Video Tree offers his retrospective on the Ricky Williams trade (1 Viewer)

[tim martin]

Not only that but Ricky was in the top 20 all time for rushing yards when he retired. If the NFL didn't test for weed back then there's a good chance he would have been top 10, possibly a hall of famer. He was a very good running back. It was just stupid of Ditka to tell the whole world who he wanted and how much he would pay.

He absolutely would have been a hall of famer and was most likely the best rb the saints ever had. We just didn’t keep him that long

 

[rsmith2783]

He absolutely would have been a hall of famer and was most likely the best rb the saints ever had. We just didn’t keep him that long

It's odd though because it's a Night and Day difference between the RB he was while he was here vs the player he was in Miami. I mean totally unrecognizable.
A difference though is that the OC he had in Miami was RB friendly. Here, not much..

 

[tim martin]

It's odd though because it's a Night and Day difference between the RB he was while he was here vs the player he was in Miami. I mean totally unrecognizable.
A difference though is that the OC he had in Miami was RB friendly. Here, not much..

Ya he was banged up a lot here too because we misused him and had the worst offense of all time lol

 

[Jesse Custer]

Ya he was banged up a lot here too because we misused him and had the worst offense of all time lol

I really enjoyed Tree saying two Billy Joes was three too many. Rare that someone outside the fanbase says exactly what most of us thought. God, I still remember arguing with people about which was the superior Billy Joe.

 

[gavinj]

You can add Kyle Turley to the partnership as well. Ditka said when he drafted Jimbo Covert #1 overall in 1983
the Bears fortunes began to change. Ditka was trying to build the Saints the same way. Unfortunately for us
Turley wasn't quite as good as Covert.

Ditka had one of the best GMs in nfl history when he was in Chicago. Jim Finks. Then we had Bill Kuharich, not the greatest GM in history, hire Ditka and just gave him total control lol

 

[faceman]

Ditka had one of the best GMs in nfl history when he was in Chicago. Jim Finks. Then we had Bill Kuharich, not the greatest GM in history, hire Ditka and just gave him total control lol

I knew we made a mistake with Ditka when he left Kevin Mawae waiting at the airport while he went and played
a round of golf. Mawae wanted to play for his home town team. Ditka blew him off and he took the next flight
to NY and signed with the Jets. Mawae now has a bust in Canton.. I wouldn't give Ditka total control of sweeping
the floors.

 

[DerrickB]

They thought Ricky was going to break Eric Dickerson's record during his rookie season.

 

[Saint Jack]

Love his videos, but I’m glad the Saints haven’t been in the position for him to make an entire retrospective of the franchise.

 

[rsmith2783]

I really enjoyed Tree saying two Billy Joes was three too many. Rare that someone outside the fanbase says exactly what most of us thought. God, I still remember arguing with people about which was the superior Billy Joe.

Billy Joe Tolliver. No QB succeeded in Ditka's system but he definitely looked more like a pro QB than Hobert.

 

[GeauxSainz]

Which one of y'all is immortal?

 

[Hedon James]

I really enjoyed Tree saying two Billy Joes was three too many. Rare that someone outside the fanbase says exactly what most of us thought. God, I still remember arguing with people about which was the superior Billy Joe.

Wasn't it Hobert who used to say "tee it high and let it fly"? Who uses golf-isms to describe their football philosophies? He probably should have stuck to golf.

To put it all in perspective, both Billy Joes were supplanted by Danny Wuerffel (Woeful), which resulted in this:

Thanks for jogging the Billy Joe memories. After 16 years of CSP and Brees, I thought I had put all that in the rearview mirror. Now, I think I'm going to require therapy all over again.

 

[UFCSaint]

Remember that day like it was yesterday , I was all for the trade after the years of misery I was just happy someone was trying atleast instead of the same old same old.... granted looking back it was an absolute failure big time

Yep that is pretty much how I looked at it. I figured Ditka would screw up the other picks anyway so why not go for one sure thing. Unfortunately that was my first exposure with a player checking all of the boxes you want...except the mental one.

 

[sainthood]

Didn’t we get 2 number ones back when we traded him to Miami? Seems like we did. If I’m remembering correctly, it wasn’t as bad as it’s made out to be considering the return we got a few years later.

Everyone going into that draft had Williams going as high as two to the Eagles who took Donovan McNabb. When the Colts took Edjarin James at 4 over Williams, Ditka's trade was accepted. The Saints had presumably somehow a larger offer to the Bengals at 3 who made the full Bengal by taking Akili Smith over the trade. Ditka was a drafting idiot so whomever would have gotten selected with the rest of our picks, they likely would have been failures. The biggest cost of trading up from 12 to 5 was giving up the #2 overall pick in the next year's draft that became Lavar Arrington. Ditka was fired at that point with Jim Haslett taking the head job. We took Darren Howard at the top of the second round that year.

I believe the year after that Deuce McCallister was projected to be a potential top 10 pick and dropped to the early twenties for us. Between Williams' injuries and the fact he was a Ditka pick opened a cracked door for Williams' exit. Saints traded Williams for two first round draft picks to Miami. (The second first was a conditional third that turned into a first after Williams had a 2,000 yard season or something crazy like that.) In 2022 we drafted Charles Grant with the first pick from the Dolphins. In 2003 we traded up with the second one of those picks and our pick to the Cardinals from the teens into the sixth pick and drafted bust among busts defensive tackle Jonathan Sullivan after Minnesota took Kevin Williams.

Traded to New Orleans

• 1999 first round pick (5th overall, Ricky Williams)[13]

Traded to Washington[13]

• 1999 first round pick (12th overall, later traded to Chicago, used to select Cade McNown)[14]
• 1999 third round pick (71st overall, later traded to Chicago, used to select D'Wayne Bates)[14]
• 1999 fourth round pick (107th overall, used to select Nate Stimson)[15]
• 1999 fifth round pick (144th overall, later traded to Chicago, used to select Khari Samuel)[16]
• 1999 sixth round pick (179th overall, later traded to Denver, used to select Desmond Clark)[15]
• 1999 seventh round pick (218th overall, later traded to Denver, used to select Billy Miller)[15]
• 2000 first round pick (2nd overall, used to select LaVar Arrington)[13]

• 2000 third round pick (64th overall, used to select Lloyd Harrison)[13]

 

[Hedon James]

Everyone going into that draft had Williams going as high as two to the Eagles who took Donovan McNabb. When the Colts took Edjarin James at 4 over Williams, Ditka's trade was accepted. The Saints had presumably somehow a larger offer to the Bengals at 3 who made the full Bengal by taking Akili Smith over the trade. Ditka was a drafting idiot so whomever would have gotten selected with the rest of our picks, they likely would have been failures. The biggest cost of trading up from 12 to 5 was giving up the #2 overall pick in the next year's draft that became Lavar Arrington. Ditka was fired at that point with Jim Haslett taking the head job. We took Darren Howard at the top of the second round that year.

I believe the year after that Deuce McCallister was projected to be a potential top 10 pick and dropped to the early twenties for us. Between Williams' injuries and the fact he was a Ditka pick opened a cracked door for Williams' exit. Saints traded Williams for two first round draft picks to Miami. (The second first was a conditional third that turned into a first after Williams had a 2,000 yard season or something crazy like that.) In 2022 we drafted Charles Grant with the first pick from the Dolphins. In 2003 we traded up with the second one of those picks and our pick to the Cardinals from the teens into the sixth pick and drafted bust among busts defensive tackle Jonathan Sullivan after Minnesota took Kevin Williams.

Traded to New Orleans

• 1999 first round pick (5th overall, Ricky Williams)[13]

Traded to Washington[13]

• 1999 first round pick (12th overall, later traded to Chicago, used to select Cade McNown)[14]
• 1999 third round pick (71st overall, later traded to Chicago, used to select D'Wayne Bates)[14]
• 1999 fourth round pick (107th overall, used to select Nate Stimson)[15]
• 1999 fifth round pick (144th overall, later traded to Chicago, used to select Khari Samuel)[16]
• 1999 sixth round pick (179th overall, later traded to Denver, used to select Desmond Clark)[15]
• 1999 seventh round pick (218th overall, later traded to Denver, used to select Billy Miller)[15]
• 2000 first round pick (2nd overall, used to select LaVar Arrington)[13]

• 2000 third round pick (64th overall, used to select Lloyd Harrison)[13]

Wow...good stuff there Sainthood! If you take LaVar Arrington off that list, I'd argue we won that trade, despite all we gave up. But Arrington IS on that list and only serves as a coulda/woulda/shoulda reminder as to why you do NOT trade future 1st rounders to move up in the current draft. LaVar coulda been a Saint....with the Saints rich history at LB, who's to say Lavar in B&G wouldn't have had a "Ray Lewis" effect on the team, and lifted the entire franchise around him. Of course, LaVar could've languished in NO and become a bust.....but any selection we would have made could have achieved that status. But we lost the opportunity to see if LaVar could've resurrected the Dome Patrol and restored the Saints to prominence, long before CSP and Brees arrived. Ahhh yes....the "what ifs"....

 

[IceHot]

I hate when they leave out some context from 1999.

Ricky Willams is not the only player we acquired with our 1999 Draft Picks.

You will notice Washington did not get our 2nd round pick because we used it on WR Eddie Kennison

The trade was still awful but that draft class wasnt great to begin with. Most of the picks from 12 to 31 weren't great. The best options from 12 to 31 were...

QB Cade McNown
DT Booger McFarland
DE Jevon Kearse
C Damien Woody
CB Antoine Winfield
CB Fernando Bryant

We didnt have a 2nd round pick but we might have also acquired a 3rd round pick from....

LB Joey Porter
TE Dan Campbell
WR Marty Booker
K Martin Gramatica
LB Dat Nguyen
CB Mike McKenzie

From the 4th round on I doubt it mattered. We ended up with the cream of the crop 4th Rounder Aaron Brooks anyway.

I doubt we would have drafted better in 1999 as I dont see us making any of those picks other than perhaps Cade McNown if we stood pat. But giving up 2 more first rounders - that is much harder to swallow.

I think the 1999 draft is one of the best reason to throw your needs and wants out the window and look at every player in the draft regardless of played position.