Re-examining the Johnathan Sullivan pick

Saintman2884 said
In summary, I think that Sully was the beginning of the end for the Haslett regime, he had it all going until then and for that combined with Turley, Delhomme, and Roaf leaving becuase of contract disputes that year, it was the end for Haslett.

What I find surprising was how hard Haslett fought on for so long after 2002, he stayed for almost 4 more years, we could have fallen apart so many times and yet we didnt until a hurricane arguably did the job for us and almost tore up the team from this city.

But as it is I think Sullivan was perhaps a good example of not trusting your instincts and not going with your own knowledge and being smart instead of going on gut feeling, Sully failed as a NFL pick and as a player, but he remains the best example of perhaps the worse player ever picked by this franchise.

I think the beginning of the end for Haslett came in 2001 the year after the 10 - 6 season and Playoff win when the Saints went 7 - 9. There was dissension.in the locker room and the team quit on Haslett down the stretch losing 4 in a row and being beaten by roughly 30 point margin in those games. Then again in 2002 the team quit down the stretch and Haslett stuck to an injured Aaron Brooks over a healthy Jake Delhomme when they were playing 3 teams with the worst records in the NFL (Cincy, Vikings, Carolina)

Most franchises would have fired him at that point. By 2003, Haslett was desperate. In 2002 the Saints had a 28th ranked Defense and a DE by the name of Julius Peppers had just made a significant impact for the Panthers. 2003 draft was probably the greatest numbest number of DLineman in the history of the draft taken in the top 15 with more than half of all picks (8) being a DE or DT. Haslett and Co. got caught up in the wave of hype surrounding these DLineman and thought a young athletic DT would come in and make an immediate impact.

Bottom Line...The Saints rolled the dice with Sully...he was too little too late. We could argue that Haslett did what no other Saints Coach would have been able to do...take a 3 - 13 team to 10 - 6 and win a Playoff game with Brooks at the helm for the last 6 games down the stretch; Haslett was an average Coach who had one big season and Sullivan was not the beginning of the end but rather a symptom of the poor decision making that mired the Haslett regime in mediocrity.