Purposeful passing on guards in the draft?

Yeah I figured once we passed in the second twice we would likely skip it in the draft. I thought maybe when we traded up in the fourth, but nope.

Guards are not a high-demand position, like left tackles, shutdown corners, edge rushers, and franchise QBs. It's possibly the least-demanded position outside of special teams, except for maybe safety.

Unless you're getting a Will Shields/Randall McDaniel/Nate Newton, you don't have to go high to get one.

I rewatched this presser. Some good insights from 13:00. Payton talked about trying to sign A
Arian Foster as a UDFA

then saw...

LINK

UDFAs was our best option!

I hope it works out, but It's far more likely that these players are below average.

I don't get the gamble when our offense is guaranteed to be great with a strong line.

...unless it's Peat next year. He needs a jump and we could address OG next offseason.

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If this is such a good strategy, then why draft anyone. Just wait until the draft is over, and contact all the UDFA's you'd like.

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If this is such a good strategy, then why draft anyone. Just wait until the draft is over, and contact all the UDFA's you'd like

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Well, you have to consider the talent pool.

If you have someone who really stands above the others at a position, you draft him.

If there are 3 still on the board when you draft, you might let it slide until the next round, figuring 1 will still be there next time, and pick someone else instead.

This seems to have happened all the way down the line, and we signed several as UDFA's.

If Rounds 1-4 are so much better than 5-7, then draft a guard with 3 or 4. Don't trade UP for onyamamma when you NEED a guard.
Drafting no guard, so you can hand select all the UDFAs you want is not a good strategy. There is a reason all teams passed on them for 7 rounds. Maybe the Saints get lucky with the UDFAs.
The number of times Brees gets sacked/hit will determine if this drafting method works. It didn't work well last year.

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The only flaw with saying "trade up to get a guard", there were none worth taking at that point. The closest worthy guard was whitehair and we took michael thomas.

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I would have been fine with either of them at that spot. But I feel like Thomas could really pay off here. I don't know if I've ever been so excited recently at a WR picked in the draft for the Saints as I am with him.

when we picked Cooks I was kind of ticked we traded up to get him and gave up a 3rd but at the same time understood we needed an explosive WR like him.

the last time I can remember us picking a guard prospect that high was LeCharles Bentley also from Ohio St ironically.

with Thomas we needed a bigger WR to step in and replace Colston. Maybe Coleman does more this year or maybe he doesn't. But picking Thomas was a solid pick in my opinion.

not saying it happened but can imagine in the draft room they saw in the 6th or 7th round that there were definitely several draftable guards that were being pushed down the board and would be available. I also do not doubt that in some predraft conversations they get a good read on which players really want to play in NOLA.

This class was noted by several publication as being the best, or among the best, this year in the NFL. For me, any UDFA that even makes the roster is a big win. I seriously expect one of these guys to make it as a swing guard-center at minimum.

Seems to really be working out for us