Featured Discussion 2016 Saints Draft Live Discussion Thread

[jeanpierre]

Originally Posted by lee909

12. New Orleans Saints: Sheldon Rankins, Defensive Tackle, Louisville

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12. New Orleans Saints: Sheldon Rankins, Defensive Tackle, Louisville
Throughout this draft coverage, we'll pepper Saints defensive selections with carefully-curated Random Depressing Saints Defensive Stats.

Random Depressing Saints Defensive Stat #2043B: The Saints allowed 129.4 rushing yards per game last season (31st) in the NFL and 4.9 yards per rushing attempt.

Luckily this is the best defensive tackle draft in years. It's so good, and defensive tackles are so hard to keep straight, that Bleacher Report proudly presents this year's first installment of Big Uglies: a 2016 Field Guide. Don’t try to tell one monstrous interior lineman from another without it!

A quick Rankins primer ...

Size: 6-foot-1, 299 pounds.

Athleticism: This dude moves like a 210-pound safety.

Honors: All-ACC selection.

Numbers: Seven sacks in 2015.

Defining Special Trait: Exceptional first step quickness and fluidity.

Potential Flaws: Smaller than the prototype.

Also Worth Mentioning: Obliterated every blocker he faced in Senior Bowl practices.

Rankins looked like Aaron Donald’s twin brother at the Senior Bowl and could be a special player, though nitpickers warn that he lacks a counter move as a pass rusher and may not be built to bulk up to the 310-pound range without sacrificing quickness. Nitpickers sometimes mix old-fashioned analysis-paralysis with let’s pour ice water all over this prospect who is slaughtering offensive linemen in front of 500 reporters so we sound extra-discerning ulterior motives. Rankins can start in the NFL; the details are what will decide if he develops into a Pro Bowler.

The Saints will be easy to grade this year. Every time they pick a solid defensive player, they get a reward. Grade: A

Here's my problem with banking on this analysis re: Rankins and his Senior Bowl performance...

Defensive players as rookies are usually ahead of offensive players at that stage and many of those offensive linemen won't make NFL rosters...

Secondly, he looked great against the top seniors (not the underclassmen) and that was in one-on-one drills...

Third, Size, specifically Wingspan; he's only 6'1" and has average length arms; a 6'2" center or 6'4" guard is not going to have 1" or 3" more wingspan, it'll be way more, like 6" to 8", exponentially, and that means he'll get jammed up before he can get into an experience NFL offensive linemen...

Fourth, this reeks of Sedrick Ellis 2.0; and this low-man bullshinki wins, well I can tell you, when you got big guards (like we had with Evans and Nicks) and they're basically coached, they'll roll that lil' linemen up and out all-day; and I played football, when I sprouted before everyone to 6'2", it was helluva lot EASIER PUSHING DOWN on guys than when some of them passed me and it was HARDER TO PUSH UP on 6'4" to 6'5"' so shove that low man wins crap, staying in a poised, crouch position is one thing, getting your head shoved down your arse gets tiring...fast...

Fourth, Reggie Bush factor; just as Bush was All-World in NCAA because of his speed, in the NFL there were linemen just as fast and he had nothing else; Rankins will face men each week, even on bad teams, who can fold him up and push him out...

My biggest issue is this see-saw BS back and forth in personnel philosophy...

We were just a couple of pieces from completing the publicly declared 3-4 front and now we're going back to a 4-3; it's this lack of continuity of that is maddening; personally, 3-4 or 4-3 just get it done, without a USSR five year plan...

Wanna be wrong, so wanna be wrong, but I've seen this before...

...the monkey never learns...