Saints could target pass rush in the draft
 

Brett Martel / The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Sean Payton's success in the NFL began with his ability to conceive of creative offensive schemes that pick defenses apart.

The New Orleans Saints' head coach is less known for building defenses through the draft, though that could change over time.

The Saints' past three first-round draft choices have been defensive players, and it would hardly be a surprise if New Orleans continues that trend with the 24th overall pick next Thursday night.

While the Saints had few glaring weaknesses in 2010, ranking fourth in defense and sixth in offense, they were disappointed with a pass rush that left them in the bottom half of the NFL in sacks.

The Saints had difficulty getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks out of their base 4-3 defense. To compensate, they resorted to an array of aggressive blitzes, which can be risky, and wound up 18th in the league with 33 sacks.

"There's a strong value on someone that can speed up the clock in the quarterback's head," Payton said. "I don't know that there's a team drafting that will say, 'Well, we feel pretty comfortable with our pass rush,' just because those guys are hard to find."

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This is a must read......stats wise it's excellent.
jmo:)

Something that i've noticed the past couple of years has been noted in this article;

The bit that says To compensate for a underachieving pass rush from the front four, we had to send mutiple LB's at once and that is gunna hurt you if ya don't get to the QB quick or the QB is too smart and knows to get the ball out quickly.
We need someone that can get a pass rush from a base 4 scheme so we don't always have to send LB's all the time and risk giving up a big gain from a short throw.

The understatement of the year, IMO. I have always thought that having a couple of guys who are generally unstoppable when it comes to rushing the QB is one of the most important, if not the most important aspect of building a dominating defense. If a team cannot pass you are taking away half of their game and if you have guys that can wreak havoc by themselves then you are giving yourself the ability to turn the rest of the team loose to stop the other apects of the team's offense...like their running game. It also allows you to have DB's that are average play well because they only have to cover their guys for about 3 seconds.

I thought that was a no-brainer that we was going after a pass rusher.

Yes, but at what round is the question. I'll be eager to see who is available at ALL positions when #24 comes around. That pick should be Adrian Clayborne.

Agreed. Clayborne has his faults but I think his versatility and aggressiveness is a plus in GW's mind.