By Jeff Thomas
Draft picks are like weather reports. Sometimes an alert warns of a soon to hit tornado, sometimes you get a lot of rain and sometimes you get nothing at all. Too often under Mickey Loomis, the Saints’ draft picks have been of the false alarm variety. But the addition of Jeff Ireland to the staff may have stemmed the tide. In fact, the Saints are so confident in their new man, that they traded a proven player(Brandin Cooks) for a high draft pick(there 2nd 1st round pick). And this year the Saints even added more picks to try to improve the team.
But draft picks are also like saplings – they take a while before you can depend on their strength. So just as the Saints are relying on the best available information to make a selection/guess, this THINK504 grading process has a bit of speculation. But to eliminate some of the guesswork, this grade will factor in the Saints need instead of gauging how the players’ talent will translate onto NFL playing fields.
After three consecutive 7-9 seasons, that saw the team break offensive records and be historically bad defensively, before the draft most people expected a rush for defensive talent. Let’s look at what the team did.
TYPE of PLAYER DRAFTED GRADE
Five of the seven picks were defensive players A
POSITION DRAFTED
Shore up areas of team weakness – defensive back and offensive line A
Offensive tackle needs depth A
Saints draft a safety in 2nd round B
Saints draft 2 D ends in late rounds C
Saints trade up and draft a 3rd down back D
Saints draft with 11th pick the top rated cornerback in draft A+
Saints draft inside linebacker B
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OVERALL GRADE B+
Drafts are crapshoots. Sometimes players become hall of famers – the Saints have drafted 3(Can you name them?) in their entire history – and sometimes the player has a long productive career with the Saints. Often picks are busts – remember former 1st round picks Johnathan Sullivan and Jammal Brown – while some go on to be franchise greats – think Deuce Mcallister or Cameron Jordan. Who knows how this year’s picks will turn out?
So this grade is how well the Saint’s drafted to benefit the team. While drafting for need is frowned upon by most NFL execs, the best teams draft for need within reason. Given Loomis’ success rate is around 50%, drafting the best player available may not be the best approach.
But those 3 drafted Hall of Famers are – Rickey Jackson, Willie Roaf and Moten Anderson
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of Executive Appraisers Louisiana, an MBE-certified real estate appraisal firm, and EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu