going to matter if his blazing speed has got him 4 steps behind the CB.

Courtney Watson - Now we get, according to Kiper, the best MLB in the draft. This guy is very polished, has all the right measureables, has the instincts, and is the concensus pick as the best MLB in this draft against the run. Furthermore, he was the leader of his team and has been praised for his character and intelligence. The only reason he wasn\'t as well known as some of the other LBs in this draft is the fact he went to Notre Dame, which is no longer considered a big football school.

Rodney Leisle - A very unselfish, run stuffing DT that has a great motor and a lot of heart. He was projected mostly as a third round pick (www.draftcrazy.com had him as a late first rounder), so he\'s great value in the fifth. Sure, we have quite a few DTs on the roster, but Leisle is a guy that can take on a double team and be disruptive against the run, which is something that most DTs on our roster (Kenny Smith, Willy Whitehead, Kenderick Allen) aren\'t able to do.

Mike Karney - The best fullback in the draft. Can block like Terrelle with the added threat of being able to catch the football. I don\'t think there\'s a Saints fan out there that didn\'t love this pick.

So c\'mon man... what makes this draft garbage? We get the best DE and best FB in the draft. We got the best MLB in the draft against the run (and stopping the run was our biggest weakness last year) and a great value run stuffing DT in the 5th. And then we got arguably the best \"big play threat\" WR in a very talented WR class.

I\'m not saying this was a perfect draft, but you\'re crazy if you think it was garbage.

[Edited on 25/4/2004 by Cadillac]

Shaken and dismayed
 

I think what people will do is look at needs and address them as to grading our draft... or players they hoped or expected we would end up with. That is foolish thinking... you have to be patent and make your picks to what is happening and adjust. I think the Saints did that and also gave themselves many options on D and the future with another 2nd rounder for next year.

Shaken and dismayed
 

There are some fans that will never be pleased.

We could draft Eli Manning, Roy Williams, DeAngelo Hall and Jonathan Vilma all in the same draft and someone will be complaining about how we didn\'t get an impact kicker.

Shaken and dismayed
 

Similarly, there are always those who try to make a silk purse out of a sow\'s ear.

These drafts picks do nothing to address the NEEDS this team had at the end of last season. In fact, our team has done almost NOTHING to address those needs all off-season. As each event (FA, and now the draft) has approached we have all talked about our hopes that we might see a good CB or LB acquired by our team. Thus far, we have seen nothing even close.

NONE of these guys (with the exception of Will Smith) is a starter out of the gate. Smith is most definitely a great player BUT WE DON\'T NEED A FRIGGIN\' DE!

I don\'t care how fast Henderson is, especially when he is so SHORT! What advantage does he bring to us? Is he another Steve Smith? I think not. CB\'s in the NFL are going to find it very easy to cover this guy. These aren\'t college corners he\'s facing anymore.

Watson is the best MLB in the draft..... What a load. So, this Kiper thinks D.J. Williams (Yeah, I know he played outside), or J. Vilma are worse than this late 2? Give me a frappin\' break. This guy is a project player (Think of Cie Grant) at best. He may wind up starting outside for us next year. WE NEED A MLB NOW!

I didn\'t complain about the FB. We needed one.

Paraphrasing one of the other posters, you\'re darn right I grade a team during the off-season by how well it fill\'s it\'s needs. Grade: D- so far.

Now I will wait for the next big event (June 1 cuts) and PRAY that someone wake\'s the heck up and sees that we NEED a MLB and a corner that stands a chance against the good WRs in this game.

Shaken and dismayed
 

With a comment like this, I\'m assuming you missed last season. Let me fill you in....
Teams were running all over us. This was mainly due to us having some key injuries to our D (our lack of depth on the d-line especially hurt us) and the fact our MLB was less than adequate.

In the offseason, we hired a highly respected D-Line coach, and brought in Brian Young, a high motor interior lineman that we\'ve been missing.
Then in the draft, we added a DE that is exceptional against the run, the number one ranked MLB against the run, and a run stuffing DT. Sounds like we tried to address it to me.


Short?? He\'s 6\'0. So is Donte. Marvin Harrison and Tory Holt are both around that height too. Joe Horn is \"only\" 6\'1.

Well, besides the obvious big play ability he displayed at LSU, the advantage of having two fast recievers on the field like Donte and Devery is that very few teams will have 2 corners with the speed to cover both our recievers. Because of this, teams will have to keep their safeties deep. This will....
a) Open up the middle of the field for Horn and Boo running intermediate routes, and...
b) Keep safeties out of the box so Deuce has more room to run.

Is that a question?? Well then the answer would be yes, he does, that\'s why he had Watson as his top rated MLB.

How is he a project? He\'s a polished player. Unlike Cie, he played MLB all through college, so he doesn\'t lack experience. I wouldn\'t be suprised if he was a Day 1 starter.

Shaken and dismayed
 

I m with caddy on this one. First of all, it doesn\'t matter if you have 4 all-pro corners on your team unless you put pressure on the quarterback. That\'s been our problem along with stopping the run. You have to put pressure on the qb to help out your secondary. You have to stop the run in order to be sucessful. Courtney Watson does just that. When ND won a few games two years ago, Watson was the leader of that great defense and that defense was the only reason why they won so many games.

As far as Devery Henderson is concerned, youi must not be an LSU fan or pay attention to college football. Devery is the fastest wr coming out. He scored more touchdown than Clayton did. He was on LSU\'s track team. The guy is a burner and wants to get better. Also, he returns kicks and punts and does a good job of it. WHile he didn\'t return punts at LSU because they had Skyler Green who was probably the best PR in college football last year.

Now, the Saints have added 3 people on the defensive line. Smith, who was the #1 defensive end in the whole draft and a top 10 pick on most boards. Hell, Bellichick wanted to trade up and get him with our pick. He said that Smith was the #2 guy on their board. That\'s another thing the Patriots do so well, they stay true to their board.

Leisle and Brian Young are almost two of the same. They both play with a lot of energy and have a non-stop motor. These guys are tough and want to win at all costs.

Watson brings leadership, athleticism and instincts to the linebacker position. Bottom line is this, he will be pushing for a starting job and there nothing better than some good ole\' competition.

If our D-line plays up to expectations, which I believe they will, then our secondary will look twice as better this year because of that. My outlook on the draft is this, the cards did fall the way we expected on the first round and everyone is upset, but I feel we got a top talent with our pick. If we were to draft Gamble, he wouldn\'t even play this year. He is raw with just potential. Will Poole would have been a reach in 3, but he has character issues and isn\'t fast enough. I am tired of hearing about players that are cancers to our team. We have enough of that.

Shaken and dismayed
 

Let\'s just say we will agree to disagree on this one. No one on THIS end \"missed\" last season. I won\'t disagree with your comment about lacking a MLB... the point I make is that we still do. If this late 2nd pick you keep raving about were that great, he wouldn\'t have been a late second round pick. Anyone who believes this guy we drafted is better than Vilma and Williams... well, someone missed something anyway.

Shaken and dismayed
 

I agree with Caddy and Boogro. This appears to be a solid draft. We did address some needs.

However, there are some problems. Our secondary is no better than before the draft. Maybe our pass rush will help the secondary, but we\'ve still got the same guys.

While some of us think Watson is the real deal. He\'s unproven in the NFL and we\'ve still got the same LB\'s from last year.

Will Smiths natural position is DE. We have 2 good ones. This is a problem. Maybe he can spell Grant and Howard and maybe he can play some linebacker, but this was NOT an area of need and we WOULD have been better off had we have gotten one of the premeir corners or LB\'s.

The draft always brings excitement to most teams. The possibilities are exciting. But, it\'s far from a sure thing that our defense will be vastly improved.

[Edited on 26/4/2004 by SaintsReporter]

Shaken and dismayed
 

I am not saying that this guy is the best MLB in college football. I would have liked Vilma, but I would have never traded up to get him or Williams. I like the Watson fella and it is possible he could turn out to be the best LB out of this draft, who knows?

I did see the highlights of Quincy Wilson from West Virginia where they showed him breaking tackles from Vilma and Company and also looked like Vilma tended to take bad angles. I noticed it and just wanted to point that out.