Thomas Morstead Wins Punting Battle. Glenn Pakulak (and Paris Warren) Waive Goodbye.

by Dave Cariello on Aug 26, 2009 10:08 PM CDT Comment 12 comments

Ladies and gentleman...we have a punter.

Glenn Pakulak was just waived. Per Greg Bensel's Twitter account...

GregBensel The Saints have waived P Glenn Pakulak and WR Paris Warren today...Coach Payton will address with media following tomorrow's indoor practice

I think that makes Morstead the first official winner of a position battle this year. Paris Warren, we hardly knew thee.

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Wouldn’t Jason Kyle be this season’s first official winner? Nevermind, you said battle.

I be grindin' while u besmirchin'.

by coldpizza on Aug 26, 2009 10:11 PM CDT reply actions

It's true

We did hardly know Paris Warren. Hell, I don’t even really recall him being mentioned.

by Just Some Guy on Aug 26, 2009 10:19 PM CDT reply actions

waiting

for the snarky comment concerning Payton’s pride that won’t allow him to cut his expensively drafted punter, therefore GlenPak had to go. But again, precedent was set with Antonio Pittman, so…

Don't you know it's going to be all right? All right. All right.

by stujo4 on Aug 26, 2009 10:27 PM CDT reply actions

in that there was no way to know what you were getting in either Pittman or Thomas. They both came into the league the same year. Pakulak was already an established commodity at the time Morstead was selected.

I be grindin' while u besmirchin'.

by coldpizza on Aug 26, 2009 10:49 PM CDT up reply actions

interesting to note

that 15 of the 21 Payton selections were still with the team going into the offseason.

The 6 that failed to cut the mustard:

Mike Hass
Josh Lay
Andy Alleman
Antonio Pittman
David Jones
Taylor Mehlhaff

Add Rob Ninkovich to that list, as he has been waived, re-signed and cut since being drafted. Still, that’s a fairly high percentage of staying power over a three year span. The question remains, should that be considered a “success rate”? Debatable, when you’ve won less games than your predecessor — HasMue(?) — over your first three seasons.

I be grindin' while u besmirchin'.

by coldpizza on Aug 26, 2009 11:05 PM CDT reply actions

also interesting

Of those 7 players (Ninkovich included), the only one not currently on an NFL roster is Josh Lay.

Where they are now:

Rob Ninkovich – New England Patriots
Mike Hass – Seattle Seahawks
Andy Alleman – Kansas City Chiefs
Antonio Pittman – St. Louis Rams
David Jones – Cincinnati Bengals
Taylor Mehlhaff – Minnesota Vikings

I be grindin' while u besmirchin'.

by coldpizza on Aug 26, 2009 11:14 PM CDT up reply actions

Yup. Which means either they’re doing a very good job of at least picking “adequate” people, or they’re doing a very bad job of figuring out who to cut.

I think it’s actually the former. The players involved were/are all fairly adequate but nobody on that list is a standout star. David Jones is constantly eviscerated by Cinti fans and he’s merely the nickel corner. Pittman was just ripped by some Rams fans where I happened to see it. And Melhaff was pretty good in many areas but missing an extra point is very much a bad thing.

by FriarBob on Aug 27, 2009 7:36 AM CDT up reply actions

I agree

but in the big picture, I’m not sure that they’re doing much more than treading water talent wise. I guess that’s better than going down the toilet, like some teams out there. Stay in playoff contention, get hot at the right time … and you could fail to control the clock down the stretch and wind up losing the Super Bowl, like the Cardinals. You didn’t actually think I was going to jump in the pool, did you?

I be grindin' while u besmirchin'.

by coldpizza on Aug 27, 2009 8:19 AM CDT up reply actions

No. I was just pointing out that they are doing better than some GMs (and pretend-GMs) out there on a fairly consistent basis. Maybe not “ideal” but better than nothing.

by FriarBob on Aug 27, 2009 9:21 AM CDT up reply actions

I'd like to see the numbers

It does seem high, even for seven round drafts, but we’re only talking three years worth of avoiding the Turk. Really less, if you consider they all spent some of that time as Saints, i.e., not under the daily scrutiny of their current position coaches. Seems like a lot of guys are going to get the benefit of the doubt within such a small window.

I guess I could break down Haslett’s first three drafts and see what kind of still-in-the-NFL percentages we’re talking about after three years and beyond. I might do that later this afternoon, if I’m particularly hard-up for trivial activity.

I be grindin' while u besmirchin'.

by coldpizza on Aug 27, 2009 9:42 AM CDT up reply actions

Any word

on whether or not either of these guys said “meep, meep!” as they waived goodbye? If so, Mike Bell deserves 2/5ths of the credit.

I be grindin' while u besmirchin'.

by coldpizza on Aug 26, 2009 11:50 PM CDT reply actions

its a good thing b/c if we would have wasted 3 picks on a punter who couldn’t make the team i would call jim haslett back from the cfl or the afl or the ufl or whatever league he’s in to run the draft for payton

by sernycrusher on Aug 27, 2009 12:42 PM CDT reply actions