I recently had the pleasure of participating in my first mock draft of the year. The fine folks over at Next Season Sports have put together an interblog mock draft and asked if I would be willing to participate on behalf of the New Orleans Saints. I happily obliged. Take a look at the entire mock draft to this point to see how it's panned out so far. If you just want the good stuff, below is who I went with and why I went with him.
14. Saints - Malcolm Jenkins (CB) Ohio State
Though the Saints had the most high-powered offense in the league last year, they didn't have the defense to match it. While their run defense is nothing to write home about, it's stopping the pass that haunts them most. That being said, the Saints will assuredly look to improve their secondary in this years draft. With the importance of the safety position in new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams' system and an upgrade already made at cornerback with the drafting of Tracy Porter last year, safety is now the most pressing need for the Saints and the popular consensus among those who follow the Saints.
But...since Malcolm Jenkins is still on the board I just can't pass him up. "Best Player Available" has long been the philosophy of past Saints drafts and though the need at safety is probably greater, Jenkins is just too good not to grab over top rated safeties like William Moore and Rashad Johnson. The Saints might then consider moving veteran cornerback Mike McKenzie over to safety to upgrade there.