re: 25 years ago today Mike Ditka traded our entire draft for Ricky Williams

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he set org back 3 yrs with that draft,

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Not really.

When Ditka was hired in 1996, the Saints had fallen back to their historical place of being a bad franchise. The good Mora run of the late 80's early 90's was over. Williams was picked in the 1999 draft...which was Ditka's 3rd draft. The Saints had gone 6-10 in Ditka's first two seasons. Not good. But not that far off what the team had been in Mora's final few years (7-9, 7-9, 3-13).

I'm sure Ditka felt going into the 1999 season that the Saints had to make a big improvement. At the time RB was still very much viewed as a marquee position. The Saints had the 12th pick in the draft. There was NO expectation a player like Williams would be available at 12. For his part, Williams was coming off a season where the set the NCAA career rushing record and won the Heisman Trophy. I doubt he was even on the Saints' draft radar...until the Colts unexpectedly took Edgerrin James as the first RB off the board at 4. The Saints pounced.

Did they grossly overpay? In hindsight, yes. But it's hard to say it "set the franchise back" 3 years. The 1999 season sucked and Ditka was fired. But the next year Haslett won the NFC West and the Saints first ever playoff game. They then went 7-9, 9-7, 8-8, 8-8 before Katrina hit. Not "good" by any means. But better than they had been between 1994-1999