Mickles: Payton looks ahead

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Apr 28, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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METAIRIE — Sean Payton wasn’t trying to fool or deceive anyone when he sat down to discuss the New Orleans Saints’ draft late Sunday afternoon.

To him, it’ll be at least three years before you’re able to grade the Saints’ six-man draft class — which began when they chose USC defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis with the seventh overall pick Saturday and finally ended 230 picks later with the selection of Michigan wide receiver Adrian Arrington.

It would have been easy for Payton to say the Saints had a great draft, that they got everything they wanted to — and more — as they look to rebound from a 7-9 finish in 2007.

“The next few weeks, we’re going to read all about the grades of everyone’s draft,,” Payton said. “There are 31 other head coaches that are sitting in front of their media today saying that they got just who they wanted and they had a great day and are happy about it, and I understand that.

“But I think in three years, we will have a pretty good feel for how this draft (panned out),” he said. “In the end, the proof will be in the pudding.”

In his opinion, however, it won’t take nearly that long to analyze the trade that allowed the Saints to move up in the first round on Saturday to obtain Ellis after they tried to get into position to take LSU’s Glenn Dorsey.

If the Saints had Dorsey ranked No. 1 on their board, Ellis was not far away at No. 1a. And because they believed the Bengals were going to grab Ellis, they traded the 10th pick and a third-round choice to the New England Patriots for the seventh overall pick and a fifth-rounder.

“I think we did a pretty good job to get up and get ourselves in a position to get Sedrick Ellis,” Payton said. “When I was driving home (Saturday) night and looking at where we were going into it, I know we got a player that we felt was better than the 10th player — and it was a need.

“He was a guy that probably came up daily in our discussions of how we could get into position to get him,” he said. “I thought we were off to a good start when that happened.”

Payton and General Manager Mickey Loomis were equally excited when they were able to get Indiana cornerback Tracy Porter, a Port Allen High School graduate, to fill another need for their 26th-ranked defense.

On Sunday, three of their four selections — defensive tackle DeMario Pressley of North Carolina State, tackle Carl Nicks of Nebraska and Arrington — were projected to go much higher than they did.

Pressley dropped because of injury problems, while Nicks and Arrington were downgraded because of off-field issues the Saints are satisfied have been addressed.

“We’ll find out sooner than later,” Payton said. “We’re excited about these players. They do fill needs for us, they fit what we’re looking for and we’ll keep going. Hopefully, we can find a few free agents that can come in and compete as well.”