The New Orleans Saints Draft: The Score

I probably did so in a previous write-up, but I guess it won’t hurt to say it again: I would like to once again offer my most sincere apologies to the Who Dat nation for being such an avid Robert Meachem fan in last year’s draft.

And while I doubt the team’s brass was paying any mind to what this lonely voice’s chanting for Meachem from the rear of a Saints Draft Fest tent that was drowned out by hollers for “Olsen”, a reference to former University of Miami and now Chicago Bears tight end Greg Olsen.

Meachem proved to be only slightly less productive than Cam Cleeland, as the Tennessee wide-out rode the pine for the entire 2007 regular season.

The prodigal receiver would need to post some solid numbers in 2008 to make fans forgive what currently stands as the team’s worst first-round pick since Jonathan Sullivan. And even if Meachem were to be productive in 2008, that still wouldn’t erase the organization’s opportunity cost from not picking another player, preferably of the defensive back variety, that could have stepped up to the plate last season.

WWL radio’s sports team has been rather tender towards Meachem by mercifully projecting his 2008 emergence as the equivalent of having two number one draft picks hit the field at the same time.

As for the Saints’ true number one pick this year, I could not be happier.

I consider myself an LSU fan, though I don’t mix my love for my alma mater’s football squad with my loyalty to the Saints, the center of my own sports universe. Almost everyone I knew wanted LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey to be scooped up by the Saints.

There’s no denying Dorsey’s contribution to LSU’s national championship team. But I have reservations about his right leg. And I also didn’t see the wisdom of trading away next year’s first round pick when a comparable player might still be available at a discount.

That player is USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, the man I had hoped the Saints would be able to make a play for. The Saints were 19^th in sacks last season with 32. Part of the reason Saints’ secondary looked so bad, aside from the fact they were bad, was the lack of pressure on the quarterback. The more time a quarterback has to pass, the more likely he is going to connect with his receivers and expose exactly what kind of cornerbacks we have.

Hopefully opposing quarterbacks won’t feel so comfortable and relaxed behind their linemen this season.

Ellis is going to be a major component of a revamped Saints defense that should help the team challenge Tampa Bay for the NFC South. And we didn’t have to mortgage our future for it.

Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis deserves much credit for aggressively haggling for the position to nab Ellis and moving the Saints around throughout the draft to score other prospects. He should also be commended for being active in the free agent market. While the “more seasoned” and injury prone players added are band-aid solutions, the Saints’ defense can’t be any worse in 2008 than they were last year.

I reckon I might also be remiss by not offering gratitude to an unlikely source. Had the Saints won the regular season finale at Soldier Field, the team would’ve been originally picking a lot further back than tenth while the Chicago Bears would have been picking much earlier.

Hey Bears fans: Can you say “Pyrrhic victory”? Probably not.

This year’s draft wasn’t sexy, but it addressed the Saints’ needs. I’ll score it a B+.

Au revoir Wilkerson

Kenny Wilkerson, a 17 year veteran of WWL radio departed the station prior to the draft. Reasons for his separation from WWL have not been made public.

I always felt that Wilkerson had contempt for amateur sports analysts by hurrying callers and arrogantly believed Sports Talk listeners cared about the goings on of his farm. My memory banks are still haunted by one broadcast where he talked about a goat for thirty minutes.

Wilkerson was a glaring contrast to the late, great Buddy Diliberto, whose focus was on sports and not his personal life and who was polite and respectful to all callers, not matter how dumb their questions were or their level of inebriation. The harshest the New Orleans broadcasting legend ever got was to dismiss some callers as “squirrels”.

Another possible reason for leaving might have to do with Wilkerson’s previous medical problems. For his sake, I hope Wilkerson left due to professional and not health reasons.

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Mike Bayham is a political consultant in south Louisiana who loves the Saints more than the Republican Party. Every once in a while, he tries to pretend to know something about football. He can be reached at MikeBayham@yahoo.com.

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