After a night to reflect, I am not upset with the Vaccaro selection and believe that it was the best selection that we could have made. I would have preferred a defensive lineman because top defensive linemen are drafted more highly than top safeties and teams often drafting low often do not have a chance to pick a defensive lineman like Sheldon Richardson or Star Lotilelei. But at 13 the Jets picked Richardson--the Tampa trade ended up hurting us--and at 14 Carolina picked Lotulelei. This was my fear--we would be one slot away from selecting a player who could have well been a top 10 pick and who fell. Late season wins for a team sitting out the playoffs can matter.
At 15, the Saints had basically four options: Floyd, Jarvis Jones, Vaccaro, trading down. Let's examine:
1. The first option was Floyd, who was projected in most mock drafts to be a top 10 and even top 5 pick. However, even after the Saints passed on Floyd, he lasted another 8 picks or so until he was selected by Minnesota. The problem with Floyd was fit. If there was at least a question of Richardson being a good fit for a 3-4, there was a big question of Floyd being a good fit for that defense.
2. The second option was Jarvis Jones. I was not a proponent of Jones--the medical condition, the combine results, the practice habits, the questions about lateral range. However, many of you were proponents, and the Steelers with a much vaunted 3-4 defense two picks later did select Jones.
3. The third option was Vaccaro. He apparently fits what Ryan wants to do on defense--and he did fill a need. Someone else has commented that a factor with the Vaccaro pick was the return of Tony Gonzalez and the Atlanta passing attack, and I agree.
4. The fourth option was trading down. Based on the trades made, no team gave up a second round draft pick to move up to a first round pick that was not in the top 10. Dallas mpoved from 18 to 31 for a third round pick (a poor trade by Dallas). But Atlanta moving up gave up only a third round pick and change. Looking at the trades made last night, I believe that no team was offering us a second round pick to move up. The trading down option depended heavily on Tavon Austin being available, and a small bidding war ensuing. He went long before 15 (in my opinion, the result less of Austin's skill set than the absurdly tiny pool of top wide receivers and running backs this year).
My guess is that the options were really two--Jones and Vaccaro--and Vaccaro was judged the more athletic player and the safer pick. I am not thrilled about the selection, but it was dictated largely by the events of the evening before the Saints picked.