2024 Draft Thread

[tyler735]

This season is looking like it's well on its way to being another big let down, so might as well start this draft thread a little earlier than usual. Seems there is a good possibility we will be picking fairly high in the 2024 draft. Given the current trajectory of this team, a substantial overhaul could be coming from coaches to even QB. This draft class looks to be loaded with talented QB's. Very possible we see 5 taken in the first round depending on who declares. 

A QB generating a ton of buzz that could be available when we pick is Jayden Daniels. Elite athlete for the position and has really developed into a good passer. Would be fun to finally have a true dynamic threat at QB that is good enough to beat you both as a passer and as a runner. Plus the guy plays at LSU, which doesn't hurt either. Interestingly enough, PFF just did a mock draft and has us taking Jayden Daniels as well. 

 

https://www.pff.com/news/draft-2024-nfl-mock-draft-four-quarterbacks-first-round-caleb-williams-bears-drake-maye-patriots

"9. NEW ORLEANS SAINTS: QB JAYDEN DANIELS, LSU

• Record: 5-7
• Player ADP (via MDS): 20.3
• Player Big board rank: 22

The Saints are still just one game back from the NFC South lead and hosting a playoff game, but they are far too inconsistent (and far too frustrating) to feel confident about them beyond this season. They need a complete and total reset, and that means picking a quarterback.

Daniels is the biggest riser in the draft class to this point. An afterthought for many going into the year, Daniels had a Heisman-worthy season at LSU. He recorded elite season grades as a passer and a runner to garner the top overall quarterback grade in the FBS (94.7). He has drastically improved both how he takes care of the football (see 2022) and how he sees the field and executes big-time plays (see 2023)."

Edited December 4, 2023 by tyler735

[Mid Iowa]

I like the Daniels possibility.

We also need O-line, D-end and an Edge rusher, Linebacker help, TE, and another WR (or 2).

It'll be interesting to see what we can accomplish in Free Agency, and of course, we may be drafting to a different coaching style.

[Raves]

13 minutes ago, Mid Iowa said:

I like the Daniels possibility.

We also need O-line, D-end and an Edge rusher, Linebacker help, TE, and another WR (or 2).

It'll be interesting to see what we can accomplish in Free Agency, and of course, we may be drafting to a different coaching style.

This is by far the biggest deciding factor in all this.  Keeping Allen, don't draft a QB just get the best talent available because he's not going to last past 3 years.  No Allen, then I think a lot more is on the table.

[SWATcha]

If Daniels wins the Heisman (he is odds on favorite), how do you think that is going to impact his draft status? I'm not so sure the Saints would have a shot at drafting him without trading up. (Unless 🙏🙏🙏 they lose the rest of their games)

[Jlowe22]

7 hours ago, SWATcha said:

If Daniels wins the Heisman (he is odds on favorite), how do you think that is going to impact his draft status? I'm not so sure the Saints would have a shot at drafting him without trading up. (Unless 🙏🙏🙏 they lose the rest of their games)

Too good to get a high draft pick, too bad to be worth watching much.

[tyler735]

On 12/8/2023 at 11:58 AM, SWATcha said:

If Daniels wins the Heisman (he is odds on favorite), how do you think that is going to impact his draft status? I'm not so sure the Saints would have a shot at drafting him without trading up. (Unless 🙏🙏🙏 they lose the rest of their games)

There is some hope still. As it stands, Caleb Williams and Drake Maye appear to be the top 2 QB choices. Likely the Bears and Patriots take those 2 QB's with the first 2 picks. We currently are at the 12th overall pick after the win yesterday, but could easily end up picking 6-10 if we lose a few games to close out the season. 

As it stands, the following teams currently picking ahead of us will likely (or potentially***) be looking for a QB this offseason.

Bears- Caleb Williams

Patriots- Drake Maye

Giants- Currently 5th overall pick with a 4-8 record. A Giants win tonight would be huge.

Tennessee***- Good chance they give Levis another season as long as he isn't terrible down the stretch. 6th overall pick currently

Raiders- Currently 8th overall pick with a 5-8 record

Atlanta***- If Ridder plays decent down the stretch they could give him another season. Currently 6-7 and 1 pick ahead of us (11th overall).

Our strength of schedule is currently the 2nd worst in the NFL. Losses to the Falcons and Giants in the next few weeks would likely shoot us up the draft board and put us in a good position to draft Jayden Daniels, or at the very least be in a solid position to trade up for him. It's basically the Giants and Raiders as the 2 teams we would likely need to get ahead of for Daniels. This is also assuming Michael Penix isn't higher on some teams draft boards this offseason. The Justin Fields situation also is likely going to come into play here as well. A team looking for a QB is undoubtedly going to be looking to trade for Fields once the Bears inevitably draft Caleb Williams. Could definitely see the Giants, Raiders, and Saints all being potential teams interested in Fields. More so the Giants and Raiders given the contract we have with Carr and our cap situation. A rookie QB for us seems more plausible simply for cap reasons alone. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by tyler735

[Mid Iowa]

8 hours ago, tyler735 said:

Atlanta***- If Ridder plays decent down the stretch they could give him another season. Currently 6-7 and 1 pick ahead of us (11th overall).

How is Atlanta 1 pick ahead of us? Don't they currently hold the tie-breaker over us?

A trade up would be brutal for us. We only have 5 picks. 1st, Denver's 2nd, no 3rd or 4th, then 5th, 6th, 7th. We'd have to dip into our 2025 picks to move up much.

I can't believe how much we traded for Davenport and Penning. 2 big misses.

[tyler735]

13 hours ago, Mid Iowa said:

How is Atlanta 1 pick ahead of us? Don't they currently hold the tie-breaker over us?

I'm not entirely sure to be honest looks like strength of schedule might be the metric to determine. The website Tankathon has us picking right after Atlanta.

https://www.tankathon.com/nfl

The 2 Monday night games worked in our favor last night with Tennesse and New York winning. It's going to be a wild ride the rest of the season. We either win the division with a couple more wins, or with a couple losses, we could be potentially picking in the 6-10 range. Had we lost to the Panthers, I believe we would have been sitting at pick number 5 right now based off strength of schedule. 

Edited December 12, 2023 by tyler735

[Mid Iowa]

On 12/12/2023 at 10:07 AM, tyler735 said:

with a couple losses, we could be potentially picking in the 6-10 range. Had we lost to the Panthers, I believe we would have been sitting at pick number 5 right now based off strength of schedule. 

I know neither of us like losing, and at this point, it's a "what have you got to lose" situation. They're literally playing for pride at this point, and apparently they're short on that.

Thanks for the info, Sir.

[Raves]

If only our coaching staff wasn't so incompetent.  We obviously have the talent to be a much better team, that's why even looking at mock drafts is frustrating because it's like "do we really need a guy at that spot?"

WR?  Well we got Olave and Shaheed under contract that are already proven commodities and while Perry has been stepping it up as of late and we might even be able to resign Michael Thomas to a reasonable contract after this year.

RB?  Kamara is off suspension and doing Kamara things.  Williams hasn't been as productive as we'd like but that's probably partly due to coaching and our OL being injured and inconsistent.  Miller also has shown lots of flashes when healthy and given a chance.

TE?  Whether it's play design or because Moreau seems to have butter fingers and Johnson has had injury issues, we barely see much action for TEs outside of Graham in the redzone.

QB?  One of the only spots I see drafting a player high has some value as although Carr has had some problems, he's still not as bad as the past few years.

OL?  Most of the problems comes from players being injured across the OL.  Ruiz is good, Ramzy is good, McCoy is good, but the left side has issues at the very least with injury at worst talent.  Penning's struggles means he might be best moved to OG so drafting an OT here might work as at worst it provides additional OL depth since no one seems to stay healthy.

DL?  Our DTs have been surprising solid even though our starters didn't used to be starters, Bresee has looked very disruptive, Granderson is looking good, Jordan is aging but we have lots of guys in the wings to try and make a push with Kaipponsagangaobotniothoiga, Turner, and Foskey.

LB?  Probably one of the spots we might want to look to future proof.  Davis is still a beast and Werner has played well, but we still struggle with mobile QBs, might be a scheme thing, might be that our players need some more athleticism and youth.

CB?  Another spot where it's like do we really need more players if healthy?  Lattimore is a shutdown #1, Adebo and Taylor though sometimes inconsistent are both easily #2 caliber CBs but at #4 with Yaidum it gets sketchy... but is drafting high for a #4 CB worth it?  Though it could push Adebo and Taylor back a spot.

S?  Mathieu is getting up there in age and might need a replacement eventually and Maye is meh.  Howden showed flashes when he got a chance, a few missed chances too but he's a rookie.  Might be worth investing a high pick?

But honestly I still don't know if our teams struggles is due to the players being bad or the coaching being bad, not to mention for the umpteenth year the medical staff is arguably the worse in the NFL as our players are constantly getting minor injuries that have them out for a few games.  Are we not giving them enough preventative care to try and prevent these damn injuries?

I think this is literally worse than being a bad team like the Panthers or Bears right now.  They are at least sure they are bad and need an upgrade in talent and pinpoint the deficiencies but we can't easily do that with our team.

[tyler735]

3 hours ago, Raves said:

If only our coaching staff wasn't so incompetent.  We obviously have the talent to be a much better team, that's why even looking at mock drafts is frustrating because it's like "do we really need a guy at that spot?"

WR?  Well we got Olave and Shaheed under contract that are already proven commodities and while Perry has been stepping it up as of late and we might even be able to resign Michael Thomas to a reasonable contract after this year.

No need

3 hours ago, Raves said:

RB?  Kamara is off suspension and doing Kamara things.  Williams hasn't been as productive as we'd like but that's probably partly due to coaching and our OL being injured and inconsistent.  Miller also has shown lots of flashes when healthy and given a chance.

No need

3 hours ago, Raves said:

TE?  Whether it's play design or because Moreau seems to have butter fingers and Johnson has had injury issues, we barely see much action for TEs outside of Graham in the redzone.

Not a huge priority

3 hours ago, Raves said:

QB?  One of the only spots I see drafting a player high has some value as although Carr has had some problems, he's still not as bad as the past few years.

Huge need. We have a clear ceiling with Carr as our QB. He has been an average QB for us, and our team and coaching staff aren't nearly good enough to make up for average QB play. 

3 hours ago, Raves said:

OL?  Most of the problems comes from players being injured across the OL.  Ruiz is good, Ramzy is good, McCoy is good, but the left side has issues at the very least with injury at worst talent.  Penning's struggles means he might be best moved to OG so drafting an OT here might work as at worst it provides additional OL depth since no one seems to stay healthy.

Likely going to need to bring in some quality players via draft/free agency on the OL. 

3 hours ago, Raves said:

DL?  Our DTs have been surprising solid even though our starters didn't used to be starters, Bresee has looked very disruptive, Granderson is looking good, Jordan is aging but we have lots of guys in the wings to try and make a push with Kaipponsagangaobotniothoiga, Turner, and Foskey.

Not a huge priority with all the younger guys we have to develop still. 

3 hours ago, Raves said:

LB?  Probably one of the spots we might want to look to future proof.  Davis is still a beast and Werner has played well, but we still struggle with mobile QBs, might be a scheme thing, might be that our players need some more athleticism and youth.

Could see us adding another LB given Davis's age. 

3 hours ago, Raves said:

CB?  Another spot where it's like do we really need more players if healthy?  Lattimore is a shutdown #1, Adebo and Taylor though sometimes inconsistent are both easily #2 caliber CBs but at #4 with Yaidum it gets sketchy... but is drafting high for a #4 CB worth it?  Though it could push Adebo and Taylor back a spot.

No need.

3 hours ago, Raves said:

S?  Mathieu is getting up there in age and might need a replacement eventually and Maye is meh.  Howden showed flashes when he got a chance, a few missed chances too but he's a rookie.  Might be worth investing a high pick?

Might be good to add another here. Also curious if Taylor could make an impact at safety

3 hours ago, Raves said:

But honestly I still don't know if our teams struggles is due to the players being bad or the coaching being bad, not to mention for the umpteenth year the medical staff is arguably the worse in the NFL as our players are constantly getting minor injuries that have them out for a few games.  Are we not giving them enough preventative care to try and prevent these damn injuries?

I think this is literally worse than being a bad team like the Panthers or Bears right now.  They are at least sure they are bad and need an upgrade in talent and pinpoint the deficiencies but we can't easily do that with our team.

Agreed, it is incredibly frustrating to watch. There's enough talent on the team to be a good team in the NFC this year. Carmichael continues to be a massive hindrance to our offense. Having explosive play makers like Kamara, Shaheed, and Olave get used in unimaginative ways is one of my biggest gripes with this team. Watching a team like Miami play pretty much every week and then seeing how the Saints approach things on offense makes it clear as day this is very much a coaching issue and not a player issue on offense.  

[Mid Iowa]

7 hours ago, tyler735 said:

Agreed, it is incredibly frustrating to watch. There's enough talent on the team to be a good team in the NFC this year. Carmichael continues to be a massive hindrance to our offense. Having explosive play makers like Kamara, Shaheed, and Olave get used in unimaginative ways is one of my biggest gripes with this team. Watching a team like Miami play pretty much every week and then seeing how the Saints approach things on offense makes it clear as day this is very much a coaching issue and not a player issue on offense.  

Yeah, super frustrating to...follow...I stopped watching due to not wanting heart or alcohol issues.

If you saw DA's Tuesday presser, you'll know we're keeping Carmichael. DA was singing Carmichaels praises about having a pretty good offense. Saying we have a really good offense, defense, special teams, we just haven't done a good job of putting all 3 phases together. Well no crap, Dennis.

Our offense is statistically middle of the road in almost every category out there. The only thing we're in top 5 with is 2pt conversions (4) where I think we're tied for 2nd. Other than that, you have to scroll to find us.

I honestly don't know if coaching is enough to fix Carr or Winston. Our TE's are mediocre at best. The defense is playing without fire at this point, and I can't really blame them. They're carrying the load, and rank very high in many Passing categories EXEPT SACKS where we're 29th. If you can't get after the QB in this league, you're going to lose a lot of games. And we're near the bottom of the league in Rushing defense.

Summary: our defensive minded coach is slightly above middle road with his D, and he thinks the offense is doing well...

I fear next season will be a wash, rinse, repeat season. Man, I hope I'm way wrong.

[Jlowe22]

On 12/28/2023 at 9:03 PM, Mid Iowa said:

Yeah, super frustrating to...follow...I stopped watching due to not wanting heart or alcohol issues.

If you saw DA's Tuesday presser, you'll know we're keeping Carmichael. DA was singing Carmichaels praises about having a pretty good offense. Saying we have a really good offense, defense, special teams, we just haven't done a good job of putting all 3 phases together. Well no crap, Dennis.

Our offense is statistically middle of the road in almost every category out there. The only thing we're in top 5 with is 2pt conversions (4) where I think we're tied for 2nd. Other than that, you have to scroll to find us.

I honestly don't know if coaching is enough to fix Carr or Winston. Our TE's are mediocre at best. The defense is playing without fire at this point, and I can't really blame them. They're carrying the load, and rank very high in many Passing categories EXEPT SACKS where we're 29th. If you can't get after the QB in this league, you're going to lose a lot of games. And we're near the bottom of the league in Rushing defense.

Summary: our defensive minded coach is slightly above middle road with his D, and he thinks the offense is doing well...

I fear next season will be a wash, rinse, repeat season. Man, I hope I'm way wrong.

What's worse, we're middle of the road against garbage teams and a trash schedule.  The instant real adversity hits, we look like a complete dumpster fire.

And yet we still have a shot at the playoffs.  NFC South this year is one of the worst divisions in history.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Jlowe22

[tyler735]

Carr caught a ton of crap from fans (myself included) much of this season, but down the stretch, he really seemed to be playing at a higher level. Dare I say, if we can improve the OL in the offseason, he could be a good QB for us next season. I still think Carmichael needs to go and an upgrade at OC could do wonders for this team. We don't lack talent on offense, but the utilization of some of our weapons this season has been maddening. I wouldn't be upset in anyway if we landed a guy like Daniels or Penix, but I could definitely see us try to improve the OL and see what Carr can do for us next year. 

I really like our skill positions going into next year:

QB- Carr, Winston(?), Haener As mentioned above, if Carr can play like he did over the past 5 games next season, QB shouldn't be a problem for us next season. 

RB- Kamara, Miller, Williams  I expect big things from Miller next year. He showed us a glimpse against the Falcons. He will be over a year removed from his knee injury in college and have a year of NFL experience under his belt. He was also the youngest RB in this past draft class, so he should be a good one for years to come for us. I'd love to see him be the between the tackles workhorse and allow Kamara to get back to being more of a pass catching weapon in space for us.  

WR- Olave, Shaheed, Perry, Thomas(?) Olave should be a top tier WR for the foreseeable future. Just an all around great WR. Shaheed statistically is the 2nd best deep threat in the NFL (behind Tyreek Hill). I still think there's talent there to become a more well rounded WR for us, but if not, he's still a great weapon to have to take the top off of defenses. AT Perry has looked really solid over the past month. He's a guy that some thought could have been a 3rd/4th round pick, but fell in the draft for some reason. His size and athleticism to win 50/50 balls is an asset for us. Excited to see what he can do next year for us. I've seen some thing say we can't afford to cut Thomas next season. I don't know if that's true or not, but if he's back, I wouldn't be upset either. Our WR group would have an all around threat in Olave, an elite deep threat in Shaheed, a red zone/jump ball threat in Perry, and a great underneath short yardage threat in Thomas. Considering Olave, Shaheed, and Perry are on minimal rookie deals, having Thomas getting "slightly overpaid" isn't the end of the world. 

TE- Johnson, Hill, Moreau Feel like we have some solid receiving threats between these 3 guys that offer different things. Don't think it's an area we really need to address even if it's not a "great unit". 

 

On offense our OL really seems to be a bit of a mess right now with the Penning and Ramczyk situations. 

[Kingram]

Agreed on Carr. I really hope they attack OL and DL heavy in this draft.