Saints Draft Recap

            As promised from last week, we’re back to recap the Saints 2015 draft. The Saints entered the draft armed with 9 picks, their most since 2002. In an effort to rebound from the disappointment of last season, Saints GM Mickey Loomis aggressively retooled his roster in the offseason. Loomis shipped offensive mainstays Jimmy Graham, Ben Grubbs and Kenny Stills and a 4^th round pick out of town. In return, he got the 31^st pick in the draft, the 78^th pick, the 154^th pick, center Max Unger, and linebacker Dannell Ellerbe. Now let’s see what he did with them.  

Pick- Round-Overall Pick	Player	Position
1-13	Andrus Peat	OT
1-31	Stephone Anthony	ILB
2-44	Hau’Oli Kikaha	OLB
3-75	Garrett Grayson	QB
3-78	P.J. Williams	CB
5-148	Davis Tull	OLB
5-154	Tyeler Davison	DT
5-167	Damian Swann	CB
7-230	Marcus Murphy	RB

Last week, we discussed five areas of need for the Saints: nose tackle, cornerback, linebacker, interior offensive line, and wide receiver. The team spent six of its nine picks on defenders. The Saints aggressively targeted three of these areas. Since it is the top 4 or 5 players who will likely determine the success or failure of the Saints draft, let’s start there.   

1-13: Andrus Peat, offensive tackle: With the departure of Ben Grubbs and with aging starters elsewhere on the offensive line, Peat represents a much needed infusion of youth. Listed as a tackle, Peat will compete with Zach Strief and Terron Armstead to start on one of the two tackle spots. It’s hard to argue with this pick.

1-31: Stephone Anthony, inside linebacker: The Saints linebacking corps desperately needed a boost and Anthony should provide help as an inside run blocker. The Saints finished last in the league against the run according to DVOA last season. This was a solid although not spectacular pick. The Saints had an opportunity to bolster their interior defensive line by taking Malcolm Brown, a 330 lb run stopper from Texas (who went to the Patriots at 32). The Saints addressed defensive tackle later in the draft, but Teyler Davison is more a developmental pick than someone who can come in and start Week 1. The pick of Anthony over Brown suggests that the Saints are satisfied with their current tackles Broderick Bunkley and John Jenkins.

Hau'Oli Kikaha will be lining up for the Saints next year 

2-44: Hau’Oli Kikaha, outside linebacker: Kikaha provides the Saints with another outside rusher capable of sacking the quarterback. Kikaha had 19 sacks at the University of Washington last season. He will line up opposite of Junior Galette and should improve the Saints pass rush that finished 26^th in adjusted sack rate last season accounting for only 34 sacks.

3-75: Garret Grayson, quarterback: Here’s where things start getting interesting for the Saints. In an offseason where GM Mickey Loomis and coach Sean Payton stressed the need to rebuild the defense and expressed faith in their ability to retool the offense on the fly (both of which are very reasonable assumptions), why take a quarterback in the 3^rd round? Especially in a draft widely considered devoid of quarterback talent. Drew Brees has two years left on his contract and if the Saints want to avoid an onerous cap hit, they will likely extend him after next offseason. While his play declined slightly last season, much of that was attributable to bad offense line play and the Saints constantly playing from behind. If the goal is to reinvigorate the defense, why use two of the top four picks on offense?

            The Grayson pick pivots into something that we discussed last week. The ability of the Saints to parlay their nine picks into an asset for next year’s draft. Picking 75^th and then 78^th provided them a great opportunity to trade down and accumulate more picks or acquire extra picks in 2016. Instead the Saints traded into the back end of the 5^th round, trading a 6^th round pick this year and next year to move up. It would have been better to turn these nine picks into more options for next season not fewer.  

The Saints had a good draft. Now it’s up to the coaching staff to develop those draft picks into good players. If they do, the Saints could find themselves Super Bowl contenders once again.