NFL Draft: Who was the best Saints pick under Sean Payton?
The NFL draft always provides fun for football fans. Some college prospects have waited their entire lives for the moments and memories that are coming very soon, although a virtual setting is going to look foreign to everyone this year. The New Orleans Saints have had an interesting run since Sean Payton came on board in 2006. They have had some really good draft classes, but have also had some really horrid ones. We asked the Saints News Network writers about the best pick New Orleans has had under Sean Payton, and asked them to explain their selection. Here's what we've come up with.
Kyle Mosley - Marques Colston
Marques Colston was the 252nd player drafted in the 7th round of the 2006 NFL Draft; in addition, he was a Supplemental Draft choice by the New Orleans Saints. Colston’s career was stellar for a player who barely made it out of the Saints 2006 Rookie Camp. He instantly became a starter at wide receiver opposite of veteran wideout Joe Horn. Colston would play in 146 games for the Saints. His connection with Drew Brees accounted for 711 receptions, 9,759 yards, and 72 TDs. The fans nicknamed him the “Quiet Storm” because of his mild-mannered demeanor, yet powerful presence on the football field. As Sean Payton’s last draft pick in his first season as Head Coach, Colston’s selection is the epitome of a team finding a hidden “Draft Gem”.
Bob Rose - Cam Jordan
Jordan has been one of the league's best and most underrated every-down defensive linemen throughout his career. His numbers are impressive enough (87 career sacks, five years with double-digit sacks, 113 tackles for loss), but Jordan was also the one player that made an awful Saints defense sometimes respectable through the middle part of the decade. At almost 31 years old, he's playing the best football of his career.
Honorable mention: Michael Thomas
Mike Detillier - Jahri Evans
Marques Colston is hard to pass on for the best pick for the Saints in the Sean Payton run, going in Round 7 and the 252nd overall pick in 2006. He caught 711 passes for 9,759 yards and 72 TDs. That is a lot of production for a 1st round pick, much less a 7th round pick.
But, I’m going with offensive guard Jahri Evans. A 4th round pick and the 108th overall pick in 2006 coming out of Bloomsburg. Evans played at a lower level of competition, but he stepped off of a campus from a small college and immediately started for the Saints.
Evans started 183 games in the NFL and 169 with the Saints. He was a 6-time Pro Bowler and a 4-time All-Pro player with the Saints. Evans made the NFL’s 2010’s All-Decade Team. He was considered one of the elite offensive guards in the game and will get some NFL Hall of Fame talk when he is eligible.
Brendan Boylan - Marques Colston
For the best pick in Sean Payton’s tenure with the New Orleans Saints, you have to go back to his first draft as the Saints head honcho, 2006. The Saints held the 252nd selection (four picks from the final selection) in the 2006 NFL Draft and selected a wide receiver out of D-1 AA (Now FCS) Hofstra, Marques Colston.
Although he was never selected to a Pro-Bowl, Colston ended his 10-year NFL career as the Saints all-time leader in receiving yards, yards from scrimmage, receiving touchdowns and total touchdowns. Colston also helped New Orleans secure the team’s only Super Bowl Championship in 2009, collecting 7 receptions for 83 yards in Super Bowl XLIV.
While Colston was not a selection that had Saints fan out of their seats when drafted, his play in the black and gold had Saints fans out of their seats for a decade. Thus, making him one of the greatest steals in NFL Draft history and Sean Payton’s best draft pick as the head coach of the Saints.
When you look back at the history, it's not hard to talk about the impacts of Marques Colston and that special 2006 draft class. Most of those players were a huge reason why the Saints ended up winning their first Super Bowl in 2009. However, New Orleans ended up having a huge resurgence from their 2017 draft class, but it didn't start there. Jeff Ireland has had a tremendous impact on the team's drafting since coming on board from the Miami Dolphins in 2015. The Saints went through some big retooling to climb out of the 7-9 chronicles, and finally broke through in the 2017 season.
For me, the best draft pick has to be Michael Thomas. He's constantly fueled by the fact that five other wide receivers were drafted ahead of him, none of which have come close to making the impact that Thomas has had. As the 47th overall pick in the 2016 draft, the Ohio State product saw Corey Coleman (15th), Will Fuller (21st), Josh Doctson (22nd), Laquon Treadwell (23rd), and Sterling Shepherd (40th) all taken before him.
Thomas' first four seasons in the league have been nothing short of excellent, as he's shattered many NFL records in such a short time. Let's also not forget that he was the AP's Offensive Player of the Year in 2019 and broke a 17-year-old record for receptions that was previously held by Marvin Harrison. The biggest question for Thomas is if he can continue to dominate and keep pace, and right now you'd have to answer that with a resounding yes.
