hennr

Qb Ryan Griffin pushed luke Mcown all pre season an i think Mc cown out played Daniels in the 2012 camp griffin to me 2nd best ufda qb only behind delhome..RB Khiry Robinson to me now third best ufda back ever with just Pierre Thomas an Chris Ivory.OC/OG Tim Lelito out of Grand valley was kept ahead of several former drafted players.TE josh Hill at 6-5/250 with 4.6 speed after a few early drops has come on an did a good job run blocking in the play off game.DE Glen Foster to me as good as any player the saints could have picked with the 4th round pick recived from the jets for Ivory but traded to move up for NT Jenkins with the 82nd pick.At the time i thought it would have been best to keep both 4th rd picks an hope Jenkins fell that far.Well to me with Foster we have a player i think would have been a great pick with the jets early 4th pick which was traded to move up into the 3rd round.MLB Kevin Reddick was projected as a 3rd thru 5th round pick.Reddick has played well on special teams an from what i know was reported to have had a good camp an pre season.CB Rod Sweeting had a 5 thru 7 th grade.I know he was a big drop off in the playoff game when lewis was out but this was a first start an between him an wade played just well enough to get the win.Sweeting also was reported to have had a good camp.Just to me these 7 ufda players were as good as some past Saints actual draft class some past years.

lee909

The benefit about having so many UDFA in the team will come at the tail end of this years draft.You can talk to the best talent and they csn see thst if you perform you will be kept on the team even at the expense of bigger names with more experience.

Jack Vegas

I would love to sit down with Payton/Loomis/scouting dept. and hear their approach when it comes to the draft and signing UDFA's. Seems like we are consistently getting productive players in the lower round and free agency so that frees them up to take some chances in the earlier rounds. Vaccaro, Armstead, Jenkins this year were kind of boom-or-bust types that worked out, same with Hicks and Graham the last couple years. Martez Wilson too although he didn't work out.

Undrafted guys on this year's roster:

Bush
Cadet
Collins
De la Puente
Drescher
Foster
Galette
Greer
Griffin
Hawthorne
Hill
Humber
Johnson
Lelito
Morgan
Moore
Reddick
Robinson
Sweeting
Thomas
Walker

Not every one of those guys started here but that's 21 guys, a full third of the roster players that originally went undrafted. And it's not just a bunch of guy who ride the bench either. A lot of key contributors there some of them being among our best players.

TheOak

Part of the beauty of our running back corps is that we have more than one.
Most team's scouts are looking for one to two RBs than can sub each other. I callem "jacks of all trades".

Payton goes out and finds 1 RB that is perfect for the screen.
Finds one with vision.
Finds one with power.
Looks for one that is too short to tackle with great hands.
We end up with 4 specialists.

hennr

Saints if you think about it from 2006 thru 2013 have had because of trades far below average total amount of draft pick compared to teams like new england.A case can be made the only way saints have kept up with teams like new england has been how good of rookie ufda players like pierre thomas the saints recruit a lot like college.Payton himself on the phone along with the kids agents telling them the saints are one of a few NFL teams who only keep the best players an have cut draft picks to keep ufda players.All nfl teams talk the talk but Saints walk the talk an the ufda players agents know this to be true.

Jack Vegas

Not just the running backs, look at the wide receivers and tight ends. You can argue that we don't have a single one that is a true "complete" player but they all play their individual roles just right.

TheOak

Agreed. I used the obvious example. I could have gone on for a while on receivers as well.

hennr

Cadet if you look back to the 2012 peseason looked very good payton keeps him in reserve as i think he has nightmares i think it was 2010 or 2011 when for the playoff game we were down to players signed the week of the game.

hennr

To me knowing what at the end of 2013 season if the Saints with 5 picks 15th/vaccarro--75th/armstead--82nd/jenkins--144th/stills--183rd/ruffs johnson which were the actual picks.Ok a few NFL teams had up to 12 picks let me see if saints would have had 7 more picks starting with a mid round 4th thru 7th pick with 3 compensatory late 7th round picks=picks112thGlen Foster--145thTim Lelito--176thKevin Reddick--208thKhiry Robinson--243rdRyan Griffin--246thJosh Hill--248throd Sweeting.Along with the actual 5 picks plus 7 for a total of 12 picks an 11 were now on the 53 man roster an vaccaro was thru game 15 when he was hurt an played lights out would not you consider this the deepest saints draft ever.

Danno

2013 looks to be the best draft and UDFA class in the Payton/Loomis era.