Zack Baun: Top Graded LB / DPOY cand. [Why Isn’t Baun Still a Saint Thread] ………. [Eagles re-sign Baun to 3-year, $51 million contract on March 5]

OldTimeGamer1966 said

This is one of the BIG problems the Saints have, and they have had it for a long time. They develop in house talent and then for some odd reason don't want to pay them. They would rather release them and then go waste money in free agency or keep the wrong players just like they did when they kept Davenport and let Hendrickson go to Cincinatti. They just are not good at player talent evaluation, and they better find a way to solve that problem.

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Talent evaluation is how Baun was drafted by the Saints. Have to give Saints scouts credit for identifying future starting LB talent in Baun and Elliss as later round draft picks. They weren’t immediate starters coming into the league as a pass rusher-turned-off ball LB and a former 7th round pick.

The problem is we already had 2 good-great LBs entrenched into the lineup when Baun and Elliss were drafted. Or by time they began to show development. Demario, Kwon, and Werner were always ahead of them. Elliss was on IR in his first 3 seasons. It took a while for Baun to develop into a good off-ball LB. He was average-below average in pass coverage and run defense during his first 2-3 seasons. They unfortunately got caught up in the numbers game in depth chart and starting LB salary priority. It wouldn’t have made sense to pay the 3rd LB the same as LB1 and LB2 when only two are on the field most of the time.