Saints Need an Offensive Weapon
Washington was good last year and UNLV isn't a very good team. Before last night Boise St. played one good team, Oregon, and they are the #34 defense in the country against the run.
Jeanty is a good player and should be a 1st round pick. He just isn't top 10 pick good. He's not Barry Sanders, Marshall Faulk, or Thurman Thomas. Frankly, Kamara, even at his age, is a better runner.
Kamara has never had 1,000 yards rushing season despite some very high volume the past several years. He’s not currently a better runner than Jeanty. Better overall player with his versatility, sure I could buy that (for now). Better runner, very doubtful.
Jeanty is a great player and is undoubtedly a top 10 talent. Saying he’s not Barry Sanders or Marshall Faulk is a false equivalence to what a top 10 talent is. Jeanty undoubtedly has the potential to be a top tier NFL RB for years to come.
People act like it’s solely on Jeanty if he doesn’t have huge games against top level competition, but that is a farce. He plays for Boise State and is the only reason they even sniffed the college playoffs. His OL isn’t the caliber of other college playoff teams. The skill positions around him aren’t the caliber of other playoff teams. For Jeanty to post big games against these caliber teams isn’t a like for like comparison as some RB from Ohio State or some other powerhouse school doing so. He broke 16 tackles last night and had 75 yards after contact. He did as well as any RB could do under the circumstances.
From a “scouting sense” it would be incredibly naive to even attempt to do so. The film doesn’t lie, the overall production is incredible, the amount of yards after contact is insane, he possesses great tools to succeed at the next level. He also has versatility to make an impact in both the run and pass game.
On the season he now has over 1,900 rushing yards after contact. For context, the next closest since it started being tracked was Jonathan Taylor with 1,355 yards after contact, followed by Derrick Henry with 1,339 yards after contact.
I haven’t been a huge advocate for drafting Jeanty given our current roster situation and players we have at RB already, but I also wouldn’t hate it. The guy is the top talent in this draft class.