Saints success with small school players

I'm sure that in the past few years, many of you have noticed the pattern the Saints have, with drafting small school players and developing them into solid NFL players. Going back to Marques Colston, originally a 7th-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft from Hofstra University, who has consistently been a productive receiver and Drew's favorite target.

Jahri Evans- 4th round pick in the 2006 draft from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, a player not many people knew about going into the draft, but has turned into an All-Pro guard who is crucial to the success of the offensive line.

Jermon Bushrod- 4th round pick in the 2007 draft from Towson University. Although he is no longer with the Saints, Bushrod became a Pro Bowl-caliber player with the Saints and earned a huge contract with the Chicago Bears due to his success.

Aside from draft picks, the Saints have had a lot of success with undrafted free agents, the most notable being Pierre Thomas, who has been one of the Saints' leading running backs for the past few years. Two promising players who were undrafted free agents are Travaris Cadet and Joseph Morgan, who have shown promise when they've seen the field.

So I have to give tons of credit to Mickey Loomis, Sean Payton, the Saints' scouting department, and all of their staff in general, for showing a tremendous knack for finding small-school talent and developing players with great potential.

And lastly, even though he didn't come from a small school, Jimmy Graham was a development prospect going into the 2010 Draft, the Saints took a chance on him, and the rest is history :-)