Position by Position Draft "Needs" 2011 Pt 1: Offense
by GRlZZ on Jan 15, 2011 6:47 AM CST
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Last year I did a post on here about the Saints position by position draft "needs", and thought it was fun, so I'm gonna give it another go-around this year (also Patrick Robinson was in my post last year [even though I doubted we would take him]). This year looks like we'll have the 24th pick in the draft, a few picks higher from last year so hopefully that'll turn into a better quality player. I'm doing it about a month earlier this year so the draft projections and who's staying for their senior season and all that are a bit fuzzy right now, but I'll try my darndest to get something out here:
QB:
Again this year I don't think we'll take a QB (at least not as early as the first or second round), but this is going for (almost) every position. We're eventually going to need a reliable replacement for Brees, due to injury or decline (doubt it), so why not take one right?
Blaine Gabbert - QB Missouri 
A big name right now in the draft projections, he had a big bowl game against Iowa in the Insight Bowl (41-57, 434 yds (71.9%) 1 TD, 2 INTs (ok maybe not so great, but 72% is pretty good seeing as he threw the ball 57 times)), and has alot of upside. According to the official Missouri Tigers website, he's listed at 6'5" 235 lbs. Had a mediocre Junior season but could be a great project for Payton & Co. It would also be our 2nd QB from Mizzou along with Chase Daniel, and I think Gabbert is a better project.
RB:
With the status of our current RB's in the air right now, I could see us taking a running back early in the draft.
Mark Ingram - RB Alabama 
We all have heard of Mark Ingram, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Alabama (SEC! SEC!), potentially a good every down type back with good size (listed as 5'10" 215). Not sure if he'll still be on the board when the 24th pick rolls around, but I could see us taking him with that pick if he is.
WR:
With all the talent we have at WR, the only reason I can think that the Saints would take a WR this high is if...they were high!...ok or if we lose Lance Moore to free agency or something..
Jon Baldwin - WR Pitt 
Baldwin could be Colston's clone (ok maybe not), but he is listed as 6'5" 230 lbs, he's huge for a WR, actually a little bigger than Colston, but has some character issues: according to CBS he was "charged with misdemeanor indecent assault, harassment and disorderly conduct in May 2009 after an incident involving a female student on campus shuttle bus; charges eventually dropped". But if you can get around that (hey innocent until froven guilty right??) seems to be another nice project for the Saints.
TE:
The Saints made a nice pickup last draft with Jimmy Graham, who I thought would be more of a later on down the road type guy, but we ended up using him quite a bit towards the end of the year. I don't think we'll take a TE in the first, but I've seen crazier picks.
Kyle Rudolph - TE Notre Dame 
Rudolph should be the first TE taken in the draft and could be around the time of our pick. In the last 10 years the first Tight End off the board is first taken at an average of the 19th and a half (19.6 to be exact) pick. So that's close enough for the Saints to get frisky. Rudolph should be the best prospect TE in the 2011 draft through, 6'6" 265, he's about the same size as Graham with a little more experience.
OL:
Again this year I am not going into every position on the OL, especially being that the offensive line for the Saints is one of the best in the league, so I'll just go for the best overall lineman (IMO) in the draft (at our pick)
Joseph Barksdale - RT LSU 
Had to get an LSU guy in here somewhere right? Barksdale isn't ranked right (at least according to CBS's draft projections - but what do they know?) 6'5" 318, could be a future replacement for Stinchcomb or just a quality backup. Again, I think we need this position as much as I need a hole in my head...but hey trying to go through them all...or as many as I can.
And that's it for offense. I'll try and do defense soon, depends on how busy we are at work. So what are your suggestions for the offensive portion of our early draft?
This FanPost was written by a reader and member of Canal Street Chronicles. It does not necessarily reflect the views of CSC and its staff or editors.
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don't be surprised
to see us take a WR in the 1st half of the draft…
If they go O in first, I’d bet on OT
"But tonight the Superbowl belongs to the City of New Orleans" - Roger Goodell 2/7/2010
I think it all depends on BPA and relative value
the Saints will have groupings of players at each position ranked, and then assess relative value on who’s available at their spot.
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see them trade up/down…
I have no idea who they will take – but I want to see them focus on these areas this offseason: DL, OLB, RB, OT
Happiness is a warm blanket.
by Hans Petersen on Jan 15, 2011 9:24 AM CST up reply actions
No need for a CB lol.. or a QB, yet. We're fine at OT. Our needs are:
OLB, DE, DT/NT
Taylor Gang or wear a #6 Miami Heat Jersey in Cleveland
Even if you’re completely sold on the wishy-washy kid in the zig-zag t-shirt, how does RB not begin to enter the “needs” equation? We have Reggie Bush under contract. That’s it!
"I was not on the boat in question" -Darren Sharper
Worst case he’s an ERFA — exclusive rights. With only one year in the league he can’t be a true free agent. So even if his contract expired, we’d have exclusive rights to him and no other team can touch him until/unless we actually cut him.
Best case is he signed a two-year or three-year deal when he came on board and we don’t have to worry about it yet.
Eek, you’re right. He signed a 3 year deal. And P.J. Hill still has one more on his. I thought all the UDFA riff raff was operating under 1 year contracts. Not that it matters. Even if Thomas, Jones and Betts were all expected back, RB is still a HUGE need, imo.
"I was not on the boat in question" -Darren Sharper
Eek? What are you, a mouse? Dude, I’ve thought you were wrong on lots of things, but even at your most annoying I’ve never considered you vermin.
And again here you’re overreacting. Regardless of how bad we do or don’t need to upgrade, none of those players are going to be playing on contracts with large signing bonuses. No matter what else happens, we can easily cut any or all of them if we want to with trivial or even outright no cap consequences.
The “eek” was in reaction to my being mistaken, not the (potential) consequences of their being under contract. I’m fully aware that we can “cut these chumps” on a whim if need be, and no one would lose sleep.
"I was not on the boat in question" -Darren Sharper
Did I miss something?
Our starting OT’s suuuuck. Stinchcomb played over his head last year, and fell right back down around his mean this year, which is a solid rotational player who has no business playing every down. Bushrod didn’t suffer any dropoff, on the bright side, but on the other side, he’s not a starting LT for an offense that wants to pass for 5 miles per year. I don’t know if a high draft will be the answer, but I hope to god that the answer is not, “already in our building”, unless Charlie Brown is primed to make the pro bowl at LT for the next five years. I don’t believe that’s the case, but hey, we’re starting Jermon Bushrod, so…
So I’d take OT. Don’t know who, but I wouldn’t be opposed to your LSU boy, since he must already know how to run block. Past that, I could believe RB(if Ingram is hanging around) or WR(I wouldn’t agree with it, but I absolutely wouldn’t be surprised) could be a first pick.
"The Colts were punching at it and grabbing for it, trying to get it out. But I didn't care if they broke all my fingers. There was absolutely no way in the world I was going to let go of that ball. That was our ball.''-Chris Reis
by FuSoYa on Jan 16, 2011 6:57 AM CST via mobile reply actions 1 recs
Our starting OT’s suuuuck
A common misperception, it seems. The Saints OL is nominated again for Maddens’ Prilosec whatever award, vote here.
Two T-P writers assess the Saints needs for 2011 here and here, neither thinks the offensive line is a high priority.
Who knows where or when old wounds will mend?
I disagree wholeheartedly with Duncan and…Prilosec(?) on the matter of Bushrod’s value. That said, I’d rather keep him than Stinchcomb. I reeealy, really think Stinchcomb is overrated. And Duncan sees Goodwin as the “odd man out” on the O-line, because we have future star Matt Tennant waiting in the wings. I honestly can’t wrap my head around how differently I and the Saints media have perceived our O-line performance. How can Tennant be a seamless replacement for our consistently solid center and Brown not even seem to come up in the conversation regarding OT’s? Bushrod didn’t “earn” a starting spot protecting our golden boy’s blindside. He held up admirably in the absence of our clearly overpriced starter. Of course, between me, Duncan, and Omeprazole, I’m the only one not earning a paycheck by assessing player performance, so I guess maybe I just don’t understand the intricacies of “solid” O-line play that includes a bottom-third rushing attack that never succeeds running off tackle, succumbing to pressure from a 3-man rush, and a perrenial pro bowl quarterback who assumes that avoiding a sack with his feet is a natural part of every snap.
All sarcasm aside, I feel confident that, in this case, I’m righter than Prilosec. And I trust Prilosec with my frequent acid reflux. It’s not personal.
"The Colts were punching at it and grabbing for it, trying to get it out. But I didn't care if they broke all my fingers. There was absolutely no way in the world I was going to let go of that ball. That was our ball.''-Chris Reis
by FuSoYa on Jan 16, 2011 1:54 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
How can Tennant be a seamless replacement for our consistently solid center and Brown not even seem to come up in the conversation regarding OT’s?
Tennant is ready to play and Brown is not, yet, per Mickey.
I’m a Prevacid (lansoprazole) man, myself. Direct from India.
Who knows where or when old wounds will mend?
If I'm not mistaken,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qais_eGMnWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39GH-nzrY_I&feature=relatde
opps...
I believe Matt Tennet saw some real game time playing in the last game with Bucs and seemed to hold his own. And he’s in a much better position to succeed because of the two guards he plays next to. I think he’s as ready as a 2nd yr player can be.
As far as Charlie Brown, he needs to become NFL big. I think he’ll get there in the off season. He was a projected first round pick, he’s got the talent. If we keep Bushrod, lets move him to the RT spot, and slide Brown in LT (or vice versa) but Stinchcomb has been bad and he has to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qais_eGMnWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39GH-nzrY_I&feature=relatde
So many fans are bashing our OL, but here's what I think
1) Our running game would have been effective if we had 3 healthy running backs the whole season- or most of it
—- if we had Thomas, Bush , and Ivory – we would have been fine- if we had even better backs we would have been better.
2) If, with healthy backs, we had a good running game, our OL would have done better in pass blocking. You can’t expect to NOT give up 1-2 sacks a game when you are pasing 40-50 or more times a game. On average, we passed 42 times per game; our opponents passed 31 times a game. Drew Brees was sacked 25 times. That’s not anywhere near as good as last year, but that’s not really a bad number considering we pass 11 times a game more than our opponents. I also think teams blitzed more against Brees-three reasons—1) they came to the conclusion that sitting back in coverage just didn’t work too good vs Brees, so why not., and 2) we had different RBs in pass blocking every week and we weren’t that “well oiled machine” at times picking up blitzes every game so it was a potential weakness that teams tried to exploit, and 3) we weren’t running effective screen passes once Pierre went down.
So, 1 1/2 sacks per game? I say considering how much we passed and how our running game got disrupted so much, it wasn’t bad. Also, when Ivory was in the game, we didn’t throw the ball to him hardly ever. That was advantage defense and helped opponents pass rush and hurt our pass protection.
If Pro is the opposite of Con, what is the opposite of Progress? Congress!
-Men's Restroom - House of Representatives, Washington, DC
The OT's are weak on pass blocking...
Did you guys watch the Seattle game? Seriously, they were both getting beat like a drum. I wish we would have traded Stinchcomb off of his Pro Bowl season and moved Jamaal Brown to RT and worked on getting Charles Brown ready to take over at LT. I think that could have worked out beautifully, but as it is we still need at least one, if not two OT’s who can pass block. I would really like to see us go after DeAngelo Williams, but I’m not sure if the FO is looking that direction or not at RB.
by BlackandGold4ever on Jan 17, 2011 9:14 AM CST reply actions
I wish we would have traded Stinchcomb off of his Pro Bowl season and moved Jamaal Brown to RT and worked on getting Charles Brown ready to take over at LT. I think that could have worked out beautifully
I agree that that would have been the ideal scenario from a skills set standpoint. However, J. Brown would have never accepted RT pay after making the Pro Bowl as a LT. The biggest mistake was shifting him to the left side to begin with. He never excelled on that side at Oklahoma and was exceptional at RT, both in college and during his rookie season. That should have cemented it. Ferguson should have been the pick at two (or four after trading back with the Jets). Loomis admitted to turning down that trade, based on additional compensation. In hindsight, whatever that offered compensation was would have been worth it. Regardless, the difference in Brown/Stinchcomb’s play on the right was a MUCH starker contrast than their play on the left. They traded away Wayne Gandy for a safety that didn’t even make the team, then proceeded to screw themselves even moreso by taking the third best of three possible options. All for the honor of drafting Reggie Bush. I still get nauseous over that.
"I was not on the boat in question" -Darren Sharper
Yeah there is no way Jammal would have moved back to RT after having moved from there to LT and getting his ego boosted all out of whack by that.
But Jermon might have. And so I kinda like his idea, just with tweaking the name of who moved to the RT position.
Assuming C. Brown is any better a LT than Bushrod, maybe. I’d want to ease into that. Given what I’ve seen, Bushrod isn’t better than Stinchcomb on the left. Given my druthers, Stinchcomb would be the LT, Bushrod the RT. I’d then try to work C. Brown in at RT. If he played better than Bushrod, then (and only then) would I experimentally flip flop C. Brown and Stinchcomb. I wouldn’t stick to it an entire season, unless he was performing light years ahead of Stinchcomb. Which was never the case with J. Brown on the left.
"I was not on the boat in question" -Darren Sharper
AGREED
Ferguson should have been the pick at two (or four after trading back with the Jets). Unless your grabbing for a NEEDED franchise QB or the next great RB the OL and DL are alll i’d ever spend a 1st round pick on. As dynamic as bush was coming out of USC we already had duece and i figured a better OL would make him better and would give us a pair of great tackles.
Regarding Comments That O-tackes suck...
I don’t think we have the best OT’s in the game, but they certainly don’t suck! I was not a fan of seeing Jammal leave, but understood. I am still not sold on Bushrod, but I hope Brown is the answer (I ain’t bettin on it though). No need to take a quarterback. I like Chase. We still have a lot of good young RB’s (Ivory, Hill, Hamilton, Bush), but I don’t think PT cruiser will be coming back. I would like to see a playmaker at WR, but don’t see it happening. TE is one of the best in the league (don’t look for Shockey to come back) with David Thomas and Mr. Graham. WE NEED DEFENSIVE LINEMAN AND LINEBACKERS.
WE NEED DEFENSIVE LINEMAN AND LINEBACKERS
I’m not sure we are going to find what we are all hoping for in a LB or DL in this year’s draft. For my $$$ I’d seriously look at another Safety in the Sharper/Jenkins mold. Imagine what GDUB could do with that. It seems to me the league is changing and if we want to contend with the top teams or QB’s we need more multi- puropose defensive players. Think SPEED-TACKLE-COVER-BLITZ.
You're not going to find a single safety in the first round.
It’s a very, very, weak class for safety with a handful being 2-3 round prospects. By comparison, the D-line position is one of the true strengths of this draft, just like last year. Linebacker, unfortunately, is just as weak as safety with the exception of 2-3 first round prospects, it drops off considerably.
"Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not 'every man for himself.' And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked 'em up."
1st round safety?
I never said spend a first round pick on one! Least ways not in this draft. Just saying overall it may be a good idea to set the curve rather than play catch up to it. Again if i were a GM with rare exception would i ever draft any other player in the first round besides OL or DL.
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