I guess this is why I've never gotten into the whole pre-draft hype. We as fans have no idea what the teams have in mind for their needs and direction. It's quite possible that the Saints, and several other teams, never saw Washington as a fit at all and was he never even a consideration. It is impossible as a fan that has fallen for draft prospects to come away from any draft without disappointments. But, fortunately, we do not make the final decisions.

To be honest, I had never heard of Washington until after the draft. I'm not a college fan and didn't really notice him in the championship game that I did watch. That's the only Georgia game I saw all season. I don't remember hearing anything about him pre-draft when the top TE prospects were discussed some.

So out of curiosity….if you dont follow college or pre draft hype, then why inject your opinions with people on this forum that do? Obviously it’s an open discussion for all but it doesn’t make sense to object to peoples opinions when you have little knowledge or desire on the subject.

I understand that we as fans have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes, but we have visions and desires of what we’d like to see and ways we’d like to improve our team as fans. We want to enjoy a good fun discussion about it without a Debbie downer coming let us know that we know nothing. Yes we might be a little disappointed if the outcome doesn’t go our way, but we get that’s how it is. This part of football is as fun for me as the actual season.

So out of curiosity….if you dont follow college or pre draft hype, then why inject your opinions with people on this forum that do? Obviously it’s an open discussion for all but it doesn’t make sense to object to peoples opinions when you have little knowledge or desire on the subject.

Oh, I have plenty of desire and quite a bit of knowledge, it's just that the knowledge comes after the fact. I'm giving my opinions from a Saints aspect. I look at all the players we drafted to learn as much as I can about them and discuss them with some insight. I also hear about players that others wanted to be drafted and look into them, many for the first time, in depth. In many cases I can see why they might have been a fit and can understand the point. But in others, like Darnell Washington, after doing some research, I couldn't see what made him more desirable than any of the players we took prior to his going off the board. I couldn't see the fit so I asked for input on what others saw in him that they felt was so compelling that it basically downgraded our draft in their minds. I don't see that as being a Debbie Downer at all. Quite the contrary, one could say that those wishing we would have taken some player other than the ones we did were the ones being Debbie Downers.

Regardless, it's all opinion and open discussion. I just haven't been convinced that my opinion that the player wasn't a good fit for the Saints was wrong. Apparently the Saints, and 30 other teams, had similar opinions in as far as his value at any point before he was finally selected toward the end of the third round. Who knows, maybe he'll blossom in the NFL and be more than the self-described "sixth offensive lineman."

So, out of curiosity, Riaton, where do you think we should have selected Mr. Washington had we had interest as a team? #29? #40? #71? Keep in mind he went #93, I believe.

Is there evidence right now that he couldn't produce on day one? Being how strong of a blocker he is, that's a useful trait we could have used immediately. His size alone makes him a red zone threat. Just because he was the 7th TE drafted, that doesn't mean he can't make an impact right away. Rashid Shaheed went undrafted and make an impact last season. 32 teams passed on him. Talent, opportunity, and will power have a lot to with that.

That's a very flawed argument.

D cause we didn’t get one of the stud TEs. Hope they prove me wrong!

Wow! Pretty harsh grade. The lowest grade of anyone in the poll not named mapcow!

Where did you place our needs? Did you have TE before DT and DE?

I'm assuming the Saints didn't as much need at TE. At least not as much need as at DT and DE. The top three "stud" TE's were all off the board before pick #40. We're sitting at five TE's on the roster currently and still have four slots on the 90 man roster available to add another if need be.

I agree, it would have been a nice addition with one of the top three or four TE's, but I just saw the departures on the defensive line being more important to address with the picks we had available.

It’s mostly me setting the bar low so I won’t be as disappointed if they suck. I like the Breese pick. Other than that nothing got me excited.