Mel Kiper's NFL Draft Grade For Saints

Mel Kiper has made his living on ESPN this past year predicting where all the 2012 NFL Draft prospects would wind up and now that they've all found homes, Kiper has graded how each team did. The Saints, according to Kiper, didn't do so hot this year. He gave them a C-.

Here is the scale Kiper uses to give out his incredibly premature draft grades:

Grading Scale: In my mind an "A" means it's exceptional; a "B" means it's very good; a "C" means average, with hits and misses; a "D" means it's below average with some big questions. An "F" ... well, I didn't have one this year.

Make the jump to find out Mel's reasoning for giving the Saints their C- grade.

Top needs: DE, CB, DT, OLB, WR

Summary: The Saints traded away their first-round pick in a deal that landed them Mark Ingram in last year's draft, and the second-round pick had to be forfeited. So they knew they wouldn't be getting much impact. Akiem Hicks is a player I actually projected to New Orleans in my three-round mock, and he's got some upside. He had the talent to go to LSU, but ended up in Canada. He's been good, but is a tricky profile because of the lack of competition.Nick Toon can catch but he won't separate (we said the same about Marques Colston, on the positive side). Corey White was a reach on my board. Hopefully Hicks is a great sleeper, but no pass-rusher, no cornerback and no linebacker help in this draft.

So...what do you guys think? Was this a less-than-mediocre draft for the Saints as Kiper believes?