re: We are 5 picks in, no pass rusher

Bobby Hebert is not happy.

I don't think you understand how football works. See the more time a QB has to throw the ball means even longer for the secondary to cover. The QB usually wins that battle.

Did they get a solid LB? Did they get a solid DE?

Yea solid!!!

It's okay, we'll sign 53 year old Dwight Freeney.

I don't think you understand how football works. See the quicker the QB gets the pass off means the less time the rush has to get home. The Oline usually wins that battle.

I swear it's like you guys didn't really watch the D in 2014 or this year. Way too many quick passes to backs and receivers. Coverage upgrade was the only thing we were more desperate for than pass rush.

Yes we still need a blue chip pass rusher, but at least Jordan can turn more of those 60+ pressures into sacks. Hard to get home for any player in under 3 seconds.

Its been debated on here for weeks now... DB vs Pass rush as the highest priority in this years draft and the Saints just answered it these last two days.

What?

Secondary derp.

It's improved, but I wanted two pass rushers in the draft.

I'm thinking we're going to be doing quite a bit of linebacker and safety blitzes to compensate.

I mean just look at their actions. Tried to get Norman. Looked into Hayden. Tried to get the CB from the Rams. Tried for Butler. Drafted a CB first.

Clearly they felt a top end corner was a much bigger need, even though a top end rusher is clearly our second biggest.

But after taking Lattimore we were not getting a top end rusher in this draft (maybe if we traded up for Tak but we didn't want to give up that much capital).

No matter how much any of us liked these 2nd and 3rd round rushers they are not top end. Most won't be better than what we have (at best a lateral move).

A second round pass rusher was not going to save the day. The safety we drafted will have a much bigger impact than any of those guys (no matter how much I liked Willis).

You can argue Basham or Rivers over Analzone, but again those guys are around the level of the guy we got at 103 anyway. Apparently thid kid is very good and just needs to stay healthy. We'll see on that, but are we really going to act like it was that big of a drop off of the rushers taken between 77 and 103?

But ALL of those guys don't "fall" if they weren't overrated by the media. Clearly the teams had them ranked as late second to third rounders.

And I was banging hard for Willis at 42, the trade up, and again at 76 before he was snatched right before us. But he wasn't going to come in and save the pass rush. My hope was he would be a good combo with Kik next year as he played sub this year.

And we still got a guy I can say the same thing about. Neither of them were going to be top end rushers. Hell most people don't think Barnett is, meaning they had exactly two which we had no shot at (though I think both Barnett and Tak can be great, but we went with the bigger need at CB).