With the 9th Pick in the 2025 draft, who should the Saints select? (merged)

TribuneUK said

But 'your eyes' don't escape the fact that the same Detroit team could equally build their running attack around a player drafted 12th or acquired as a veteran free agent.

But this was just to counter your argument that a player taken 12th overall is the requirement for top end TD production. I honestly think that while Gibbs was considered over drafted at the time, the Lions knew that he fit into their system, could benefit from their run scheme and (of course) the ability of those high end, blue chip OL picks playing in front of him. He was a great pick for the team at the time.

But that definitely doesn't mean it's the rule to go looking for a Gibbs in the first round. As various examples and contradictory evidence shows.

Click to expand...

Some of you guys simply don't read what I post... I never said it was "required"....

The whole point I am making is to buck this dumb cliché that you have to keep building your lines with fat guys until you have some sort of impenetrable wall on both sides of the ball, before you ever start taking superstar level talent on offense in the draft with high picks... because "YoU havE To buiLD in Da trenCHES fIRst" - And kill this goofy take that somehow you can't build a team around a superstar RB or that taking one in the top 10 is somehow the dumbest thing ever...

WE HAVE ALREADY SPENT AN INSANE AMOUNT OF DRAFT CAPITAL TO BUILD OUR LINES - It's time for that capital to pay off... Not double down on losses....

Nothing I post is done so in an absolute vacuum - So respond with that in mind and read all posts accordingly.

I am using Gibbs as a direct example of why it's not always a bad thing to take a RB fairly high - As it relates directly to Saints current situation, and with the real possibility that Jeanty is the BPA when we draft this year at 9 overall...

I have conceded that the Lions are in a much different situation than the Saints... It's been established that the Lions also invested less draft capital than the Saints have to build their OLine when they started drafting guys like Gibbs, LaPorta, and Williams - which is when they became a real threat to win a SB

I am not trying to create rules... I am trying to debunk the rules too many here have stuck living in their heads.