Cool Story Bro Monday RE: Armstead

Be nice, Patty. Brett is good people. Look at this as an opportunity to discuss the fact a rising beast on the O-line.

We cannot annoit him as the LT savior yet but it sure looks good. Armstead as a #75 pick to starting left tackle is the kinda pick that makes champions.

Stills chosen #144 with 32 catches and 20 ypc could be Colston-like golden

Akiem Hicks a #89 selection, arrow is still pointing further up

Jimmy Graham #95 pick turns into a dominant NFL force

Carl Nicks #164 was an incredible score on taking a risk on off field issues

Morstead was derided as a 5th Rd pick. No one spends 5ths on punters. One play called Ambush might have been worth a 5th Rd pick by itself.

Bushrod has been a starting LT in the NFL for 5 years now after waiting until #125 to get drafted

Jahri Evans is likely to be in the Saints HOF as a #108 pick

from a scouting report on Armstead before last draft-

Members of the SWAC weren't the least bit surprised by his success. He's been a dominant force at this level throughout his career, earning all-conference honors following each of the past three seasons. He was a highly regarded prep prospect but elected to sign with Arkansas Pine-Bluff because it was the only university willing to allow him to compete in both football and track. It isn't difficult to understand why Armstead might want to pursue his opportunities in track and field... despite only participating in the sport for two years, he won the state championship in shot put (long was 62'3").

Shockingly athletic and having established that he can play with anyone, Armstead might be the best offensive tackle no one is talking about... yet

-reminds me of Hicks. Some go Regina where?! But he was a highly sought after college recruit who things didn't work out for.

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blueslover

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Good stuff. Yeah, we have an unbelievable ability to turn mid/late round picks into gold. Yet for some reason, we struggle in the 1st Round. It's not that every pick has been awful, but if we're this good at finding these diamonds in the 4th-7th rounds or UDFA market, it does make me wonder why we don't have more success with our early picks.

Look at our picks since 2006-

2006: Reggie Bush. Can't really fault the FO here, though I suspect there are a lot of Reggie haters here.

2007: Robert Meachem. Contributor at best, had some great moments but never panned out to a first round promise. Without Drew to make him look good, he was pedestrian. And I'm being nice here.

2008: Sedrick Ellis. At number 7, we dropped the ball here. We actually traded up with the Patriots to get Ellis. And who did the Pats take behind us? Jerod Mayo. Complete trade rape. Let us not forget that we actually tried to trade up even higher to get Glenn Dorsey. Yikes.

2009: Malcolm Jenkins. Other than the injuries or the fact that he can't tackle, he's a pretty good defensive back. Uh, wait. Couple that with the fact that Brian Cushing went with the very next pick, and his name still makes my stomach hurt.

2010: Patrick Robinson. Not an awful pick, especially with the 32nd overall. However, three years into the P-Rob experiment I've seen nothing making him a first round talent.

2011: Cameron Jordan. Great pick here. He's grown into his position and he'll continue to dominate under Ryan's schemes.

2011: Mark Ingram. Considering that we traded up to get him and gave up an additional 2nd rounder away for him, I'd say Ingram hasn't lived up to his promise. Is he awful? No. But he hasn't been the missing piece of the puzzle or anything resembling a game changer at his position. And that's being polite. We could have got Demarco Murray at #71, or Stevan Ridley at #73 and been just as good or better.

2013: Kenny Vaccaro. Looks to be the real deal and worth every bit of that #15 overall pick.

By my count, that's two (three, if you count Bush)of eight that have delivered expected first round results since 2006. Again, not bad, but considering what we do with our mid/late round picks, I wonder why we swing and miss so much early on.

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many good players come from later rounds and even undrafted, and that's not just with our team.

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But more with the Saints than most teams.

check the series by this guy at NFP bone and Number9 if ya haven't. THIS ONE looks at teams drafting efficiency. The Saints are in the bottom quarter of results of players from Rounds 1-3 (since 2004). They are #1 for 4th to 7th Rd.

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don't think anyone can doubt the teams ability to pick up O line talent.

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'Cept Brown.

Yeah I saw and discussed it when you first posted it. Good stuff.

Part of our early "struggles" is the fact that we have also had less top picks than most other teams(in part to bounty gate, but also in part because of the Ellis and Ingram trades). I think the Skins are the only team to have less.

It actually confirms what I've been saying about the Patriots also. They are one of the most inefficient teams when it comes to drafting, despite the media perception that they are one of the best.

the Pats are the creme de la creme at ACQUIRING draft picks- not making the picks. The more picks ya have the more chance of success. So with them having some nice picks from more selections the press turns the narrative into them being a great drafting team.

What a story. Im so flacid right now.....