He played with the Vikes, Lions, and Bucs. Maybe, just maybe, Darren Sharper had a heads up on this one. Just a shot in the dark. Here is a link. http://www.nfl.com/players/marcusmccauley/careerstats?id=MCC251485

Sep. 5 – 8:55 pm et
Vikings waived CB Marcus McCauley.
McCauley’s role diminished in each of his two seasons with the Vikings. The 2007 third-round pick has an excellent size/speed combination, however, and figures to get claimed on waivers. He’d profile perfectly in Oakland.

Sep. 6 – 12:50 pm et
Lions claimed CB Marcus McCauley off waivers from the Vikings.
McCauley was a third-round pick in 2007. He has good size and speed and should be able to help the Lions right away. Lord knows they need it.

Sep. 29 – 6:35 pm et
Lions released CB Marcus McCauley.
McCauley was claimed off waivers from the Vikings earlier this month. It’s not a good sign that he was unable to work his way into Detroit’s woeful cornerback picture.
Source: MLive.com

Oct. 20 – 5:12 pm et
Buccaneers signed CB Marcus McCauley.
McCauley was unable to last more than three weeks in Detroit’s league-worst secondary, so he’s not going to be an asset in Tampa.

Nov. 3 – 11:03 am et
Bucs released CB Marcus McCauley.
He was dumped in favor of Mike Mickens, who the Bucs signed off the Cowboys’ practice squad. McCauley has serious talent, but has never been able to put it together in four in stints with four different NFL clubs.

Dec. 8 – 5:24 pm et
Saints signed CB Marcus McCauley.
McCauley is unlikely to be a game-day active, nor is he a good bet to last long on the Saints’ roster.

I too don’t understand why they drop McAlister for this guy. Maybe Chris had a war of words with GW when they were looking at the game film. It doesn’t quite make sense.

Very interesting.

  the only good year he had was his rookie yr. I just posted them under fanpost McAlister Cut?

LOVE the McCauley pickup. He’s raw, but has long arms and was excellent in man-on-man coverage at Fresno State. In case you’re unaware, the WAC is a pass-heavy conference, meaning he comes plenty tested. He was projected as a last 1st round pick a couple of years back, but slipped after a poor 40 time. He’s also of excellent character, according to everything I read about him coming out. That and long-term potential are already two huge advantages he has over McAlister, who quite frankly has looked every bit the part of a washed-up 10 year veteran these past two weeks. I also like that we were able to land a former Viking … maybe one with a little chip on his shoulder, for if/when we square off against them in the playoffs. Now, if only Loomis would take the same approach with Rufus Alexander, he’d be cooking with fire. Definitely a guy I wanted in the black & gold all along. I’ll be surprised if McCauley isn’t on this team for the next several years.

projected as a late 1st round pick

i’ll have to youtube this guy and see what he’s like

But the front office and coaching staff seems to just keep finding ways to make it work. After complaining about drafting Thomas Morstead I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut and enjoy watching an undefeated team.

Didn’t Chris just have a great couple of games? Not that a great couple of games a great player makes…but he gave us some first-string plays…or am I confusing him with someone else. I don’t get it…not so much picking up someone I have no idea about (which isn’t hard when I know virtually nothing about most players), but so abruptly getting rid of someone who, in the short amount of time he’s been with us, did a pretty damn good job? Huh?

Frankly, though, I almost feel guilty even questioning the decisions of the best coach in football….! Who DAT DAT!

They say he is soft and gets beat often sounds like their version of Jason David

and then forced the fumble and recovered it vs Sellers in OT. If the refs had made the correct non call there, he would have taken the fumble recovery in for a td. One could easily argue his was the biggest play that kept us from losing undefeated status. All this, and he hasn’t even been on the team 2 weeks. I don’t know, either Mc Cauley is really, really good (and no one else in the league thinks so besides us) or Mc Alister had a run in with someone.

will post the link in a sec. Guess we aren’t the only ones worried about this move.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/6025/wrapping-up-tuesdays-transactions

I wonder when Tracy will be back? Probably keep him healthy until playoff time, or play him in the last game just to get some game time, then he can rest for the bye in the first round

In case anyone’s interested, I participated in an online mock draft back in February 2007 and Marcus McCauley was the guy I chose for the Saints at 27th overall. Keep in mind, this was roughly two months before the draft. His stock dropped considerably during that time, but that’s all hindsight.

The picks immediately leading up to my selection:

20. New York Giants – Darrelle Revis (CB) Pittsburgh
21. Denver Broncos – Leon Hall (CB) Michigan
22. Dallas Cowboys – Aaron Ross (CB) Texas
23. Kansas City Chiefs – Robert Meachem (WR) Tennessee
24. New England Patriots (From Seattle) – Dwayne Bowe (WR) LSU
25. New York Jets – Greg Olsen (TE) Miami
26. Philadelphia Eagles – Jon Beason (LB) Miami
27. New Orleans Saints – Marcus McCauley (CB) Fresno State
28. New England Patriots – ON THE CLOCK
29. Baltimore Ravens
30. San Diego Chargers
31. Chicago Bears
32. Indianapolis Colts

Note that Meachem, Olsen and Beason were all taken. Sidney Rice and Ginn were my two main temptations on offense. As much as I liked both, I felt I needed to take the shutdown corner, based on both need and the dropoff after the three I mentioned.

Here’s my write-up, justifying the selection at the time. I’m not particularly enthused with the way McCauley’s professional career has gone thusfar, but I still feel as though he’s a good fit for the Saints and should contribute, based on all the research I did on him at the time. In any cas, here’s the pick synopsis, circa 2.5 yers back:

While no mock draft owner has the luxury of knowing what needs (if any) their team will address in free agency, it is impossible for any NFL team to have too many top flight, lockdown cornerbacks. With that being said, the New Orleans Saints have opted to select Fresno State standout Marcus McCauley with the 27th overall pick.

At 6’1" 205 lbs, McCauley brings excellent size and fluidity to what has to be considered the weakest area on the Saints’ roster. His 4.31 clock in the 40, makes him one of the fastest defensive players available in this year’s draft, intangibles that neither Daymeion Hughes (horrendous showing at the Combine) nor Chris Houston coughmidgetcough bring to the table. In fact, it’s been said that Houston can’t even reach the table. Ba-dum bish.

McCauley has excelled in man-to-man coverage in the pass-happy WAC, shutting down the likes of Colt Brennan and Jared Zabransky on more than one occasion. Most scouts consider him a better all-around prospect than former Bulldog teammate Richard Marshall, who was selected in the 2nd round of the 2006 Draft by the Carolina Panthers. He is currently listed as Mel Kiper’s top first round sleeper … far be that a factor in my decision, yet in no way should such an endorsement discredit the pick.

Seldom in the national spotlight, McCauley is best remembered for running down and tackling Reggie Bush from behind in Fresno State’s 2005 barnburner loss to USC, a play on which McCauley could have easily given up, but had the determination and hustle to prevent the touchdown, not unlike when Rod Smith chased down Julius Peppers, a couple of years back. Of course, Bush is much, much faster than Peppers. As Bush’s newest teammate, McCauley will have plenty of opportunities to duplicate the feat in practice.

Marcus is a player of impeccable character, a staple of both Pat Hill coached Fresno State teams and Sean Payton’s first year roster in New Orleans. Soft spoken and humble, McCauley has show patience and loyalty throughout his collegiate career. Choosing to remain in school as a fourth year starter — despite being projected as a consensus first round pick, and having practically no shot at a national championship — has spoken volumes, as has his play on the football field.

As stated earlier, there were a couple of other directions I could have gone with this pick. In the end, there were three main factors that made my ultimate decision that much easier:

a.) Athleticism – McCauley has exceptional foot speed, reaction time and an uncanny knack for being in the right place, at the right time. Not only is he able to single-handedly shadow the fleetest of receivers, he is rated the best cornerback in the entire draft in terms of run support, and has an outstanding 40+ inch vertical leap to boot.

Height and leaping ability are crucial, considering the Saints play the Jaguars this season — Matt Jones and Ernest Wilford are a mismatch waiting to happen — as well as having both Keyshawn Johnson and Brian Finneran within their division. Marques Colston should provide McCauley with all of the competition he’ll need to perfect his technique against the league’s bigger targets.

Open field tackling is of paramount importance in the NFC South, as our OLBs have been slow to react at times, and Michael Vick is capable of breaking containment on any given play. McCauley’s ability to shadow a receiver, as well as read and react on the fly, should provide huge assets to this secondary.

b.) Chemistry – The Saints already have their trash-talking defensive back in Mike McKenzie — who is also excellent in run support, I might add. More than anything else, they need a young playmaker who will offset that verbal aggression with quiet consistency. Someone to come in and lead by example from Day 1. I’m confident that we’ve found that player in Marcus McCauley.

c.) Alliteration – With both LaRon Landry and Paul Posluszny off the board, there simply weren’t any other first round options, among players whose first and last names begin with the same consonant. Further, McCauley gives the Saints two starting cornerbacks with the same initials — the only such tandem in the entire NFL. Probably not that big of a deal, but I’m thinking it might be a good omen or something. So long, Fred Thomas … we be Mm Mm good now.

Sharper has something to do with this signing…

I think when Porter went down and the injuries in the secondary were mounting, the Saints were grasping for straws. They still had Torrence at that point and most likely wanted McAlister there as an insurance policy, nothing more. Then Torrence went down and McAlister was asked to take a bigger role. Clearly, he’s lost quite a few steps due to injury since his great days in Baltimore. After watching his secondary get lit up like a Christmas tree at the hands of the great Jason Campbell, Gregg Williams said enough.

McCauley is probably a cheaper cap hit and has younger legs. The real going concern here is that if that secondary isn’t entirely healthy, they’re a mess. Even Randall Gay’s injury has hurt them and I didn’t think he was all that great this year before he went down. Jenkins looks like he’s in over his head, McKenzie had a real bad game, and Prioleau looks average at best. This team needs to get better on D again or I foresee a quick exit in January.

we had no sacks vs Washington. Charles Grant was awful again. Will Smith and others have shown they can get to the QB, but if teams double team Wil and Grant gets no one- on- one pressure, that makes the job much tougher on this patchwork DB group.

If Grant were to be a monster, everything would fall into place. But, hje isn’t. So,for now I still say sit Grant, move Hargrove to DE and start Ellis (T) Pressley (T) and Smith (DE). Let Mc Cray rotate with Hargrove. Charleston Grant and Ayedole rotate in occasionally.

as if it would have happened had he not been in the right place and aggressively tackled the guy in the flat and jarred the ball loose. And then recovered it before it went out of bounds or someone else picked it up. But, I don’t get it. The guy makes a great play and it’s as if it was “lucky.” Like Sellers would just have droppd the ball with no contact. Like Mc Alister had nothing to do with it. Was Meachem ’s steal just a drop too? Was that steal a “drop” by the Skins receiver instead of a great play by Meachem? I think McAlister and Meachem and all the Saints that made great plays deserve credit.

Mc Cauley has only played in one game this season if NFLcom is accurate and for him to pick up and move in here seemlessly could be a real challenge. For McAlister to struggle his first 2 games (which I think has been overstated) is not surprising since any CB joining a team in the stretch run has a tough situation and Mc Cauley will have that as well. But, now there is onlyh 4 games to work out details for the playoffs. Since McCauley is not really a veteran, it’s hard for his experience to help overcome the transition as I think would have been a big + for McAlister has we got further along.

Still, it really concerns me that two weak teams that one would think are looking for good young talent to rebuild with passed up on him after getting a very good look at him. And Minnesota drafted him and passed on him after a short time. Most teams tend to be bullish on high draft picks. I hope we know what w are doing. I would be much more comfortable with any of our other DBs or another veterans in the game in an important situation.

From what I saw of the Skins game, it didn’t seem like McAlister stood out as THE problem, with our defense. It appeared to be a little bit of everyone and a lot attributed to lack of pass rush.

So many of the Saints players who are doing great things this season were cast off/unwanted by other teams for various reasons. The coaching and the system can make a world of difference in a player’s performance. I’m just glad the organization continues to be aggressive in working on improving the team and is willing to take some chances to make it happen.

jeffduncantp
Payton said they cut Chris McAlister because of their own performance evaluation.

jeffduncantp
Saints new CB Marcus McCauley will wear jersey No. 29, the same jersey Chris McAlister wore for his two-week stint with the team.

did not have the speed to keep up with faster WRs…plain and simple. This guy we picked up maybe raw but he has some upside cuz the guy can fly. His job is gonna be cut and dry. Play Special Teams, when you are in a CB just keep up with you guy, don’t get any stupid PI calls and wait for Sharper or Harper to come and help. Thats what I see him doing if he even makes an appearance

… on the team website there is a poll for the best player of sunday match… and one of the options is… guess who… I bet Payton is embargoing even his own guys… LOL