ssmitty

opinions vary whether brees will be ready come the start and whether he'll stay pass a yr.
however, if the saints are planning to build this offense around him, from what i'm reading it seems most think the ideal situation is to drop somewhere in the 3-4-5 range and get who they probably already have targeted on their board provided they can get the trade they want. if it's been posted, discussed, or argued, forgive me...........
if this scenerio plays out, who are the saints targeting in your opinion?
offense or defense?
and which player and why?
since very few rookies excel the first yr, please state who you feel, (not just like and wanna have) would be the best choice and why?................................smitty

papz

I'm going to go at this with both Bush and Leinart being off the board already. Here are supposely the options.

Mario Williams, DE - Supposely freakish athletic Julius Peppers like player. Who wouldn't want to have a player in the same mold as him? The only problem with this pick is that we have both Charles Grant and Will Smith already. Do we really want to have that Howard, Grant, and Smith situation all over again? To tell you the truth, besides the workouts and hearsay, I know absolutely nothing about the guy. So I'll not pass judgement on him... but I don't want him just the fact that we don't need a DE.

D'Brickashaw Ferguson, LT - Hands down the most talented OL in the draft. With that said, from what I've actually seen of him, not as dominant or consistent as he should be. Do we need a left tackle? Yes definately. A duo of Brown and Brick could be the foundation of our line for the next 10 years... kind of like the Willie Anderson/Levi Jones combo they have going in Cincy. I'm in favor of selecting him and hopefully he'll be able to take his game to the next level with us.

AJ Hawk, LB - We haven't had a great LB since Sam Mills and Hawk could definately give us that playermaker we need. The guy is a good tackler, good pass rush skills, and decent in coverage. If I had to reach on giving a reason not to draft him is that we have a bigger need at MLB. How does that sound? BS! The guy is going to be a star.

So basically my choices would be either Hawk or Brick.

So if we were to trade down and remain in the top 5, these are the only guess I would consider giving the slots. I think the teams with the 6th and 7th picks in this draft have it the easiest. So if we were to trade down... I'd stretch it down all the way to 7. The talent level in this draft is ridiculous... every year it's going to get deeper and deeper as I said last year. I'll tell you one thing, someone will give up a Ricky William-esque type offer we will not refuse and we're going to take it straight to the bank baby!

Opps... I forgot about Vernon Davis. We are going to be tempted to select an Antonio Gates type player for Brees. I love Zach Hilton and I think he's going to be a solid pro for us for years to come. But in the back of my mind, I think he's going to be a real possibility also. I'd still go with the two choices I said above first though.

LongTimeFan

Start with D'Brick and continue building the OL and start with the D, but the first work in order has to be the OL now that we have a good QB that's worth protecting.

ssmitty

quote/papz
AJ Hawk, LB - We haven't had a great LB since Sam Mills and Hawk could definately give us that playermaker we need. The guy is a good tackler, good pass rush skills, and decent in coverage. If I had to reach on giving a reason not to draft him is that we have a bigger need at MLB. How does that sound? BS! The guy is going to be a star.

papz, does that bs stand for bullsheet or be serious?
i would agree with you about hawks.....we will have bpa and need if we drop within the the 5 zone as far as the top projected to go first. i don't expect hawk to be there too long......it all boils down to which side of the line needs more help....
tough one.....but with a new qb in place that hopefully will be ready, i'll go with a defensive selection as well. while they probably will select ol depending on picks, they can also pick up a veteran which may do brees better protecting him...........smitty

Euphoria

I like going with Da Brick as an OL you can come in and contribue more at that position and play every down in stead of other positions. I also like picking up Mangold if he falls to us, which seems unlikely even before going D.

papz

The first one smitty... I was trying to make an excuse for not drafting him but that was lame. I think it's either going to be Brick or Hawk. I'm not as disappointed in Gandy as everyone else is and I'm not for starting a rookie LT in such a defensive oriented division... I'm leaning toward Hawk. I want to contend ASAP and Hawk will make a more immediate impact.

BiggPoppaFro4

IMO. it depends on where we drop to. Granted I think Bush goes first (unless God is really smiling on us Saints fans), so here goes nothing:

Three or four, i think its Brick. We need a line; he and Brown give us bookends that we haven't had in a long time. Plus, Tenn and NY could give us safe packages that net us picks later in this draft. I don't hate Gandy, but I def. think he has dropped off from when we first signed him. Plus, his contract is a bit of an albatross given his percieved slip in ability.

If we drop to five I think we take Hawk. Five gives us the ability to garner picks and not really reach for that kid. Yes, he is good and I think will be great for us (I am starting to come down off the OL mountain), but at 5 I think it's between him and Williams. Williams will just piss me off. That would be a waste. Hawk will set us up for the long haul in the LB corp with the pick ups we've made thus far and the guys we have now (assuming Watson goes back to pre-DWI Courtney we all started to like).

That's my big thing though...really, either Hawk or Brick set us up fo sho for a long time. Either one is a huge get and would make great sense. We really are inthe driver's seat on this situation, but we could always pull aDunbar out of our ass, as is the Saint's historic wont.

ssmitty

the scary part is dropping to just to 4 or 5 because anyone, and i mean anyone could still pull a # on us...............supposing bush goes, leinart goes, and between 3 and 5 we go down to 5, both those guys could be gone..........back up plan please............smitty

BiggPoppaFro4

I don't see us getting got by dropping to 4 or 5, but you are right...everything must have a backup plan.

Right now I think a good one is the rumor we all keep dreading: Take Mario Williams. At that point (assuming that Brick and Hawk are gone and we don't want to trade out for anything) he is the best pick up for the value. I don't think we need him, and I don't think he should be our prime target. But that's the thing..in my eyes we have 3 viable pickups in either of those spots. Williams is last resort, but one hell of a last resort.

Another option in my eyes (thanks to one of my new friends here on the board) is to drop back once more (only a couple of spots) and take Davis at TE. At that spot he is an of value pick and Brees was only Brees after he had Gates. I still think we can address (if we fell we need it) the TE position later in the draft, but Davis here is a smart bet.

ssmitty

in that scenario, i 'll have to go with hawks at the #2 pick staying where we are...........
bpa and also need..................................smitty