With the 11th pick that year, before Hall of Famers Kellen Winslow and Joe Montana, the Saints took punter Russell Erxleben of Texas thereby making him the highest selected punter ever. Now drafting any type of kicker in the first round is a risky proposition on par with, say, ordering the fish at Peter Luger's- no matter how good it is you'll still be sorry when they start carving up the sirloin. And if the 'Aints needed a historical lesson to drive this point home they had to look no further than the only K/P ever drafted higher than Erxleben, Charlie Gogolak (#6) by Washington in 1966. Gogolak lasted 3 years in DC, made an abysmal 55% of his FGs and was bounced in 1969 by incoming coach Vince Lombardi, never one to look favorably on Lollipop Guild-sized, Ivy Leaguers with British accents parading around as real football players. Oh yeah, Washington went a NY Islander-like 17-22-3 in Gogolak's 3 seasons.
And therein lies the problem. Teams selecting as early as the '79 Saints or '66 Redskins generally have more problems than a coupla extra FGs or a few yards in field position is going to solve. Coming off a mere 16 wins in the previous 4 seasons New Orleans was in no position to be tweaking a roster that had more holes than my college underwear. Even worse Erxleben wasn't even needed as 8th round Green Bay castoff Rick Partridge handled the punting chores that year to the tune of a 40.9 yard average, or .3 yards better than Erxleben for his career.
But alas in the more egalitarian NFL mid to small market teams like the Saints are not forever relegated to Kansas City Royal-dom by a few poor decisions. In 2006 GM Mickey Loomis made one of the best decisions since Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to The Big Bopper on the day the music died when he dumped the Jim Haslett/Aaron Brooks experiment and brought in Sean Payton and Drew Brees. A couple moves on D, a find in Marques Colston and next thing you know they're partying on Bourbon Street like Girls Gone Wild is in town. And by the way their punter Thomas Morstead- picked 164th overall. Lesson learned.
OFFENSE: The deal here is pretty much the same as the Colts. Injuries and lack of a run game are making this club more and more one dimensional and therefore easier for better teams to defend. Drew Brees has thrown 34 (rank 1) and 33 (2) TD passes in the last two years, the only difference being that he needed 114 more passes in 2010 to do slightly less. That's because the NO run game went from #5 in the league in '09 to #29 this year. Reggie Bush's fibula snapped like Beats at a poetry reading, Pierre Thomas proved more brittle than the gum in baseball card packs and now Chris Ivory has joined Thomas on IR meaning see ya in August 2011 for that duo. This means the ground game falls to Julius Jones and Ladell Betts a pair of backfield mates not likely to invoke visions of Hornung and Taylor. They may be able to get some balance vs. 7-9 Seattle, but beyond that it should be pass, pass, pass, and like the gay guy managing three boyfriends that's a lot of balls in the air.
DEFENSE: Defensively the Saints have been more stout than last year in terms of yards allowed and points, but the big difference is in turnovers. More specifically in interceptions where they went from 26 in 2009 to a mere 9 this season. Still hiring Gregg Williams and canning ex-Oklahoma coach Gary Gibbs was another strong management move that has produced results. Williams' defense finished 7th in points allowed while I've seen drunken nymphos put up more resistance that Gibbs' D in 2007/08- which come to think of it may say more about me than Gary Gibbs. Turnovers are always huge and for the most part unpredictable but if the Saints, who were -6 this year, can get a few more to fall their way in the playoffs maybe just enough defense and Drew Brees right arm can get them to Big D for the Big One when all's said and done.
The Lingerie Football League (http://www.lflus.com/) has announced a Pay-Per-View event for the weekend prior to the Super Bowl. Though why anyone would pay to see scantily clad bimbos on TV when you get the Spanish channel for free is hard to understand.
