New Orleans Saints Draft History: Biggest Misses

The New Orleans Saints' losing past is well-documented. The Aints. Those brown bags. It was rough suffering through those bad years. In all of those years the Saints made a lot of mistakes in the drafts that caused New Orleans to stay in the cellar. Those bad teams always had two things in common: good defense and no offensive play-makers.

I take a look back at the picks where New Orleans "played it safe" and passed up an opportunity to pick up a difference-maker on the offensive side of the ball. It happened more times than you can imagine, and in one three-year span, the Saints were a couple of picks away from building an offensive juggernaut.  

#1: George Rogers over Lawrence Taylor in 1981.

This was a huge miss on the part of the Saints' front office. They chose the Heisman Trophy-winning running back from South Carolina over a linebacker who was being hailed as "better than Dick Butkus." Before the Draft, all 28 General Managers in the NFL were polled. They were asked to make a choice between George Rogers and Lawrence Taylor if they had the first pick.

26 out of 28 GMs chose L.T. over Rogers in that poll. One of the two that chose Rogers was new Saints Head Coach/General Manager Bum Phillips. 

So, naturally, when the Draft came around, the Saints chose Rogers with the first pick and bypassed on the future Hall of Fame linebacker who would go on to forever change the game. What makes it worse is who L.T. could have been teamed up with: fellow Hall of Fame linebacker Rickey Jackson. That's 270 sacks between both of them. That would have made the Dome Patrol even more powerful.

#2: Renaldo Turnbull over Emmitt Smith in 1990

Coming into the 1990 NFL Draft, the New Orleans Saints had fan-favorite and local product, Dalton Hilliard, coming off a Pro Bowl season at running back. Yes, he was a Pro Bowler, but his stats were misleading. Yes, he had 18 total TDs, but he also had seven fumbles and only averaged 3.7 yards per carry despite getting 344 carries.

There was no exact 'need' pick when the Saints were on the clock that they knew of. Little did they know that the '89 season would be Hilliard's best season and would soon end his career abruptly due to injuries.

Renaldo Turnbull was a luxury pick, a player who was raw and could be groomed for a few years behind Rickey Jackson and Pat Swilling. He was a decent player with a couple of double-digit sack years, but, considering who they could have had, it was a big whiff.

Emmitt Smith just wound up being the leading rusher in the history of the NFL.  No big deal, right Renaldo? 

#3: Alex Molden over Eddie George in 1996

This is the draft that starts a three to four-year span where the Saints could have turned their draft picks into an offensive juggernaut. Seeing how much New Orleans loves Heisman-winning running backs, this pick should have been a no-brainer. Alex Molden was a huge reach with the 11th pick in the draft, and George was sliding right into the laps of a team whose leading rushers were Mario Bates and Ray Zellars. 

Eddie George to the Saints with that pick should've been made as soon as the clock started. He was the only RB in NFL history to gain 10,000 yards without missing a game. That durability would have meant not going "all-in" on Ricky Williams a few years from then.

George in 1996, followed by Tony Gonzalez and Jake Plummer instead of Chris Naeole and Rob Kelly in the 1997 Draft, and the Saints would've been heading for a dynasty. The player next on this list would have been the cherry on top!

#4: Kyle Turley over Randy Moss in 1998

In his two years at Marshall, Randy Moss scored 54 receiving touchdowns and was a Biletnikoff Award winner. He rewrote record books and was a Heisman finalist behind Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf and the eventual winner, Charles Woodson. Based on all of his on-field success and talent, Moss was considered a Top Five prospect. 

But there was another side to that story. It involved violating probation and getting kicked off of Florida St.'s team prior to his enrollment at Marshall. And because of those and other incidents away from the field, Moss's name dropped in the first round.

He was thought to go to the Dallas Cowboys with the eighth pick, but they had their own reservations because of Michael Irvin's behavior. The Saints were in need of a playmaker and were thought to be one of the teams that could swipe the Marshall WR away from the Cowboys. 

The pick came up and Kyle Turley's name was turned in—a San Diego St. tackle who would become a fan favorite in his own right as well as a Pro Bowler. He wouldn't be anywhere near Moss's level, though. Adding him to the picks I mentioned in the last slide would have put New Orleans on the upward swing and would have left plenty of options to play out in the '99 draft. There would be no Ricky Era.

#5: Sedrick Hodge over Steve Smith in 2001

After getting Deuce McAllister in the first round, the Saints looked at getting a WR that could replace Willie Jackson eventually. They were looking at Chris Chambers in the second round, but weren't going to trade up for him. They hoped that Chambers would fall to them like McAllister fell in their laps in the first. Miami moved in front of New Orleans and swiped up the Wisconsin WR.

So the Saints traded out and picked up two third-round picks from Dallas. They only dropped 17 spots down, and no WRs were chosen. Next guy up on the board was Steve Smith, the speedster from Utah who could also return punts and kicks. The Saints would look like a genius adding a pick and a threat like Smith...

Whiff!

Saints wound up picking an extremely talented but extremely raw linebacker from North Carolina, Sedrick Hodge. All of the athleticism led to five lackluster seasons with one sack to his name. All of that "pass-rushing potential" and you get one sack?

The Utah wideout wound up in Carolina and continues to torture the Saints every time he lines up against them. He would have been a hell of a match to Joe Horn on the other side. Oh, what the touchdown celebrations could have been! 

#6: Trading 2 First-Round Picks to Trade Up for Jonathan Sullivan

This was a shock to me. Not that the Saints traded up, but for who they traded up for. A lot of experts had New Orleans trading into the Top 10 for a defensive standout. They needed help at every line of defense, and there were great prospects left on the board when they traded up. They didn't need Johnathan Sullivan.  The guy was a workout warrior at the combine, but showed none of that on game film.

Terrell Suggs, Marcus Trufant and Kevin Williams were still on the board.  To me, either of them would have been better to pick with the No. 6 pick than Sullivan. They showed up constantly in game film, as well as at the Combine and on Pro Days.

Suggs was the player who could've been a game-changer for a defense that gave up way too many big plays. The Arizona St. defensive end racked up 24 sacks as a junior and was only 20 years old entering the Draft. He would have helped the sting of losing La'Roi Glover to the Cowboys.