By: Brady Aymond (TheAdvertiser.com) —
It pains me to say it, but the New Orleans Saints nailed it with their first-round draft pick this year.
As much as I hate to admit it, Malcolm Jenkins is good – despite the fact that he’s a Buckeye.

Jenkins may end up being a bust, as easily as he could end up being a perennial Pro Bowler.

Nothing in his career points to him being a bust, though. Jenkins was the equivalent of a shutdown corner in college, even though he rarely wore that label.

Jenkins, according to Ohio State, didn’t allow a single touchdown in his coverage area through his four-year career with the Buckeyes.

In his senior season, Jenkins allowed only 30 catches for 230 yards in the 60 passes thrown his direction. That’s an average of only 3.8 yards per pass attempt.

He was a consensus All-American his senior year and a first team All-Big Ten pick three consecutive seasons.

But here’s the main reason why I think the Saints picking Jenkins with their first-round pick was the smart one – besides the fact that they need help in the secondary.

When the 2008 NFL draft was rolling around last year, there was a lot of talk that Jenkins would go pro. And the Saints, with the No. 10 pick in the draft, were poised to get the cornerback.

Jenkins instead opted to return to OSU for his final season and the Saints grabbed another area of need in defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis.

So, the fact that the Saints were able to shore up their defensive line and still get Jenkins a year later makes the pick even better.

And if it was such a slam-dunk that Jenkins was the man for the job in 2008, it should be a no-brainer in 2009.

As for the rest of the Saints’ draft, I thought their two fourth-round picks of Wake Forest teammates Chip Vaughn and Stanley Arnoux were intriguing.

I’m always skeptical when a lot of players from the same team get drafted, because it becomes a question of whether the players are good individually or if playing as a group made them good.

Vaughn and Arnoux appear to have good upside as both possess a ton of speed and athletic ability. I could be wrong, but I think Arnoux may end up being a steal for the Saints. The fact that he tested very comparable to teammate and No. 4 overall pick Aaron Curry tells me a lot.

Where the Saints lost me was with their fifth-round pick, which came as a result of trading this year’s seventh and next year’s fifth to move up.

The fact that the Saints moved up a couple of rounds didn’t surprise me. The fact that they took a punter (Thomas Morstead) did.

I kind of have an old-school mentality when it comes to kickers and punters – don’t draft them. There’s way too many kickers and punters walking the streets to waste valuable draft picks on someone who might not even make it out of training camp.

If Glenn Pakulak had struggled last season, I could make an argument for punter being a good pick. But Pakulak averaged 47.7 yards per Levitra buy cheap punt for the Saints.

Payton said the pick was made to give Pakulak some competition in training camp. That could have been easily achieved by bringing in a guy off the street.

But if the Saints are really one or two players away from a Super Bowl run, and Thomas Morstead gets them over the hump, I’m sure most fans will take it.

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