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Starting today, April 4th, and continuing through April 29th, Canal Street Chronicles will be counting down the top 10 draft busts and then the top 10 draft successes in Saints history. Feel free to to use these posts as a springboard for discussion about how awful or how great each draft pick turned out.
Top Bust # 10: Rick Middleton
It's 1974. The Saints are still a relatively young franchise in search of some talent to help get them their first winning season. The Saints have the 13th overall pick in the draft and use it on Rick Middleton of the Ohio State University, hoping to get a linebacker with starter potential and help improve their defense. What they got instead was...Rick Middleton.
Middleton played a grand total of five seasons in the NFL and only two of those were with the Saints. Middleton didn't have much in the way of stats, although this was before tackles were counted as a stat. It's obvious that Middleton could not adjust to the pro level and ultimately washed out of the NFL.
Fun fact: After his playing career, Middleton found a job teaching History, Psychology and Government at Olentangy High School.
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