Zachary Cohen | Sports Editor
Back in January, the Seattle Seahawks shocked Who Dat Nation when they sent the New Orleans Saints home in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. The Seahawks Marshawn Lynch rushed for 150 yards in that game, and sealed the deal with a 67 yard run that shook the stadium to its core. What do the Saints do in response? They draft one of the highest rated defensive linemen in the draft, Cameron Jordan out of California, to lock down the D-Line. Another key stat in that game was the lack of rushing yards the Saints produced, so the same question arises again; what do the Saints do in response? How about drafting a Heisman Trophy winning running back out of one of the most prestigious schools in the nation.
When you think about the big winner of April’s draft, the first team that comes to mind has to be the team from the Bayou City. The team already has one of the most explosive offenses the league has ever seen, a surefire Hall of Famer quarterback and one of the most exciting players in football, Reggie Bush; adding Mark Ingrim to that attack makes the Saints offense a nightmare for defensive coordinators to gameplan for. Not only will the Saints running game improve with this pick, their offense as a whole will improve. Saints quarterback Drew Brees attempted 658 passes last season alone. Brees has never had the luxury of laying off the air strike and handing it off to a running back that will produce. With the addition of Ingrim, the Saints now have three of the most exciting players in football all in one backfield.
The Saints gave up almost 2,000 rushing yards in 2010, which led to them to draft Cameron Jordan with the 24th pick to bring youth to an aging defensive line. Jordan will bring size, strength and speed coming off the edge, something the Saints lacked last season. The 6’4 283 lb son of former Viking Steve Jordan registered 51 tackles along with 5.5 sack last year at Cal. For a team that finished in the bottom half of the league when it came to sacks, this addition will help the Saints defense imensely, not only in the front 7, but also the secondary. The pressure Jordan will generate will force quarterbacks into throwing up bad passes, which could end up in the hands of other Saints defenders. Bottom line, the Saints are the big winners of the 2011 NFL Draft.
Now onto the big loser of the Draft; this may come across as shocking, but I’m going with the Carolina Panthers here. Sure, they got one of the most exciting players in the draft, a National Championship winning, Heisman Trophy winning quarterback. However, overall the Panthers drafted very poorly. Without a 2nd round pick, they had to wait til the 3rd round to get on the clock again and wound up choosing 2 defensive tackles in that round. Did they address key positions they need to fill? Yes, but the quality of those players is very poor. With a franchise that has done nothing but struggle for the last 7 years, this was their year to make a big splash and acquire some good players to build on. With a 7th, two 6th, a 5th, 4th and two 3rd round picks, they could have shuffled their picks around in an attempt to move up. They failed to do this, and ultimately left Radio City with only one quality player. Is it the end of the world for Carolina? No; some of the best players in the history of the NFL were no-names drafted in the late rounds. But as of today, the Panthers failed to make that big splash they so desperately needed.
The draft is over, and the lockout is about to be lifted and an agreement will be made in the coming days according to reports. The NFL football season is just about to get underway, and football fans couldn’t be happier. A very long, drastic, and controversial off-season will come to an end in three short months, and football games will begin. What does the 2011 NFL season hold in store for fans? Will the Packers repeat as champs, or have a “Super Bowl Hangover”, like many teams before them? Will Cam Newton be the next big thing to happen to the league, or will the hype get to him and become a bust? Will Mark Ingrim really make the impact that so many experts are predicting him to make? How will Michael Vick handle the pressure of being the starter for a team with the hardest fans to please? Which rookies will impress, and who will prove to be the biggest bust of this year’s draft? With so many questions to answer, it seems as if the season can’t come fast enough for football fans not only nationwide but also worldwide.
