Ineffective Draft Should Equal Stronger Push In Free Agency (1 Viewer)

[LSSpam]

I think EVERY draft pick should be made with the intentions of finding a starter.

To be fair, that's how we got Onome Ojo, Sedrick Hodge, Adrian McPherson, etc. Hey, they all had huge "upside"

There's nothing wrong with taking an "upside" guy in the 5th round who may become a potential starter occasionally, but those guys are in the 5th round for a reason normally. Injuries, attitude, bad instincts, etc. Occasionally you get a Colston or a Brady but it's not common. So you can't completely overlook the players who you know aren't good enough to ever be top starters, but can play special teams, do "one thing really well" like catch redzone passes or rush the passer, and who will hang around in the NFL for 10 years and contribute. Those players are valuable too and it's a lot cheaper to draft them as rookies at the rookie minimum then to have to fill out your roster with them in Free Agency at the veteran minimum.

That's why those 5th, 6th, and 7th round picks are valuable too though. You have to have enough to fill out your roster and still have a few to take some shots at the fence and hope for a homerun. It's worth noting that we had 5 5th, 6th, 7th round picks in 2006 and it was the last one of the 5 that got us Colston. Quantity counts.

 

[MSUSousaphone]

Started off great but ended in flames. I agree that a weak draft should equal a strong FA, and we had a weak draft....now we have a weak FA.

But I wouldn't say that we got lucky in 06. Too many good finds to be lucky. If they can have another excellent draft like 06 (at least two of either a good DT/CB/WLB) then we'll actually be fine.

 

[SAINTSaddicted]

The lease on the Superdome is what runs out in 2010. But honestly, with all the League has done to help the franchise (including this years International Series game) I'd be surprised to see them moved to L.A. (as has been proposed) or anywhere else. We have a waiting list 35,000 strong of people to get a season ticket. That's a lot better than some teams in the NFL and can only continue to improve as the area recovers from Katrina.

Agreed, I would be suprised too. But if we have multiple bad seasons before 2010 you will lose that waiting list fast. Our first full season sale out was 06. Before then we had trouble filling the dome at times. If we get back to that b/c of losing, we could be moved. I hope this never happnes but winning can fix everything.

 

[SAINTSaddicted]

Started off great but ended in flames. I agree that a weak draft should equal a strong FA, and we had a weak draft....now we have a weak FA.

But I wouldn't say that we got lucky in 06. Too many good finds to be lucky. If they can have another excellent draft like 06 (at least two of either a good DT/CB/WLB) then we'll actually be fine.

I never said 06 draft was lucky. I said that the Colston pick was lucky.