Ruiz. Three years, albeit difficult years has not played to his draft status nor to the level of players taken 10-15 picks after him.

Baun. Did we really waste a two 3rd round picks on a backup LB playing out of position?

Trautman. Look, I'm pulling for him I really am, but we traded away picks 130, 169, 203, and 244 (our entire second day) for a guy who has more drops than TDs.

Tommy F'n Stevens. LOF'nL.... Is this kid even IN the NFL still?

So I don't know what your definition of crap is Guido but in my book this is it.

Ruiz was the weakest link ... even amongst backups in 2021. Unacceptable at his draft position.

Zero awareness and looks lost out there. Almost got Ian Book & JW killed out there.

Dougie M will either coach him up, or he'll be replaced. This is his last chance.

Why would they have been starting Ruiz if they felt he was weaker than all of the backups? Are they seeing something that those outside the building are not?

It has only been TWO years for Ruiz and the others. And both years have been severely impacted by COVID restrictions. The draft class may very well end up being crap. But, until given a real chance it is difficult to assign a final grade. At this point it can't reasonably be anything except for an "incomplete". As Major_K points out it is now coming up on year three and Doug Marrone is in charge of the offensive line. Let's see how it turns out.

As for Tommy Stevens, there's a ton of players drafted in 2020 that are no longer on rosters. He's one of them.

If you're going to blame Ruiz's performance on Covid how do you explain how many of his draft peers flourished?

Take as much time as you need Guido but IMO we'll need a 180 from those left on the roster to be even a somewhat successful draft (net 3 players).

Last thing I'll ask on Tommy - how many players who were traded UP for didn't make it through training camp in their FIRST season

Well, sometimes it;s hard to admit a mistake. I blame the Saints for doubling and tripling down in the draft for this, the backup plan wasn't much of a plan in some cases. Out of all the draft picks given up for players that don't walk the walk and to think out of all the free picks given away there was not one ( or more players) we could have drafted to take care of the Ruiz spot. Payton gambled, so does Allen, just got to watch future picks leave town.

I'm not sure. How many of them were offensive lineman switched to a completely different position than they played regularly in college? And how many of those linemen had to shift positions multiple times during their second season? And how many of those linemen had every other lineman on their squad miss significant time to injury? How well did they flourish?

As for a successful draft, I have commonly heard that getting two or three starters is considered a successful draft. Regardless of how you feel about Ruiz and Trautman they are both starters.

Once again, I'm not saying that Ruiz will definitely be a success, but in all honesty one would have to admit that the circumstances (which appear to be unique to his situation) have made it impossible to fairly judge his potential to date. Now if he stinks it up this season I'll take the seat right beside you on the bandwagon.