Article Hits, Misses, and Lessons Learned from a Decade of Saints Draft Picks (1 Viewer)

[sfidc3]

Nicely done Derrick, I would argue some bad luck with injuries was a huge factor here….so my main thing is try to find the right player with minimal injury history if possible…..injuries early in a career can completely stunt the growth of a promising player….I’m probably one of the few that thought Davenport could have been a very good DE had he stayed healthy…..

 

[DerrickB]

Nicely done Derrick, I would argue some bad luck with injuries was a huge factor here….so my main thing is try to find the right player with minimal injury history if possible…..injuries early in a career can completely stunt the growth of a promising player….I’m probably one of the few that thought Davenport could have been a very good DE had he stayed healthy…..

Thanks for reading

 

[AARPSaint]

Really nicely done. My only quibble is with Tre'Quan Smith as a miss. When he was paired with Drew Brees, he was a solid third option, accounting for 10 touchdowns in those two seasons. For a guy drafted in the third round, I think he performed exactly as expected.

I forget where I saw it—but there was an article that evaluated each NFL team on its most recent draft choices, and Tre’quan Smith was ranked as a successful draft pick. That made me wonder about how smart the writer of the article is.

The lack of all-pros drafted recently by the Saints is a telling perspective on the quality of those drafts.

 

[St. Widge]

Nicely done Derrick, I would argue some bad luck with injuries was a huge factor here….so my main thing is try to find the right player with minimal injury history if possible…..injuries early in a career can completely stunt the growth of a promising player….I’m probably one of the few that thought Davenport could have been a very good DE had he stayed healthy…..

I'll go further and say that he was a good DE that just couldn't/can't stay healthy. People complain all the time about this pick. They should not have spent two first on him, but the evaluation on him was correct. He had the talent and even had some good years. The problem is that he could not stay healthy and there is really no way to predict that unless a guy had a chronic condition in college that continued into the NFL.

 

[Saint KayBee]

What’s funny is that this shortcoming seems relatively universally accepted here. However after each draft pick every year there are certain users on this board who will sing the highest praises and give the draft an A+ grade and never reconcile this with the reality in the coming years.

Sigh. I guess hindsight is 50/50 like Cam Newton once said.

I don’t think universally accepted is the right phrase here - I think, especially for older fans who may not have much time left, they’d rather see the team be competitive (if mediocre) if great isn’t happening, than to see the team go back to the way the 1960s-mid 1980s Saints performed. Twenty whole years of barely scratching competent will shift what’s deemed acceptable quickly.

As we all know, the steps you take going from bad to good are the same as the steps you take going from mediocre to good. 4-win Saints football isn’t fun, but 8-win Saints football might be. 12-win Saints football again would be golden but the odds of getting there aren’t great in the first place and there’s no such thing as staying there, all dynasties fall.