Chiming in on the Saints' Draft!

Well, it only took three f*cking days, didn't it?

Ralph Malbrough at WWLTV.com has posted his thoughts on the Saints' '08 draft:

Did the Saints get lucky when their school girl crush for Glenn Dorsey was rebuffed by the Kansas City Chiefs?

For the record, I’m not knocking the infatuation. If you read this column, then you know I was all for the Saints moving up to get Dorsey but even my love for Dorsey didn’t include parting with a 2009 1st round pick. By the way the Chiefs were incredibly stupid not to accept the Saints offer. While Dorsey will probably be spectacular the Chiefs are so far from being good an extra 1st round pick next year was something they shouldn’t have passed on.

So instead of Dorsey the Saints swapped picks with New England and selected Sedrick Ellis from USC. If the experts are right then it’s a really solid move.

Five years ago when the Saints moved up to draft Johnathan Sullivan I don’t recall Mel Kiper or Mike Detillier saying once Sullivan got his money he would take fat and lazy to a whole other level so let’s hold off on calling Saturday’s move brilliant.

I just wonder in a few years if Saints fans will be lamenting the fact Dorsey got away or laughing how lucky the Saints were to get their second choice?

The rest of the Saints draft is like any other in that we have absolutely no idea what they got.

2nd round pick Tracy Porter can fly but is undersized and can’t tackle according to Mel Kiper but Deion Sanders will go in the Hall of Fame never making a tackle except by accident. The Saints need corners that can cover. Tackling is just a nice bonus.

Two other interesting things from the Saints draft happened that are concerning.

They still don’t have a really good tight end because the trade for Jeremy Shockey never happened and they didn’t draft one. The Saints offense will never be great without a good tight end. Plus, the key to winning the NFC South is beating Tampa. To beat Tampa you have to solve the Cover-Two defense.

You do that by either having a power running game or throwing to the tight end in the middle of the field vertically.

When Deuce was healthy the Saints would pound him at the Tampa front to soften the defense but counting on a healthy Deuce doesn’t seem realistic and the Saints still lack a tight end threat.

Call me concerned.

If you disagree re-watch the Colts and first Tampa Bay game from last season. The Saints struggle big time against fast cover two teams.

The second thing that happened was to me way more troubling: The Saints drafted a kicker.

This means I may be deprived of enjoying a full season of the human bobble head known as Martin Gramatica. Do you realize if Taylor Mehlhaff beats out Gramatica we won’t get to enjoy seeing Gramatica celebrating 30yard 1st quarter field goals like he just won the World Cup?

This is completely unacceptable.

The summer kicking competition is Good (Gramatica) vs. Evil (Mehlhaff).

It’s nothing personal Taylor, it’s just Gramatica is comedy gold.

Ralph Malbrough is a Saints and Hornets fan living in Houston. He can be reached at ralphmalbrough@hotmail.com