Re: Draft Question
 

The one thing I've noticed since the opening round of the playoffs is that most teams have solid O lines.

Saints need to tighten up @ tackle. I'd upgrade from Hurst & find a guy who can start immediately & possibly find Ramz replacement (either this year or next).

Edge rusher ... Cam fell off and Granderson needs legit help.
Linebacker ...DD is a dawg but old.
Safety ... replacement for Maye. Bad FA signing
WR ... you can never have enough weapons in the playoffs
DL ...

To compete with the big boys in late Jan, you must improve at these positions.

I'd be completely shocked if the Loomis & Jeff have any interest whatsoever in drafting another QB, even in later rounds.

Re: Draft Question
 

Penix is falling down the charts hard, rumored to not even be drafted. Not sure the reason, other than maybe seeing him play against real competition opened a few eyes. His knees are old knees already too, which is why he's a 6-7 year senior. His future may be as a backup in the league.

JJ McCarthy intrigues me a bit. He does show some poise and presence in the pocket. If we can get him cheap enough, I am not opposed to getting him. He needs to be a la Tom Brady, in the later rounds in other words. Not sure he'll fall that deep. We do have some extras in the middle rounds, however.

Trading down does make some sense, as it does almost every year, TBH. Texans adroitly navigated that path last year and leveraged those extra picks with first year contributors. Reality shows us that the draft is really the only way we'll get a handle on not only rejuvenating the roster, but whittling down our ever increasing daunting cap situation. It can be done, not in one season albeit. If we're going to be a middling team, there is no better time than now to do it. We need to anyway. :bng:

Re: Draft Question
 

Can't see them taking a QB in round one unless one of the top 3 falls to them, and that's still a maybe. Still, let's see what happens in free agency.

I agree with Guido though, it's not in Loomis' DNA to trade down.

Re: Draft Question
 

It's not the limit that's the problem. It's the payments. It's clear that fans are tired of extensions for aging players and they think the Saints should bite the bullet and cut them loose.

We have to start asking the question do we just let productive players go after their first contract. That's going to be the choice. Or maybe we should go to the model of rookie contract, then franchise for 2 years, then let them go. Or just keep cycling rookie and free agent contracts. Bottom line is that there is no "have their cake and eat it too"system where players stay on into a 2nd contract that's significantly less than market value.

Start asking yourself the questions: What to do with Olave in a year or two? What about Shaheed after next season? Are you going just let those guys go?

I've seen in the last couple of years that the spin on cap management is simply to get under the cap number. But it's not just that. The team gets to keep productive guys here. But when they are less productive and more expensive, what do you do then?

It's not the cap limits. Cap goes up almost every year so pushing more expensive payments into the future isn't a bad plan. But the team has to pay in the end. The question is what's the most efficient way to do that?

SFIAH

Re: Draft Question
 

Yup. The Saints, and a growing number of other NFL franchises, are leveraging the proven cap behavior. With any accounting methodology a company uses it comes with a number of positive and negative consequences. In this way an NFL franchise is no different than ABC Corporation. But for any accounting method to be able to reap its specific benefits it has to be used consistently. If for no reason other than this nobody should expect Loomis and "company" to vary from the path they are currently following.

Re: Draft Question
 

Draft O line!