reasons not to draft leonard fournette (1 Viewer)

[HogsNSaints]

I thought this thread would die out in a week but I was wrong.


And this is completely incorrect.

I remember when McFadden ran a 4.27 and everyone was blown away by how fast he was.

McFadden was never as tough a runner as Fournette was with the stiff arms and shoulder blows he delivers. Also McFadden had the luxury of splitting carries with Felix Jones. I dont see how anyone could compare their two running styles at all.

If Fournette reminds me of anyone it is Ricky Williams.

I don't know how either of us will provide evidence proving our point, but watching Fournette was like watching a replay of the college career of DMAC. I think you can point to the skinniness in McFadden's legs and say he wasn't a downfield, hard nosed runner but that wouldn't be true. The design of the Wildcat was to put Felix in the slot, and give the outside read, with McFadden threatening between the tackles. McFadden did almost all of his damage between the tackles. Getting away from the point, it makes no sense that LSU didn't implement a similar strategy with LF & Guice/no QB.

Also, Guice is a better prospect now than Felix ever was at Arkansas, so it's hard to say DMAC had a luxury Fournette didn't have..

I'd love to see a stat sheet on broken tackles, yards after contact, and left/middle/right run designs through the careers of McFadden and Fournette. I bet they're extremely similar. Career arc was also similar. Vision is a weakness. They're very comparable players.

 

[NOFALCONS10]

Stupidity.

Can stupidity be a reason not to draft Leonard Fornette?

I do agree though that Fournette isnt a must. However, I cringe at the thought of him going to Carolina. Players like Stephen Davis, Deshon Foster and Deangelo Williams were saint killers back in the day.

If he is there I would take him but if not Im not sure that I would trade up in a deep running back draft.

Honestly a 4th receiver might be just as deadly as a second runner. A guy like Mack Hollins or Zay Jones would do well to replace Coleman.

A later runner like James Conner, Pumphrey, Hunt, Clement, or McGuire could also suffice with another deep threat at wr.


Offense has been king of the NFC the last two years with CAR and ATL averaging 32-33ppg. The Saints can still improve there tremendously while still helping the defense.

The silly notion that it's an either/or proposition at this point is nonsense. The team can still get pass rushers and corners past the first round easily.

 

[NOFALCONS10]

I don't know how either of us will provide evidence proving our point, but watching Fournette was like watching a replay of the college career of DMAC. I think you can point to the skinniness in McFadden's legs and say he wasn't a downfield, hard nosed runner but that wouldn't be true. The design of the Wildcat was to put Felix in the slot, and give the outside read, with McFadden threatening between the tackles. McFadden did almost all of his damage between the tackles. Getting away from the point, it makes no sense that LSU didn't implement a similar strategy with LF & Guice/no QB.

Also, Guice is a better prospect now than Felix ever was at Arkansas, so it's hard to say DMAC had a luxury Fournette didn't have..

I'd love to see a stat sheet on broken tackles, yards after contact, and left/middle/right run designs through the careers of McFadden and Fournette. I bet they're extremely similar. Career arc was also similar. Vision is a weakness. They're very comparable players.

Im not saying that their scripted plays weren't similar. Im saying that they have different traits.

If I had to compare McFadden to someone it would be Chris Henry and Chris Brown formerly of the Titans or Latavius Murray from UCF. I noted that even Derrick Henry for all of his size did not have to break a lot of tackles in college either. To say that McFadden ran people over much is just not a sound argument. Fournette runs with more power, is less upright, and has a lower center of gravity.

Guice will be a better player than Jones for sure but Fournette is just a sturdier build than McFadden ever was.

 

[Koketsu_Sama]

I remember being mad when we drafted Deuce because we had a good running back and we needed Defense. Well, I guess it panned out. Those guys in the front office get paid good money to take these gambles. If Fournette falls to us (I honestly don't see this happening) and they pull the trigger, I'm gonna be mad cause we need defense. If this happens, let's hope I'm even MORE wrong this time.

 

[NOFALCONS10]

I remember being mad when we drafted Deuce because we had a good running back and we needed Defense. Well, I guess it panned out. Those guys in the front office get paid good money to take these gambles. If Fournette falls to us (I honestly don't see this happening) and they pull the trigger, I'm gonna be mad cause we need defense. If this happens, let's hope I'm even MORE wrong this time.

Is there a rule against drafting defense in round 2-7 that im not aware of or something?


You'd almost swear by reading most of the posts in this thread that the saints only have 1 pick in the entire draft.

 

[Swampy Saint]

I do agree though that Fournette isnt a must. However, I cringe at the thought of him going to Carolina. Players like Stephen Davis, Deshon Foster and Deangelo Williams were saint killers back in the day.

If he is there I would take him but if not Im not sure that I would trade up in a deep running back draft.

Honestly a 4th receiver might be just as deadly as a second runner. A guy like Mack Hollins or Zay Jones would do well to replace Coleman.

A later runner like James Conner, Pumphrey, Hunt, Clement, or McGuire could also suffice with another deep threat at wr.


Offense has been king of the NFC the last two years with CAR and ATL averaging 32-33ppg. The Saints can still improve there tremendously while still helping the defense.

The silly notion that it's an either/or proposition at this point is nonsense. The team can still get pass rushers and corners past the first round easily.

I didn't start out as a Mark Ingram fan, but I grew to like him very much.
I don't think he's done, but we all know a running backs life expectancy in the NFL isn't very long.
I think if Fournette is there, you take him. I wouldn't trade up either.
If the choice at #11 were Fournette and a monster pass rusher that fell for some crazy reason, I'd probably take the monster. But it would be a hard choice for me.

Ingram only has so many miles left. And he runs hard and takes a lot of abuse.

 

[HogsNSaints]

It's easy to see that a ton of this board has their hearts totally invested in Fournette. It's very fortunate for New Orleans Saints football that they're not coached by SaintsReport. LF will not be the pick, there or not. And for great reason.

 

[NOFALCONS10]

I didn't start out as a Mark Ingram fan, but I grew to like him very much.
I don't think he's done, but we all know a running backs life expectancy in the NFL isn't very long.
I think if Fournette is there, you take him. I wouldn't trade up either.
If the choice at #11 were Fournette and a monster pass rusher that fell for some crazy reason, I'd probably take the monster. But it would be a hard choice for me.

Ingram only has so many miles left. And he runs hard and takes a lot of abuse.

I think the Adrian Peterson comparisons are off the mark. While I don't think that he will run a 4.33 like a Peterson or Fred Taylor, I do see him being on par with backs like Corey Dillion, Curtis Martin, or Ricky Williams in that 4.4 230lb range.

If Garrett, Lattimore, Allen or Barnett are on the board then yeah, pass perhaps, but it's completely silly to say Fournette would not have a greater impact on this team than whomever is remaining beyond those players.

Some people here just think that Payton will suddenly build the 85 bears here over night in one draft and think that people supporting the Fournette pick are the delusional ones. Lol.

If the saints get anyhere close to the SB next year it will be because of improvements on offense primarily. Who is kidding whom?

 

[Swampy Saint]

I think the Adrian Peterson comparisons are off the mark. While I don't think that he will run a 4.33 like a Peterson or Fred Taylor, I do see him being on par with backs like Corey Dillion, Curtis Martin, or Ricky Williams in that 4.4 230lb range.

If Garrett, Lattimore, Allen or Barnett are on the board then yeah, pass perhaps, but it's completely silly to say Fournette would not have a greater impact on this team than whomever is remaining beyond those players.

Some people here just think that Payton will suddenly build the 85 bears here over night in one draft and think that people supporting the Fournette pick are the delusional ones. Lol.

If the saints get anyhere close to the SB next year it will be because of improvements on offense primarily. Who is kidding whom?

I agree with just about everything you said, but I believe defense wins Championships (for the most part)
But having a running back or two that can wear out a defense in the 4th quarter is pretty important too.

Why can't we have both?

 

[HogsNSaints]

I think the Adrian Peterson comparisons are off the mark. While I don't think that he will run a 4.33 like a Peterson or Fred Taylor, I do see him being on par with backs like Corey Dillion, Curtis Martin, or Ricky Williams in that 4.4 230lb range.

If Garrett, Lattimore, Allen or Barnett are on the board then yeah, pass perhaps, but it's completely silly to say Fournette would not have a greater impact on this team than whomever is remaining beyond those players.

Some people here just think that Payton will suddenly build the 85 bears here over night in one draft and think that people supporting the Fournette pick are the delusional ones. Lol.

If the saints get anyhere close to the SB next year it will be because of improvements on offense primarily. Who is kidding whom?

No one on this thread, to my knowledge, has insinuated that the Saints defense could be the 85 Bears with one draft. What people are calling for, is fielding an NFL caliber defense. That is something the Saints haven't done for 3 years and it's made an elite offense 7-9.

I would argue that Leonard Fournette is not an upgrade to Mark Ingram at all. But for the sake of arguing, do you REALLY think he's a bigger upgrade to Ingram that what we could upgrade at any of the 3 levels of this defense? If so, you're definitely biased. That's ultimately the reality here.. If you think a RB will be a bigger upgrade to our top 10 NFL RB than a BPA on defense would be to our bottom 3 NFL D, you've clearly got too much invested into the RB..

 

[Swampy Saint]

No one on this thread, to my knowledge, has insinuated that the Saints defense could be the 85 Bears with one draft. What people are calling for, is fielding an NFL caliber defense. That is something the Saints haven't done for 3 years and it's made an elite offense 7-9.

I would argue that Leonard Fournette is not an upgrade to Mark Ingram at all. But for the sake of arguing, do you REALLY think he's a bigger upgrade to Ingram that what we could upgrade at any of the 3 levels of this defense? If so, you're definitely biased. That's ultimately the reality here.. If you think a RB will be a bigger upgrade to our top 10 RB than a BPA on defense would be at pick 11, you've clearly got too much invested into the RB..

I think he's saying we can draft defense with all of the other rounds.

 

[HogsNSaints]

I think he's saying we can draft defense with all of the other rounds.

We can't draft a RB in the middle rounds?

 

[insidejob]

We can't draft a RB in the middle rounds?

Not one like Fournette.

 

[Swampy Saint]

We can't draft a RB in the middle rounds?

We can, it just won't be Fournette.

 

[HogsNSaints]

And the 2nd/3rd round DE/CB we could get will be as good as Thomas or Barnett/Lattimore or Sidney Jones?? This is why you guys look silly and biased.