The 10 most important players on the New Orleans Saints
1. DE Cameron Jordan (39 points)
2. WR Michael Thomas (31)
3. CB Marshon Lattimore (27)
4. OT Terron Armstead (23)
T-5. RB Mark Ingram (21)
T-5. DT Sheldon Rankins (21)
T-7. S Kenny Vaccaro (18)
T-7. RB Adrian Peterson (18)
9. G Larry Warford (13)
T-10. OT Ryan Ramczyk (11)
T-10. CB Delvin Breaux (11)
All told, 22 different Saints received votes in our poll, the widest range for any NFC team. In fact, just one player was present on all five ballots: top vote-getter Cameron Jordan, who twice ranked No. 1 (Kaplan and Vrentas).
The three remaining first-place votes belonged to Delvin Breaux (Single), Sheldon Rankins (Feldman) and Michael Thomas (Jones). Breaux only made it on to one other ballot, save for Single’s; Kaplan, Feldman and Jones all excluded him from the top 10.
The backing for the Saints’ second Round 1 pick, OT Ryan Ramczyk, mainly came from Feldman. He had the rookie No. 3 on his list; Kaplan placed Ramczyk at No. 8.
Emily Kaplan defends her second-place vote for Marshon Lattimore: The Saints have had the league’s worst pass defense for four of the past five seasons. Lattimore will be asked to contribute right away, and the No. 11 pick will be expected to perform—after all, he was the top corner in a historically deep draft year for the position.
Other Saints receiving votes: WR Ted Ginn Jr. (nine points); TE Coby Fleener (eight); DE Alex Okafor (six); LB Dannell Ellerbe (five); LB Stephone Anthony, C Max Unger (four); LB Craig Robertson, S Vonn Bell (two); CB P.J. Williams, OT Zach Strief (one).
