2008 NFL Mock Draft: New Orleans Saints

Previous Five Picks

5) NFL-Kansas_City_Chiefs-2008_NFL_Mock_Draft_Kansas_City_Chiefs-050208">Kansas City Chiefs: Chris Long, DE, Virginia

6) Jets-2008_NFL_Mock_Draft_New_York_Jets-060208">New York Jets: Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas

7) Patriots-2008_NFL_Mock_Draft_New_England_Patriots-100208">New England Patriots: Vernon Gholston, DE/OLB, Ohio State

8) Ravens-2008_NFL_Mock_Draft_Baltimore_Ravens-120208">Baltimore Ravens: Ryan Clady, OT, Boise State 

9) Bengals-2008_NFL_Mock_Draft_Cincinnati_Bengals-150208">Cincinnati Bengals: Sedrick Ellis, DT, USC 

Click here to see the entire Mock Draft. 

The Longest Mock Draft in NFL History Continues...

If I’m wrong about the Dolphins taking Glenn Dorsey with the number one overall pick, I wonder if I can file a lawsuit against them for ruining my mock draft.

Filing lawsuits against NFL teams seems to be the hip thing kids are doing these days.  I surely don’t want to be left out.

I’m also wondering if there will be a congressional hearing if a good player drops to the Patriots. Those lousy cheaters. Videotaping other teams. Forget Bin Ladin, someone lock up Bill Belichick!

You know, I was only kidding in my Roger Clemens column when I said there would be a Congressional hearing on spygate. I’m both shocked and saddened to learn that the government was reading and took me seriously.

My bad.

Rather than rehashing my feelings on the government’s involvement in professional sports, here’s a link that does a nice job of doing it for me.

Pick No. 10: New Orleans Saints

Like the Cincinnati Bengals, the New Orleans Saints were a massive disappointment in 2007.

Most of the preseason rags had the Saints among the elite in the NFC. Some experts had them representing the NFC in the Super Bowl (certainly not this expert—and even if I did, since I didn’t start at Bleacher Report until December, there’s no proof). 

Jason David was signed as a free agent from the Indianapolis Colts to help sure up what was a questionable defensive secondary. What the Saints forgot is that in 2006, the Colts had a questionable defensive secondary as well.

What happens when you take a questionable cornerback from a questionable secondary and add him to an already questionable secondary? 

You get the third worst pass defense in the NFL and a Super Bowl favorite finishing in the bottom 10 of the NFL.

Peyton Manning showed the entire country in the first game of the NFL season exactly how to defeat the Saints: Pick on their secondary, especially Jason David.

There have been a few games in my life were I’ve actually felt sorry for a professional athlete. By the end of that Colts game, I was actually rooting for David to pull a hamstring so his torture would end.

It was painful. Very, very painful.

Week one’s 41-10 loss to the Colts was the start of a trend that continued for the entire season. 

Drew Brees and the offense just couldn’t overcome their porous defense. 

For the Saints to make their move back into the NFL elite, they’ll have to address the defense early and often in the 2008 NFL draft.

The Pick:  Leodis McKelvin, CB, Troy

Leodis McKelvin is one of the top three cornerbacks in the draft. Most mocks have either McKelvin or Mike Jenkins as the first cornerback to come off the board. 

McKelvin is a prototypical NFL cornerback.

At 5’11, 190 pounds, he has the size most teams look for. He’s relatively fast and has pretty good instincts. 

The knock on McKelvin is that he hasn’t exactly played against elite competition (he did play for the Troy Trojans, after all).  But he does have the tools that make NFL GMs drool, so I would expect someone to look past the level of competition to the level of potential, which is limitless. 

The Saints will make him the first corner taken in the 2008 draft.

Other options:  Mike Jenkins, CB, South Florida or Aqib Talib, CB, Kansas 

I’m SeanMC.

SeanMC is a Columnist at Bleacher Report. His archive can be found here. You can find everything he writes, including articles for other publications, here.