CanLoomis

It all goes back to the front office. If a team has a staff of personnel people in place who are excellent talent evaluators, they can find some mid-late round \"gems\" in any given draft class. The Saints aren\'t blessed with a great front office. Mickey Loomis, Rick Mueller, Russ Ball, and the others have yet to put together a solid draft class from top to bottom. Last year\'s class has some promise, but the three year window is not yet up.

Teams must rebuild and re-load through the youth movement. We\'ve had some questionable draft choices that we have taken high and they have yet to pay off. Johnathan Sullivan was the most recent. Donte Stallworth, while a solid NFL player, has yet to reach the status set for him by the staff for being the 13th pick overall. The Saints have a tendancy to reach for player\'s on draft day. Cie Grant was rated by many teams as 5th rounder because he was injured a lot in college and played a number of different positions while at OSU. He has never been healthy here and it looks as though he won\'t ever be a factor in a Saints uniform.

I really think with the 16th and 40 picks overall, we have some ability to move up, if necassary, but I am not a believe in that. I think we have a lot of holes to fill on this team and I\'d like to see us add some more draft picks. We still need to draft a young CB with upside and get him developed as a nickel back who can eventually start within his first year or two. This is a priority, as we cannot keep waiting anymore to draft a player who is fresh and ready to be coached in our scheme.

The NFL Scouting Combine just ended last week and Saints officials were meeting with a number of different players. They will also take full advantage of the NFL maximum of 20 pre-draft visits by invited draftees prior to the draft. It all goes back to the draft guys. We draft well, we stay contenders and continue to get younger and faster, and more talented. We draft poorly or inconsitently and we remain a team who is in the middle of the pack and a team who signs \"stop gap\" players just to make a 53 man roster. We can no longer afford to have high picks on the in-active list.

mutineer10

Can\'t disagree with that at all. I think it\'s MUCH more difficult to find a quality OT (especially a LT) than a quality DT, period. Won\'t ever catch me arguing against that.

papz

This is the deepest draft in years. A majority of players that will be drafted in the second round this year, would easily be first round picks in other drafts. I\'m also not in favor of moving any of our top 3 picks. With all that is said about the players in this draft, I don\'t think even Loomis, Mueller, Ball, and Haslett can go wrong even though that are bonafide boneheads. :casstet:

Someone in a different thread stated that they would rather trade Howard for a high round pick than getting him 1 for 1 with Darius of the Jaguars. I\'m not opposed to that idea either and it would free up the cap room needed to address our need for a marquee free agent on the defensive side. If we were to acquire this extra pick, chances of moving up would look brighter if we decided to do so (for the hardcore Derrick Johnson fans out there :P)

Some site I can\'t remember exact posted an update on Cie Grant. It looks as if any hopes for him seeing the field ever is now over.

My favorites for the draft for our first pick are Antrel Rolle, Travis Johnson, Derrick Johnson, Carlos Rogers, or Brown to eventually replace Gandy. Although I feel as if Terry and a couple of other solid left tackles will be there in the second round as well as Shazor and Nichalson(safeties). I think we can wait third round if we decide to draft a linebacker because Michael Boley, Kirk Morrison and maybe even a Lance Mitchell might still be there.

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

All little common sense goes a long way.

JKool

Waiting to fill gaps in the draft is always a bit scary to me. Sure a stud will be cheaper if we get him from the draft, but the reason he is cheaper is because of the risk that he\'ll actually not be that good. I\'ve always been in favor a strong FA as the way to make quick and more likely sure fire fixes.

I\'ll give you that this is a pretty deep draft though. Like I said earlier, why not trade down for a Safety like Davis or a DT (since I still think that is what we\'ll get anyway) and acquire an extra second round pick in this draft? That would give us an extra first day pick, and the guy I really want us to get (DJ) will be gone by #16 anyway. This way we could have, a lower 1st round pick (BPA), and two 2nd round picks (a LB and a Safety), and a 3rd (OT, QB, LB, or CB) to develop.

"... I was beating them with my eyes the whole game..." - Aaron Brooks

saintswhodi

Man, I like the thinking going on in this thread. Can\'t say I disagree with a lot being said. IF we trade back for Davis though Kool, that is a dicey situation. I don\'t know how much farther we can go back and still have him. A lot of mocks have Travis Johnson as being available when he draft, and it will be tough to pass on him, unless Davis is there. Any LB or CB I think we can wait til the 2nd round, and still get a good player. I also would prefer filling needs through free agency, but the team seems content to fill the holes on the line through FA and hopefully will adress D in the draft. Could work. We will be counting on ever younger players. May be a learning curve but we should be improved.

Again though, nice thoughts all around.

[Edited on 6/3/2005 by saintswhodi]

saintsplaya

if the saints were to get the A train where would that leave arron stecker. i guess we could keep all 3 but im sure thomas would be our number 2 and leave stecker on the squad with not much of a role.

JKool

playa,

I\'ve heard rumors that the Saints may consider a pro-set with Duece and Stecker in. Stecker would be a better receiving option out of the backfield; it also gives us a few options regarding counters and tosses. I\'m not really sold on the idea, but there is one way Stecker may get used.

Stecker remains a good change of pace back. This would allow us to make use of his hands in play action, and his speed on third downs.

McAfee will also likely be on the roster. We will carry 4 RBs and 1 FB (Karney) if this is the case. Some teams carry as many as six backs, so we\'re still in fine shape with respect to Stecker even if we sign a bruiser to back up Duece. I\'m in favor of Dayne over the A-Train still.

Garrison Hearst is available too. I like him.

[Edited on 6/3/2005 by JKool]

"... I was beating them with my eyes the whole game..." - Aaron Brooks

saintswhodi

Definitely like the Train over Dayne. At least the train has been a 1000 yard rusher, even Hearst has. But Dayne has done diddly poo since he has been in the league. As a matter of fact, he outweighs Tiki by what 20, 30lbs. and Tiki is the short yardage back? Definite no-no on that waste. I\'d rather draft Anthony Davis in the 4th or 5th round or something.

JKool

My view is that neither Dayne nor A-Train have really done all that much with their careers, and Dayne would be probably seriously cheaper. I hear where you\'re coming from on this one; I don\'t really have strong feelings one way or the other on our backup RB spot. Hearst at least brings good playoff experience and vetran leadership - and he can catch the ball, something the other two haven\'t shown much of.

saintswhodi

I agree on Hearst, but he is like 40 now. I don\'t mind Train or Dayne, but Train was rookie of the year a few years back. And Dayne has the dreaded \"weight problem\" stigma that we need to avoid altogether on our team. But it really doesn\'t matter which we get. IF we went pro set though, I would rather do it like the 49ers when they had Rathman and Craig. Or like the Packers with Henderson and Green. We can do it with KArney and Deuce, Karney should get a bigger role. Plus he can block if we decided to run. So then these backup guys become less important unless we have an injury to Deuce.