Also since 06 we have a superbowl and a nfc championship appearance..so even adding Reggie as good pick is not all that crazy...if you look at the overall results..JMHO

i am with u 100%
reggie bush was a great pick, how many times has it been ironed into peoples minds that when the texans left one off the greatest college players ever for a city that was in need of a miricle. i would bet 99.9% of the black and gold nation went nuts when it happened. now its over hes gone and through with, and we came out in dam good shape after 2006. i just don't see why he was'nt a great pick in 06 to some people .a lot of the younger generation never had to endure the early years of, well embarrasing football with picks, les kelly, kevin hardy, roy smith, kurt shoumacker, larry burton.joe cambell,russel erxabin a punter, shawn knight, j. sullivan, alex molden. reggie bush will not be in this group it won't happen.

Ingram can only carry one football at a time. One touch at a time. More touches are only going to give him more yards, but may or may not improve his yards-per-carry.

I'm underwhelmed, but hopeful.

Give me some Ivory. We'll throw him against defenses until he can't stand up... again. But he'll give you two years' worth of Ingram yards/production in the process!

Alaska

i see what your saying alaska, i'm thinking he gash a few long ones also that could improve the ypc. we will never know if he's that kind of back in seans 3 headed monster playbook. maybe fourheaded coming soon.lol

Well said lummox.

As far as I'm concerned we got Sean Payton in the first round.

jeanpierre, the only thing that's a fail is your topic.

ALL those players, even stallworth and grant, had great moments w/ the saints and contributed plenty.

stallworth wouldve been a lot more productive had it not have been for hamstring issues.

grant was great before we overpaid him and he lost his hard work ethic he had in his earlier years w/ the saints.

the only pick that didnt really EVER do much was jonathon sullivan. i agree, that was a waste of a pick.

all the other guys i have yet to mention, contributed a lot, or are still raw.

i know you're full of hatred and disgust right now because we looked like ****e against the bucs, but, lets not be a total d*ck, alright? we'll rebound in a BIG way against the colts. we'll be ok, buddy, alright? the sky isnt falling quite, yet. just chill out. :)

No team gets this right. Wouldn't picks like Jimmy Graham and Jhari Evans tilt this back th opposite direction? What about Tom Brady? Ingram is no bust, that's silly. Meachem is way better than A LOT of other 1st round WRs....Detroit anyone?

We've done a great job in latter rounds; I'm specifically looking at the first round and there are more misses than hits...

When you look at teams that had built Superbowl Dynasties they had success in the first round...

Example, 49'ers first rounders from 81-94 included Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice, Harris Barton, Ted Washington, Dana Hall, Dana Stubblefield, Bryant Young, William Floyd; '82, '83, '86, '88 no picks...

Overall we've done better than most in the draft, but it is the First round I'm putting under the microscope and saying WTH? is wrong with the first round scouting?

I think in the last two years we seem to be doing better, but we'll only know that in couple of more years...

The best move we made was Sean Payton and Drew Brees; what the Reggie Bush pick did for South Louisiana was amazing; but whatever scouting is doing to rate these players needs to be reviewed and improved...

Maybe part of it is in the philosophy of the coach and front office, where except for obvious no-brainers (Reggie, Ingram) the Saints tend to shy away from "star" or "media hype" or marquee type players in general. Which coincidentally are usually the ones in the 1st round, that the fantasy geeks pay attention to, and are more expen$ive to sign -- and instead of going for the "marquee names" that the media heads and fantasy wonks drool for, they really like to spend their time and money looking for great athletes, prospects, diamonds in the rough, talent to groom, and players on the cusp of greatness or passed over by other teams. BIG NAME first rounders may be great for fantasy stats, or for selling jerseys, or getting a weak team noticed by the media, but if you look at how this team operates, it's only one part of the picture for them. I don't think of the 1st round in the draft as being especially more important to the Saints overall team structure than any other part of the process of acquiring talent, in fact it's maybe even a little LESS so than it is with other teams... you look at all these picks in hindsight, and you really think it's weak scouting, dude -- you don't see that maybe it's part of the organization's philosophy? Especially regarding $$$ and bang for the buck.

With a few noteworthy exceptions, the Saints don't like throwing piles of money at unproven talent that has been overhyped and given extensive media spin and coverage: they just don't. They also tend to avoid divas, "head cases" and oversize 22-year-old man-boy egos looking for payday, whenever they can. The no-names and coaching projects, the under-the-radars and middle round picks, and guys largely overlooked by the media and other teams, that's pretty much the heart and core of this team. If you are putting the first round under a microscope, and wondering where the BIG NAMES and big fantasy stats are, then I don't know if you really understand this Saints team and its coaches, or not. Payton himself was an overlooked nobody, both as a scab player and a coach. So was Williams. So was Drew. They almost all are. That's why I think the topic is kinda FAIL, more than the picks.

Super Bowl title and another trip to the NFC Championship game with those players... nuff said.

You trying to steal my thunder?...lol...i agree:)....thats my logic. the draft is a crapshoot and im rolhttp://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...nJXVdZnUw0MLQAliin 7s

I think overall those are some solid 1st rounders, because the odds are that a team can't strike oil with all of their 1st round picks. While I agree that the first two on your list were on the weak side - some of the more recent ones have been quite good if you compare them to other draft picks in the same year and position (since it seems that the Saints tend to draft based on a need).

And I disagree that the Saints might have been able to trade down and get Robinson, for example, in the 2nd round, because he was by far the best CB in that year's draft - which is a position that the Saints desperately needed to strengthen.

While there's a huge gamble involved with the 1st round picks - largely because of the hype, expectations, and money involved - it wouldn't be smart for the Saints to start trading away their high picks for double the lower ones simply because a team like the Patriots have been somewhat successful with that philosophy (they have busts too). 1st round picks get the fans excited for the new season, sell merchandise, and tickets - and most importantly - provide the ammunition for threads like these where fans can debate the success rate of their team's scouting. :-)

Talking about the Saints' scouting... it would be interesting to know who is responsible for the success they have had with the UDFAs, especially from the small schools like Tiffan, because that to me is more impressive than picking out who performs the best in the combines. Is the person responsible for that Ryan Pace, Rick Reiprish, or someone else on the scouting staff? Or is that something that was signaled as a desired direction of evolution from the upstairs? IDK, but I for one would be interested in finding out.

Pat Robinson is going to be a Probowl level CB. You can see the talent that made him a 1st rounder. CB is one of the hardest positions in the league and the kid looks good to me. Good pick

Cam Jordan will be a very good player for us in the years to come. He's not great but he I think it was a good pick. We still need a big time pass rusher and he ain't it. Still, good pick.

Ingram continues to improve and I think he'll become another tool in SP bag of tricks but I don't know if he'll live up to the price we paid for him. It's too early to say though.

Jenkins is a good safety. He's already upper tier but his inability to catch will keep him from ever being an All Pro caliber player. Definitely a good pick.

Sed Ellis is a good DL. It's kind of borderline but I'd still say it was a good pick. The good thing is that DTs seem to get better as they mature so I'm hoping this grade will improve.

Robert Meachem? Meh. Not a bust but not a good 1st round pick.

I'm not even going to get into the Bush pick.

Overall good, not excellent or great.

I think the Miami game was where we set the tone to win the SB. Bush had one of the most amazing TDs in history in that game.

2011 Pick 28 Mark Ingram, Jr., RB Alabama

"When you consider the premium on draft picks after the changes in the CBA, and the cache given to New England to get him; the low YPC and failed conversions on short yardage situations, he's disappointing and underwhelming; nothing like what Saints Nation was sold on...Jury asks to be excused as their Grandma is sick; you were supposed to be the Rookie Offensive Player of the Year, not the guy from Auburn..."

our O line SUCKS CAAACK. blame it on them.

A 2nd rounder is now a cache of picks? Wow.

He's averaging 3.5 yards per carry on short yardage, and only failed on one 4th down conversion so far (stuffed behind the LOS vs Green Bay).

His YPC needs to improve, and I think it will, but the rest is quite dubious.

He hasn't looked great yet, but he certainly hasn't looked bad either.

Hmm - we hjave not had a great history of 1st round picks. I can bring up Wicky WIlliams & Vaughn DUnbar (eck)

Let the Chargers front office do all the work. They draft them. We sign them and win Superbowls! With the advent of free agentcy a miss in the draft is not as costly as it once was.

Every NFL team has had some first round flops but you can't judge this year's draft with the lack of NFL training camp this year. Ther is a huge transition from college to pro and they had a very short time to learn the system. Look for everyone to step up their play for the second half of the season.

I have a feeling this discussion want take place next year, we don't have a 1'st round pick.......

I actually agree with your last comment. A lot of a running back's success is dependent on the play of the offensive line, and to be frank, ours has been underwhelming this season. They are not getting a good push, and that makes it hard for any back to find space. I think Ingram runs hard and has made some good plays... but he's sharing carries with two other guys, plays in a pass happy offense, and is running behind an underachieving OL.

Also, remember that these Saints teams have been, for the most part, drafting in the later part of the first round because we've been a good team. Rookies often don't step into winning teams and start... or at least it's less common. The fact that these young cats got drafted into a playoff team one-year removed from a Super Bowl win, and are contributing, is impressive. It's a little different than going to the Jaguars or Seahawks and contributing.

I agree 1000%. There ARE exceptions of course. Barry Sanders would have been (and was) good almost in spite of the O-Line at times, but generally speaking, a back will go as the line goes. We have some damn good RBs and an underachieving O-Line.