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.

Nah, I was right in my assessment of what a Debbie downer is.

Where I think we should’ve drafted him has no relevance to me on my opinion of Washington. I honestly don’t care where he was drafted nor do I care where we should’ve or would’ve. I’m not even mad that we didn’t draft him, I like others here believe he has potential to be a good player and would’ve liked to see him in the black and gold wherever he would’ve been drafted.

At any rate I’m not here to debate anything with you, as I know it’s a waste of my time, just curious about your contradicting behavior, that is all

Certainly, yeah. Look, we would say that he could play really across the board, and that's how they played him at Clemson. He played a four technique, he played a five technique, he played three (technique), he played nose. And I think he probably best fits as a three technique, but that's going to be up to our coaches. Our coaches may play him at five or four or even the nose, and some sub-down stuff or into one technique. That's the beauty of Bryan Bresee is that he's got a ton of versatility. His athleticism can complement any position along the defensive line. He could play end if you wanted him to. He's got a really high skill set to be a sub-down defender, especially at his size. And we feel like that's important.

Well, the fact that he's over 6-5, and he's almost 275 pounds and he runs around a sub-4.64 or 4.65 40, yes. He's got really long arms. He's super smart. He's a team captain, and he's got production. He fits what we do and fits what we like. And I think he's going to be a really, really good player. I think his upside is going to be really good. I think he can rush the passer, he can play with his hands, he's really strong. He can play the run, he gets out of trouble really well, which is very important for defensive ends. He's got good instincts. He plays with a tremendous effort and a motor to chase out of the stack. So there's just a lot of things to like about Isaiah Foskey. No player is ever just immediately ready for the National Football League. He's as close to being ready as anybody because of just his character and his entire makeup and the way he's built, where he played, how he's been coached. I think he comes in and he gives us a lot of snaps this year.

...we just felt like, man, this is too good to be true. We felt like he was going to slip and fall to around where we could take him (in the third round). It's crazy, you always trust your own feeling, you trust what you see. We knew he wasn't being mocked very high and then we kept watching him and we kept watching him. I'm like, fellas, trust your eyes, you're seeing it right. And you're crazy, you never second-guess yourself. But when you draft a player and immediately you get 26 text messages from colleagues in the league, some of them saying, "You son of a gun" or "He was the next guy (on our board). He was our third-best running back." He was the guy no one was talking about. He was kind of, maybe, a hidden secret (to the public). We didn't feel like that. No, we've always liked him. He wasn't a late bloomer for us. This was a guy we were on pretty early and loved the tape, and I think he's got a huge upside.

I love the competitive spirit that he has, like: Hey man, what do I have to be worried about? He had great confidence about him. And he's smart. He's tough. He's super competitive, extremely versatile. He's got flexibility, in terms of just his body flexibility and flexibility in terms of the positions that he was able to play. He can play guard, center and tackle. We like having those kind of guys that have big upsides. Don't let Old Dominion fool you. He comes from a good program, well-developed. So we're excited to have Nick and excited to see what he can do this first year.

He does kind of remind you or there's some similarities to No. 9 (Drew Brees). He's undersized, the way he creates windows and processing speed, quick release, the accuracy. I mean there's only going to be one of those guys forever. You can't really compare him, and I'm always careful to use the comparison because he doesn't compare to Drew, he's the only one. But there are some similarities that make you feel like, OK, maybe he can play similarly to that person. And you thought, OK, well you got another short quarterback in the league, you got Bryce Young. He just got picked first in the draft. What if Jake's in that offense (at Alabama)? I just think, hypothetically, Jake would have success if he's at Alabama. So we tossed a lot of these things around, like the idea of having a young developmental quarterback learn a new system with Derek (Carr) and Jameis (Winston). So that's just a smart business move, in our opinion.

He was a guy that had tremendous production. He didn't have just this outrageous number of interceptions, but he had a really high number of batted balls, PBUs (pass break-ups) and deflected passes — just kind of those ball-hawking plays — throughout his career. And I loved his height, weight, speed. He's a great kid. All the coaches there really liked him. He's athletic enough to play any of the positions (in the secondary) and tough enough and versatile enough to play any of those positions back there, strong or free (safety). And I can see him even kind of line up as a big nickel or nickel or dime.

Like a lot of the rest of the guys, we liked his height, weight, speed, and that kind of jumps off the tape when you watch him. He is 6-3 and he's got these 33- to 34-inch-long arms, so he plays above the rim. He's got tremendous hands. He's got to clean up his consistency, catching the ball. But he does not have a catching problem. He just had a few concentration drops.

Highlites from the article above...
Regarding Bresee:Regarding Foskey:Regarding Kendre Miller:Regarding Saldiveri:Regarding Haener: Regarding Howden: Regarding Perry: https://www.nola.com/sports/jeff-ire...ea80db09a.html

A lot of good quotes that has me eating the cheese.

Mods--If I over quoted the source then please edit my post.

Okay. Thanks. Like I said, I just couldn't see anything about him from what I saw or read the last couple of days that made him seem special in any way as compared to the top TE's. I was simply wondering what I was missing. It appears I wasn't missing anything, as you explained it is just believed by some here that he has the potential to be a good player. I wasn't trying to be contrary, I was honestly trying to understand the appeal. I guess the Saints just weren't interested in a project at TE at this time. Who knows, he may someday develop into a Gronk type player.

You’re welcome! I always try to help! I understand you can’t see anything about him special and I believe you were honestly trying to understand the appeal, but sometimes some people have trouble seeing other perspectives…it happens. It doesn’t make one any more right than the other and vice versa. I guess we’ll see in a few years if the Steelers choice paid off. Like I said, I still would’ve like to see him in a Saints uniform as I feel he has exciting potential