hagan714

2007 Draft Preview - Team Needs
Written by Saintified Saturday, 14 April 2007

Round one: Defensive Tackle. The Saints still need to improve against the run. Upgrading here allows them to continue their improvement in control of the clock. The Saints should consider a trade here and I would focus on the Washington Redskins. The Redskins, as usual, have very few draft choices, and with their salary-cap issues, additional draft choices for rookies at lower salary values should be very attractive. The Skins also have a lot of holes to fill. The Saints have a lot of fourth-round picks, but if tied to the first round trade might be attractive to Washington.

Comments:
Defensive line is were it starts with pass Defense as well as against the run. So I agree here. But Washington in a trade would involve more than 4ths. We need all our day one picks to address team needs. Unless you get Grant into the picture or offer up a pick from next year draft.

Washington is in need of a DE badly but a RDE. They are picking in an area to address that need. Now out of desperation due to the lack of picks they may go for it. But they trade would be a wash. Grant is by no means a true Franchised player in pick value. 27 to 6 is a jump in value of 920 pts. So that would return us nothing and create a need at DE. Or trade a #1 from next year and keep Grant. As it is now Washington can trade back a couple of spots get picks and still get a DE. So we would have to give up alot in order for them to even consider it.

Houston at 10(1300) to re-coup picks form the Atlanta trade. 27 to 10 is only 620 points or pick #30 in the frist round. If Grant was part of trade we might be able to swap picks moving up in a round to boot. Say the 4th round, 107 (80) for 126(46) or maybe even a 3rd round 88(150) for 73 (225). Unlikely but just maybe. That would put us in the ideal spot for the best player in the draft at CB and LB. Top 2 or 3 at DE and DT. Houston gets another player and does not loose any picks. For us this would offer the biggest impact player we could get in the draft without risking the furture.

St. Louis Rams at 13 (1150) only because of the Haz contection

Denver at 21(800) is in need of a LDT. The just got cap room cutting Al so they are an option. I vote for Denver and a Charles Grant trade, they need a LDE. Plus we could get extra picks. They have an additional 3rd at the top of the round. Bank the rest for next year or two. We could shore up the DE postion on day one without killing day one and/or the future. At 21 we would have our choice of the last 2 of the top 4 CB on the board. Along with who ever drops. This is an ideal position to address needs with BPA without morgaging the future.

Or we can give them our third giving the 3 in the round and call it a day. Let Grant walk and hope this year draft is as good as the last and pray for a comp pick for him in 2009. Thats if we do not sign a big ticket FA in 2008. Which we may not have to.

Stay put at 27 and do the Grant bit and risk him going to Tampa anyways. I would just trade him for their #35(560) and work something out swapping or futures picks for the remaining balance and get it over with. All odds are he will end up there any ways, unless we trade him to a better sisuation like Denver.
If we stay at 21 we will get a OL(Staley, Grubbs), WR(Bowe, Jarrett) or DT(Harrell). I do not see CB or LB dropping down to us.

Round two: Quarterback. I go back to where I started - the Saints do not have the future behind Drew Brees. And if Brees goes down so the Saints.

I agree we need to draft for the future but we have a backup that is proven under a contract for one more year. I say hold of here and draft a QB that will need at least a year to develope before our backup is a FA. Then you have Bress' contract length. Would it be wise to tie up so much money at QB and have both contracts running out about the same time? It would force you to make a choice in what direction you wanted to go. Besides I think we might have a chance to trade this pick because of QB Drew Stanton. Alot depends on what Miami does in the next couple of weeks. Detroit is hot for the kid espically if they trade their backup like he wants. I look at Beck, Stanback or Kolb in the fourth or fifth as maybe a better answer. Still better is Shawn having a later round pick up his sleeve. What ever he does at QB is ok. He has proven he has the skills to pick and develope the right guys.
Here I look at CB(Wilson, Hughes), DE(Frances), ILB(Harris) and maybe DT (Tyler,Mcbride).

Round three: Cornerback. This was tough for me because I think the need at linebacker is equally high. What tipped the scale was the age of the cornerbacks. Bellamy, Thomas and McKenzie are all well over 30 and it's time to grow the future.

If we are picking at 88 the CB situation is interesting. AJ Davis, David Irions, Kenny Scott. I like Scott among the group here. Look at RB(Booker), WR(Higgins,Allison), LB(Durant,Shaw,DeOssie), DT (Johnson,Solia), SS(Piscatelli) might be here also. With three picks in 4th we may reach here and take some one like DeOssie.

Round four (times three): Linebacker, Tackle, Wide Receiver. I've already identified the need for linebacker and it's clear that the loss of Joe Horn has created a need for another quality wide receiver. The draft is deep in wide receiver so waiting until the fourth round is acceptable. The offensive line was blessed last year to be nearly injury free. Sean Payton can't count on that again and needs to have depth in case of injury.

Love rounds 4 and 5 some interesting, "what might be", players this year. With three picks lumped together we will definitly reach to the moon on one.
OL
OT/OG - Allen Barbre - 6040, 300, 4.84, Missouri Southern’s
OG/OC - Leroy Harris - 6024, 302, 5.35, N. Carolina St.
WR
Mike Walker - 6016, 209, 4.35, Central Florida
Laurent Robinson - 6020, 199, 4.38, Illinois State
TE
Kevin Boss - 6064, 252, 4.71, Western Oregon
UT/3-4 DE
Ryan McBean - 6043, 286, 4.96 Oklahoma State
LB
Jon Abbate - 5096, 231, 4.88, Wake Forest MLB
Quincy Black - 6015, 240, 4.42, New Mexico(OLB/MLB)
Antwan Barnes 6005, 240, 4.45, Florida International OLB

Rounds five and seven: best available player regardless of position. I'll be there with the rest of you geeks watching the draft on Saturday and Sunday. If the Saints only do half as well as they did last year, it still will be a successful draft. Look at last year: Bush, Colston, Evans, Harper and Strief... all major contributors.

From here on it is pretty deep at OT, TE, DT, DE, LB and so-so at OG/OC, WR, RB, CB, S. We should end up with a solid player or two. UDFA pool look to be good also.

"We may have lost the game, but you'll be hurting tomorrow." Doug Atkins