re: Underhill: Saints do not have LSU bias, the numbers say

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The fact is, New Orleans would like to have more Tigers around. It just hasn’t worked out that way.

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Duh. Anyone who believes otherwise is a complete mouthbreather. It is so dumb.

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Most uninteresting topic ever

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Have stretch it out until the drafts.


The barrage of mock draft threads hasn't really hit yet, so we're stuck with this.

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You retards are STILL talking about this? Get a brain.

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Some people on here are going to take that shite to the grave. No amount of facts will change their mind.

Welp, I guess I guessed wrong. Either way, I don't mind. We've got some talent, and it doesn't matter where they come from.

I think the problem is that there is a difference between the current era Saints and all-time Saints. There is also a major difference with drafting a player versus signing them as an Undrafted free agent. One of those comes at a cost, while the other is free negotiation.

In the time that Payton has been here, they've drafted 1 LSU player and as others mentioned it was Al Woods, which was a horrible pick. Of all the talent LSU has put into the NFL the past 15+ years, that is who you pick?

Now, if you want to look at it statistically, I don't think counting practice squad guys should be a part of this. It should either be players drafted or that have been on the active roster at least once for the team.

If you try to statistically analyze it, there are way too many players and schools involved to prove a statistical bias (thus why it is so low), but those claiming the Saints have a bias are referring to recent history, not all-time.

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I swear, can we get over Collins?

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People should, because he fricking sucks.

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those claiming the Saints have a bias are referring to recent history

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Fine, let's look at that. Taking the last 6 years into consideration, let's look at the LSU players drafted in the first 3 rounds (because after that it becomes increasingly more of a crap shoot and I don't feel like spending hours on this) and compare them to the Saints picks or opportunity to pick that LSU player.

2012: 4 LSU players drafted in the first 3 rounds.
-Claiborne at #6, Brockers at #14, Randle at #63, Taylor at #73. The Saints had no shot at any of these players as their first pick that year was pick #89 in the third round (Hicks). No evidence of any bias.

2013: 6 LSU players drafted in the first 3 rounds.
-Mingo was drafted at #6, before the Saints' first pick at #15. No shot = No bias.
-Reid was drafted at #18, Saints picked Vacarro instead because they had him rated higher. I'll give you this one as possible evidence of bias.
-Minter (45), Logan (67), and Mathieu (69) were all drafted before the Saints' next pick at 75 (Armstead). No evidence of any bias.
-Montgomery was drafted at #95. Saints picked Armstead (75) and Jenkins (82) over him. Both better picks = no bias.

2014: 5 LSU players drafted in the first 3 rounds
-OBJ drafted at #12, 8 picks before the Saints' first pick. No shot = no bias.
-Saints picked Cooks (20) over Ferguson (51) and Hill (55). Both better picks = no bias.
-Saints picked Jean-Baptiste (58) over Landry (63) and Turner (92). In hind sight, this one looks really bad - we'd all prefer either of those players over SJB. I'll give you this one for the possible bias, but at the time, everyone (including many on this board) were really high on SJB as the next Sherman.

2015: 2 LSU players drafted in the first 3 rounds.
-Saints picked Peat (13) and Anthony (31) over Collins (42). Anthony was a bad pick in hind sight, but at the time most loved him. Collins hasn't done much. I don't see any evidence of bias here.
-Saints picked Grayson (75) and Williams (78) over Hunter (88). Hunter has been solid while Grayson hasn't and Williams is contributing, but hasn't been great. I'll give you this one as possible evidence of bias.

2016: 1 LSU player drafted in the first 3 rounds
-Saints picked Rankins (12) and Thomas (47) over Jones (52). All 3 of these are great players so far. Everyone would love to have Jones, but would you argue giving up Rankins or Thomas for him? No clear evidence for bias.

2017: 6 LSU players drafted in the first 3 rounds
-Fournette (4) and Adams (6) were both drafted before the Saints' first pick at 11. No shot = no bias.
-Saints pick Lattimore (11) over White (27). Some will argue this one, but Lattimore was the consensus best CB in the draft and the reigning DROY. No clear evidence for bias.
-Saints picked Ramczyk (32) and Williams (42) over Pocic. Would you really trade either of those players for Pocic? No clear evidence for bias.
-Saints drafted Kamara (67) over Riley (75). Nobody would argue this one. Furthermore, Riley was drafted 1 pick ahead of the Saints selecting Anzalone. I have it on good authority that Riley was shopping for houses in New Orleans before he was picked one spot ahead of us - they were going to get him. No clear evidence for bias.
-Saints picked Hendrickson (103) over Beckwith (107). I've been very impressed with Hendrickson, but this one is a matter of opinion. Beckwith has much more sacks, but he's a linebacker. While Hendrickson has TWICE as many sacks (2 vs 1) as Beckwith. Again, this one is too early to tell and is a matter of opinion. No clear evidence for bias.

In conclusion, that's 4 LSU players (Reid, Landry, Turner, Hunter) that you could MAYBE argue that the Saints passed on. But that also leaves 20 LSU players that they either had no shot at or them passing makes perfect sense. If you think that's a clear bias, then I don't know what to tell you, but I don't think there is any bias here.

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I think the Saints could possibly have taken Landry at their spot in the 2nd, however, we had just traded up to get Cooks in the 1st round. Gave up our 3rd in that process. If we took Landry there we would have left the first 3 rounds with just 2 WRs. Not optimal.

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Very good point. I didn't think of that. We had already drafted what most thought was a better WR in Cooks, so we wouldn't have drafted another WR.

And then there were 3.

Also, Turner wouldn't have made a ton of sense since our line was pretty settled at that point with Armstead, Grubbs, Goodwin, Evans, and Streif. Meanwhile, we needed help badly in the secondary.

And then there were 2.

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3) Fans are just more familiar with the players and it makes an impact when they arent picked. (Quick! tell me all of the Notre Dame players we pass on!)

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This