re: Draft needs post halfway point of season

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Draft needs

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2. Guard
3. IOL (C w G versatility)

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frick no. FA or 5th-7th rd.

1. CB
2. CB
3. S
4. DT
5. LB
6. DE

I don't think we need a RB, maybe a mid-late draft flyer. Lock up Estime and you have Estime/ Etienne punch for a few years. Just beef up the OL.

Yeah I think with the new NFL…having elite CB play is more of a luxury than a necessity like in year’s past. We can probably get by with just signing someone like Fulton. I’d rather build back to front and we need help on the interior DL but like I said earlier, I think we address that in FA.

OL is interesting because I don’t really want to invest in that with our first OR second round pick but I think adding a Center in the third round is the right move with McCoy. Who knows if he hangs it up or if the Saints just would rather move on. If he does retire, maybe they add a cheap vet like Ted Karras for a year. Idk.

I think if they can be aggressive in FA they can find longterm answers at DL and add pieces to the secondary and OL to allow them to just draft talent regardless of position this year.

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Will Echols, top DT and a great fit Chris Cole, top LB

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These are my guys right now because I just don’t know if we’ll suck enough to pick top 5 to grab Simmons/Stewart/Moore.

Even if we signed Ojomo, I’d be down for drafting Echols too. He’s dominant. And right now elite interior DL play is probably the second most important part of a defense behind pass rush. But I’d be intrigued by Cole. Smart. Athletic as hell and just as good in pass coverage as he is in run D. Good blitzer too. Not a lot of flaws to his game and it’s past time we upgraded from Werner.

We just need talent man. This is a good FA class. Don’t have THAT much cap space in 27 but we have a shitload in 28. Even when we extend Chase Young to $45M after this year and calculating restructures for 27, we would still have close to $120+ in cap space. If it weren’t for the inevitable Young extension and restructures, it would be $180M in cap.

We really don’t have a lot of guys signed longterm outside of Olave and eventually Young. So they need to be aggressive with this good crop of FAs upcoming, even if the contracts are a little backloaded to where the chunk of money paid is in 2028

We took a te in the 3rd when cb was an obvious need lol

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I would feel better about what we can do in free agency because there is more money to spend unlike previous years.

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Exactly. Projections via Spotrac & other sites show about $28.2M available this offseason. Couple that opportunity with a quality draft, and we can quickly add more talent to our roster. Need continued development from our younger players. No reason we can't be very competitive next season in the NFC South & overall in the NFC.

Werner looked horrible on that weak arse attempt on the TE td run. DB sure but a vet Lber?

something to keep in mind. The Senior Bowl and the combine are fixing to less relevant than they already are.

this is just me talking so I'll probably eat my words but I'm looking at how greedy the college game is becoming. Think about next year when they go to a totally retarded 24 playoff format. It's going to give these guys less incentive to perform during the weeks headed into the draft,

We've already seen guys not wanting to test or not do certain drill at the combine and the Senior Bowl some guys just come for the interviews. Like Rueben Bain but he wasn't far removed from a long season.

And the ones that do practice all week may not play in the game. That isn't a huge deal, but I've been watching this all-star game and going to practices for years and it's crazy how much it has changed. And more change is coming Brother

I think the Saints need to lean on free agency a little more. The draft is also not as deep as it once was. Why would it be if you can stay in college and transfer somewhere else to play more and get paid?

There is so much more development needed out the college players these days.