I am convinced that there are more drama queens in sports
journalism than there are in the soap opera circuit.
Do these commentators feel a need to be obnoxiously
hyperbolic in their evaluations?
Their Jim Rome aping reaches a climax during the NFL draft,
where men who last left it all on the P.E. gym floor engage in histrionics about
those drafted and the franchises that picked them.
And I’m not engaging in this seemingly oxymoronic rant just
because sports writers/bloggers/talking heads all panned the New Orleans
Saints’ draft.
Though this is as good of a time as any to call these clowns
out for what they are: Joan Rivers jock-wannabes.
And their collective grade on the Saints’ 2012 draft ranged
from a relatively charitable C- to an F.
I would love to know what these geniuses thought of the
Jonathan Sullivan pick from 2003.
It goes without saying that I don’t concur with their
evaluations.
Until King Roger I sees fit to smite the remaining members
of the Saints’ defense (the delay being as absurd as the NFL’s overreaction to
the so-called “bountygate”), the Saints didn’t really have too many gaping
holes to plug.
The biggest was the hiring of defensive coordinator Steve
Spagnuolo to replace the tarnished Gregg Williams, whose last contribution to
the team was abandoning it before he would have been exiled from the league.
I consider Spags an upgrade from the undisciplined “Double
G”, whose ego has cost the team dearly in the form of bad play calls and
franchise crippling scandal.
Beyond that, Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis made
selections with more an eye on the future than on the 2012 season while
enduring a public relations nightmare stemming from the bounties and an alleged
eavesdropping system truly worthy of the suffix “gate’ if true.
If not true, then I hope Loomis and the organization take
ESPN to the cleaners for defamation.
The team’s first selection of the draft was third round pick
Akiem Hicks, a defensive tackle that was recruited by LSU but ended up at the
University of Regina. The Saints front
office and scouting department must have seen something they like about the
6’5”, 318 lb defensive lineman.
And he could not possibly be a worse selection than
Sullivan, whom I consider to be the biggest Black & Gold draft bust of all
time. Even if Hicks doesn’t pan out,
he’ll have cost the team less in opportunity cost and cash than the
aforementioned disaster.
And it’s hard to argue with an outfit that plucked Marques
Colston from Hofstra, Jahri Evans from Bloomsburg and Jermon Bushrod from
Towson.
Actually a pick from the University of Georgia scares me far
more than someone from a small school.
If Hicks works out, I’ll finally forgive him for trading two
first rounders to snag “he who shall not be named ever again” in my column.
I also like the Nick Toon pick.
The big receiver from Wisconsin has a pro-football pedigree
and will give the team its first real competition for a rare open receiver slot
in some time.
Toon will have to compete with Adrian Arrington (who has
seen sparing regular season action since being drafted late in 2008) and 2011
pre-season standout Joe Morgan to fill a roster spot that was vacated when free
agent Robert Meachem left for greener financial pastures in San Diego.
The wide-receiver battle will be front and center in the
exhibition games.
The balance of the draft will likely need time to emerge as
on-field contributors.
Safety Corey White of Samford could be a rare franchise
beneficiary of the Commish’s vengeance.
If strong safety Roman Harper gets nailed with a lengthy
suspension, White will have an opportunity to demonstrate that his 5th
round selection was a worthwhile crapshoot.
Guard Andrew Tiller of Syracuse and Tackle Marcel Jones of
Nebraska could be the low rounders that challenge the thus-far disappointing
Charles Brown (2010 second round selection) for a place on the team.
Then again, the Saints’ 6th and 7th
round picks could be relegated to camp body/practice squad duty.
Rather than hyperventilate over Loomis’s picks, critics
should have faith in an executive who has often found better value below the
second round mark than he has above.
Besides, Loomis’s legacy will have more to do with his
ability to ensure that the Saints are the final destination in Drew Brees’s
playing career than what he did in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft.
That said, I thought the Saints soon-to-be suspended general manager drafted responsibly and merits no worse than a B-.
