Yeah, I know, way too early for mock NFL drafts, but the title of this article caught my eye.
Can’t claim I actually know who Schrager is, but he’s got the Saints drafting Tebow with the last pick of the second round. Interesting, but I wish he’d explained his reasoning. Barring disaster, the Saints starting job at QB isn’t going to be available for the next several years. The #2 spot might be up for grabs, because Brunell will be 40 years old this fall. I don’t know if he plans to play another year or not. If Tebow is willing to hold a clipboard on the sidelines for a few years understudying Brees, he could learn a lot, and get an opportunity to develop NFL skills. Or, he’s got the athletic ability to compete for a job at another position, maybe FB or TE.
Don’t think that’s the way I’d go if I were drafting for the Saints, but I don’t think it would be a horrible choice either.
I do like the Saints first round pick in this mock…Ricky Sapp, DE/OLB from Clemson, said to have explosive speed as an outside rusher.
Feel free to treat this as a general draft thread, or talk about the picks in this mock for your team, as well as commenting on Tebow as a Saint…
I don’t understand why anyone bothers to pay attention to mock drafts. After the first few picks, things diverge too much for them to be anything but random names with numbers.
The most glaring weakness is that they don’t take into account any draft day deals. Did any mock draft last year predict the Jets would get Mark Sanchez, for instance?
Tebow seems to be a “Look at me! I’m making mock draft! See my weird choices so you’ll talk about it!” kind of pick.
Clausen fourth and Bradford ninth? I doubt it. Writers tend to overrate QB draft positions because they fixate on those positions (ask Brady Quinn and Aaron Rodgers) and I really don’t see either of those players as Top Ten material.
Also, if Mardy Gilyard falls all the way to the middle of the third round, a whole lot of NFL teams are stupid.
The only thing anyone can say for sure is that Suh is going first overall, whether it is to the Rams or to a team that offers a trade up. There are just not any other stand outs like him in the draft and he is a once-in-a-decade defensive player.
Nope. Several highly regarded pundits have Gerald McCoy drawing even or ahead of Suh on their boards. McCoy is thought to be the more dynamic player and appears to be better at penetrating and disrupting the backfield, he’s been compared to Warren Sapp and Tommie Harris. Suh is more stout and reliable, but is a team is dead set on landing a 1-gap tackle McCoy is probably gonna be the guy if things hold up through the Combine.
To the OP, that prediction renders that entire Mock moot. The author is an idiot and probably was doing his column and just wanted to see Tebow’s name in it for the Google bots to pick it up and/or so that he could associate Tebow with the team of the moment the Saints for publicity. It obviously worked for you, I suspect making that nonsense claim got him read by thousands of people more than he normally would have.
I don’t think Tebow can play in the NFL at all, but aside from that the Saints are probably the single worst fit of any team in the league. They don’t use an H-back. They are stacked at TE. Their QB is the polar opposite of Tebow and it’d be a huge waste of energy to try and mold him and there’s essentially zero chance that Brees will be going anywhere before Tebow’s rookie deal is up. In other words, in some bizarro world where Tebow can be groomed into Payton’s pass happy offense chances are they’d just be grooming him to be a free agent to play somewhere else. As long as Brees is in New Orleans their backups will be old guys on short deals like Mark Brunell, security blankets not projects.
I say someone needs to pull Shrager’s media credentials.
I dunno, Omni. If the Saints had Tebow, I think Payton would find a way to use him. That said, I wouldn’t draft him if it was up to me. The Saints need another DT, we got pretty thin there late in the season. Another DB is always good to have, and we don’t really have an every down RB.
Saints also have a handicap going into next season in that we are not allowed to sign a free agent until we lose one of equal or higher value. I’m not really sure how that works, but it’s going to make it difficult to go get a veteran guy to fill a roster spot.
I think every team should have receivers and running backs that were college or even high school quarterbacks to make trick plays that much trickier and flexible.
Todd McShay’s most recent mock draft has McCoy going first and Suh going second. I want the Lions to pick either one. Right now, with the grades, as they are right now, the Lions can’t lose with either one of those guys, or at least, addressing that position.
I’ve only seen parts of the Sugar Bowl, but he didn’t impress me much. The Senior Bowl was a great game for him, but I get the feeling his production comes against week opponents (he demolished defensive juggernauts Fresno State, SE Missouri State, and U. Conn). He’s raw (he was a DB when he started college), has character questions (accusations of academic cheating and failed a class to get kicked out of Florida, sold pot in high school) and a stiff wind can break him in half. I’d have a problem drafting him higher than the third round.
How valuable is it to find ways to use a guy with no hands, runs a 4.9 40, no elusiveness and no blocking ability?
Anyone who says Tebow should be converted to anything other than QB is an idiot. There are offensive lineman faster than him. He doesn’t have any skills that make him useful as a gadget. And his QB skills are marginal at best. Why exactly would anyone want him on their team except to sell tickets?
Maybe you can teach him to play QB and his size will make him durable and tough to sack ala Roethlisberger, but that’s a long ways off and a spread system that values accuracy, decision making and complex reads is a disaster waiting to happen. The best place for him right now is probably Carolina, but not before the 4th round.
If ANY coach could find a way to use Tim Tebow’s abilities, it would be Sean Payton.
Still, I can’t see it happening. The Saints have a lot of free agents, and are bound to lose at least a few of them. They may have several valuable starters to replace, which would make it risky to take a project like Tebow as early as the second round. MAYBE if he’s still around in the 4th round. But the Saints have bigger needs than a backup QB.
I could have sworn he won a Heisman Trophy and a national championship, but maybe that’s just another lie I heard at church.
More seriously, he’s a terrific, capable athlete who would be, at best, a major project at quarterback. Hence, I wouldn’t draft him on the first day, period, especially if I had major holes to fill (as the Saints surely will). MAYBE on the second day, but only if I had an imaginative coach who saw some real potential.
Does Payton see such potential? I dunno. For now, any talk of Tebow going high in the draft is just that: talk. The Saints are set at QB, and Tebow would have to be near the bottom of their wish list.
To me, the best fit for Tebow would be a team that has a well established starter, but not a great backup AND a coaching staff that would try him in some creative offensive sets.
Really? The guy threw for 3700+ yards, with 28 touchdowns, and just 4 interceptions. He had a 68% completion percentage and a 161.43 college QB rating. He was one of the top QBs coming out of high school, tutored under Charlie Weiss, played in big pressure games, and improved each year he’s played. He’s played in a (mostly) pro style offense, taking snaps both under center and in shotgun. He’s got more than an adequate NFL arm, and makes good decisions. I’m not saying he’s going to be the next Peyton Manning, but at least I can see what he “brings to the table”.