Is Jeff Ireland Really Good? (1 Viewer)

[Trey W.]

Being that the draft is a crap shoot anyway, I feel we have done above average. I do believe that Sean and Loomis were consistently in a “we’re almost there” state of mind so they used the draft as a way to swing for the fences and get that special player which bit them in the butt more times than it paid off. I’m hoping since Drew and Sean are gone we will stop with the trading up and either stay put or trade down for more picks. IMO we need more picks to have players on cheap rookie deals to replace the players we can’t afford we let go and offset all our dead money.

Using first round picks on often injured, “high potential” pass rushing DE’s from smaller schools seems to be their weakness. We missed out on a lot of great players for those 2!

Ruiz was highly rated IOL that draft. He was younger than most and did not have the proper off-season preparation. Bringing in Doug Marrone seemed to help Ruiz out.

Olave, well IMO has been the best 1st round pick we’ve made in a very long time. Penning was known to be a project coming from a small school but with his ability and tenaciousness, hopefully Marrone and Strief can work with him this off-season to develop.

 

[26ISTHEMAN]

I think out drafts have been better since Ireland arrived, but I wish we could see what he would have done had we not traded so many picks away. All the crazy draft day moves have Sean Payton written all over it, and I doubt Ireland had much say in that part of it.

 

[Bayouboy]

Well, like Ireland or not, he's WAY better at talent evaluation than Loomis. Mickey is the cap guy/bean counter. Don't expect him to be a true GM. While not perfect, Ireland helped stabilize the franchise when he came on. I think he's more of an asset than liability. The next draft will be very important to the franchise. Let's hope he knocks it out of the park.

 

[BreesusSaves]

Keep in mind Ireland doesn't get to make draft picks. He only does the scouting.

2022:
Olave (1st)
Penning (1st)
Taylor (2nd)
That's two good starters and one really promising prospect.

2021:
Werner (2nd)
Adebo (3rd)
Young (6th)
Two good starters and a role player.

2020:
Ruiz (1st)
Baun (2nd)
Trautman (3rd)
Two average starters and a role player.

2019:
Erik McCoy (2nd)
Chauncy (4th)
Ellis (7th)
An elite starter, a good starter, and a role player.

2018:
Scott (6th)
Disaster. The only player worth talking about is now on the Eagles.

2017:
We all already know how legendary this draft was. Six of the seven picks are starting and four of them are unquestionably elite and one is really good in the NFL.

2016:
Rankins (1st)
Thomas (2nd)
Bell (3rd)
Onyemata (4th)
One elite starter, two more good starters, and a role player.

2015:
Peat (1st)
PJ Williams (3rd)
Davison (5th)
While all three ended up becoming starters, this was not a spectacular or good draft.

So looking at the whole picture, Ireland only had one draft that was an outright failure (2018). All of his other drafts netted the Saints multiple contributors. "Two starters and a role player" is probably the best way to summarize it, and personally that's great to me. And again, remember, Ireland hasn't made a single pick for the Saints.

 

[RaginCajun83]

2012

Akiem Hicks DT
Nick Toon WR
Corey White CB
Andrew Tiller OT
Marcel Jones OT

2013

Player
14	S	Kenny Vaccaro
75	T	Terron Armstead
82	DT	John Jenkins (choice from Miami)
144	WR	Kenny Stills

2014

Position	Player	College
20	WR	Brandin Cooks (choice from Arizona)	Oregon State
58	DB	Stanley Jean-Baptiste	Nebraska
126	LB	Khairi Fortt	California
167	S	Vinnie Sunseri	Alabama
169	LB	Ronald Powell (choice from New England)	Florida
202	T	Tavon Rooks

2015

Table inside Article

Pick #	Position	Player	College
13	T	Andrus Peat	Stanford
31	LB	Stephone Anthony (choice from Seattle)	Clemson
44	LB	Hau'oli Kikaha	Washington
75	QB	Garrett Grayson	Colorado State
78	CB	P.J. Williams (choice from Miami)	Florida State
148	LB	Davis Tull	Tennessee-Chattanooga
154	DL	Tyeler Davison (choice from Kansas City)	Fresno State
167	CB	Damian Swann (choice from Washington)	Georgia
230	RB/RS	Marcus Murphy

2016

• Round 1, Pick 12 - Sheldon Rankins, DT, Louisville
• Round 2, Pick 47 - Michael Thomas, WR, Ohio State
• Round 2, Pick 61 - Vonn Bell, DB, Ohio State
• Round 4, Pick 120 - David Onyemata, DT, Manitoba
• Round 7, Pick 237 - Daniel Lasco, RB, California

 

[Swampy Saint]

Keep in mind Ireland doesn't get to make draft picks. He only does the scouting.

2022:
Olave (1st)
Penning (1st)
Taylor (1st)
That's two good starters and one really promising prospect.

2021:
Werner (2nd)
Adebo (3rd)
Young (6th)
Two good starters and a role player.

2020:
Ruiz (1st)
Baun (2nd)
Trautman (3rd)
Two average starters and a role player.

2019:
Erik McCoy (1st)
Chauncy (4th)
Ellis (7th)
An elite starter, a good starter, and a role player.

2018:
Scott (6th)
Disaster. The only player worth talking about is now on the Eagles.

2017:
We all already know how legendary this draft was. Six of the seven picks are starting and four of them are unquestionably elite and one is really good in the NFL.

2016:
Rankins (1st)
Thomas (2nd)
Bell (3rd)
Onyemata (4th)
One elite starter, two more good starters, and a role player.

2015:
Peat (1st)
PJ Williams (3rd)
Davison (5th)
While all three ended up becoming starters, this was not a spectacular or good draft.

So looking at the whole picture, Ireland only had one draft that was an outright failure (2018). All of his other drafts netted the Saints multiple contributors. "Two starters and a role player" is probably the best way to summarize it, and personally that's great to me. And again, remember, Ireland hasn't made a single pick for the Saints.

Great post.

Taylor was in the second round though, right?

 

[Clintonrebel]

We all know SP was heavily involved in the draft process.
It’s too early to tell how this will fall without him.

With that said, the 2022 draft without him looks very good so far.
The two first rounders appear to have been excellent.
2nd round pick Taylor looks to be a lockdown corner.

Maybe someone else can comment on the rest of last years draft.

Soooo…. Maybe it was SP who has to take at least half the blame on the bad picks.

At LEAST half for sure. We found some excellent players over the years, but Payton was determined to over-pay for some in the draft. Who's to say what other gems we missed because we traded away the picks.

 

[RaginCajun83]

Great post.

Taylor was in the second round though, right?

Yes, this site had a melt down when he was drafted

 

[AARPSaint]

Great post.

Taylor was in the second round though, right?

Also McCoy IIRC, but he was the Saints' first pick. Very helpful post, though.

 

[nakadish]

From what I remember in a Payton interview a long time ago, Payton and the coaches scouted round 1 and sometimes 2. And on draft day, it's not just Ireland or Payton making the decision on who to draft. They all come to a consensus with Loomis making the pick if the coaches and scouting can't come to a consensus. Though it's probably Payton making the decision on trades, but that's speculation on my part.

Ireland is good, but as long as the Saints keep all the guys doing the dirty work I think the Saints don't miss a beat if he moves on to wherever Payton goes.

 

[Mojomajik9]

If I remember right Payton once said Ireland was more of a “let the draft come to us” type as opposed to Payton’s aggressive nature of moving up etc. so he was a bit of a calming influence on Payton, IIRC.

No doubt he has an eye for talent and Olave was a home run this year. Penning shows promise and Taylor really played beyond our expectations.

It’s not a coincidence that the team got better at drafting defense once he came on board.

 

[ELLIASJWILLIAMS]

Not sure who does what, but I think we have done above average in talent identification and below average in managing finite picks.

Well said.

Ireland and that whole draft side have done well with adding talent on both offense and defense. Top 10 in the NFL since 2017, no questions. We've just been so aggressive with trading away picks to get specific guys since like 2019 that we haven't developed a middle class and it's showing up now.

Like it or not Davenport was a top 15 TALENT in that draft. He hasn't played up to it but there weren't many in that specific draft with 1st round upside. Payton Turner, same thing - Talented guy from a prototype standpoint, just hasn't developed.

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

I also want to say that Ireland was the most conservative or traditional person in team management when it came to trading up and trading away draft picks. But again, only those inside the organization really know.

 

[saint_drago]

One narrative promoted by some is that the Saints have been so talented that we did not need many draft picks. I strongly disagree.

I totally agree with this. I don't know where that came from but it was absurd. First of all it was never true, the Saints weren't so loaded at every position that they had no use for draft picks. It was a miracle if we ever had two NFL starting caliber WRs on the field at the same time. Our LB depth chart was always suspect. Corner was thin most of the time.

Second of all, even it was true and the roster was The Dream Team, you still need depth. You need depth and you need inexpensive replacements when you lose a guy.

 

[Saint Greg]

This is worth a discussion. I don't know how much falls on Ireland, but we haven't been that good at draft since 2017.

And you gotta remember we used assets from other years in 2017. We traded Cooks for the Ram pick. We traded a 2018 2nd for the Kamara pick. So of course 2018 is going to be weaker when the 2nd went for Kamara. Then in 2018 we weakened the 2019 draft by trading the 1st to move up for Davenport. Then in 2019 we weakened the 2020 draft by trading the 2nd to move up for McCoy. 2017 we had everything and extra. but every year since we've weakened the next draft trying to catch up.