When the Saints took Stephone Anthony out of Clemson in the first round of the NFL draft it was the first time a linebacker was selected by the Saints in the 1st round since 1995 when the Saints took Mark Fields of Washington State. Fields went on to have a pretty good career with the Saints that featured a Pro Bowl in 2000. He is the last drafted Saints linebacker to make a Pro Bowl.
The Saints didn’t stop there, though, as they took outside linebacker Hau’oli Kikaha of Washington in round 2. The Saints haven’t drafted a linebacker in round 2 since Courtney Watson of Notre Dame in 2004. Watson was a colossal bust.
While Anthony and Kikaha play different positions, the fact that the Saints invested a 1st and 2nd in the same position group should tell you how they felt about their linebackers. Much optimism and potential surrounds these two young players and the hope is the Saints have finally a linebacker that will not only contribute significantly but perhaps turn the Saints’ linebacking core into a juggernaut. We’re not asking for the Dome Patrol 2.0 here, but something comparable to Fujita-Vilma-Shanle or better would be nice.
Going back to Mark Fields who was drafted by the largely incompetent Mike Ditka, everything since hasn’t even been worthy of being called mediocre. That means we’ve officially hit the 20th anniversary of the Saints selecting a linebacker in the draft that is worthwhile. Consider what Jim Haslett and Sean Payton’s history entails:
Jim Haslett:
Sedrick Hodge, 3rd round, 2001
James Allen, 3rd round, 2002
Cie Grant, 3rd round, 2003
Courtney Watson, 2nd round, 2004
Colby Bockwoldt, 7th round, 2004
Alfred Fincher, 3rd round, 2005
Sean Payton:
Marvin Mitchell, 7th round, 2007
Stanley Arnoux, 4th round, 2009
Martez Wilson, 3rd round, 2011 (pictured above)
Nate Bussey, 7th round, 2011
Khairi Fortt, 4th round, 2014
Ronald Powell, 5th round, 2014
Pro Football Reference gives players a career approximate value grade and the highest graded drafted linebacker for the Saints under Haslett was Hodge with 18. Bockwoldt was next with 12. Under Payton the highest grade was Marvin Mitchell with 12. For a sense of how bad that is, consider that Parys Haralson has an approximate value of 10 after only two seasons with the Saints playing in sub packages as a run defender. Hawthorne is at 16 after three mediocre seasons of starting. Frankly I was surprised Sedrick Hodge’s AV was 18 but Haslett insisted on starting him 5 straight seasons even though he was always out of position and never got any better. But Hodge’s best season was an AV of 7 and Hawthorne’s best season with the Saints so far is 8, so even if you want to use their scoring as gospel he hasn’t produced as well as Hawthorne. Mark Fields, by comparison, had an AV of 9 twice and for his career with the Saints he finished with 40 in 6 seasons. That’s good for the 5th best career AV for a drafted Saints linebacker after three members of the Dome Patrol (144 for Rickey Jackson, 89 for Pat Swilling, and 69 for Vaughan Johnson) and Joe Federspiel (48). Sam Mills was not included as the Saints did not draft him.
The jury is still out on Ron Powell, too, but I think we all have more hope for Anthony and Kikaha. We’ve been waiting 20 years for this team to finally draft a linebacker worthy of being called competent. Could we finally have them?
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