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With Super Bowl XLIV in the books congratulations are extended to the New Orleans Saints, its players, the city and, of course, its long suffering fan base that has finally been rewarded for its loyalty after decades of ineptitude.

As the Lombardi trophy heads to the party in the French Quarter we wanted to take a look at how this previously moribund franchise finally achieved gridiron greatness. Our analysis took us through how New Orleans assembled their Super Bowl winning roster.

Draft Batting Average

The New Orleans Saints sport one of the NFL’s worst draft batting averages in that just 19 players on the team’s active roster were draft by the team. At 35.84% the Saints are nearly ten points below the NFL average of 44.69% and just above the likes of Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cleveland.

Based on their draft batting average it is obvious that the team has relied more heavily on trades and free agency to construct their roster.

Undrafted Players, Free Agency and Trades

The Saints also have 19 players on their active roster that entered the league as undrafted free agents, which is also good for a 35.84% average that is well above the NFL average of 27%(1).

In recent years the Saints have been active in free agency snagging the likes of Drew Brees and Darren Sharper. They have also been willing trade partners acquiring tight ends Jeremy Shockey and Dave Thomas over the past two seasons.

Brees Acquisition

Calling the Saints victory an upset may be a bit of a stretch, as both conference champions entered the playoffs as number one seeds. Additionally, the Saints were first in total offense for the 2009 regular season. And that is all thanks to head coach Sean Payton’s aggressive play calling and the 2005 acquisition of quarterback Drew Brees.

Since arriving in New Orleans four seasons ago Brees has been one of the most prolific passers in the NFL amassing 18,308 yards, 122 touchdowns and 57 interceptions. His record tying 32 completions that helped the Saints win Super Bowl XLIV will no doubt remind Payton to send both A.J. Smith and Nick Saban fruit baskets for enabling him land Brees.

The Ground Game

The Saints had presumably locked up the future of their rushing attack when they drafted Reggie Bush out of USC with the second overall pick of the 2006 draft. Little did they know that an undrafted free agent from the University of Illinois would quickly surpass their high priced, high level draft choice.

As prolific as Bush was in college, his game hasn’t necessarily translated well to the NFL having posted just over 1,900 rushing yards at 4.0 yards per carry in four seasons. In comparison the relatively anonymous Pierre Thomas, who made the team in 2007, has already put up over 1,600 yards with a 5.1 yards per carry average.

Unheralded Receiving Corp

In the 2007 draft the Saints took a receiver who they thought would become a cornerstone to their passing attack. Much to their surprise that cornerstone turned out to be Marques Colston, a 7th round pick of out Hofstra, and not Robert Meachem, their 1st round pick (27th overall) out of Tennessee. In his first three seasons Colston has recorded over 4,000 yards receiving and two 1,000+ yard seasons while Meachem has struggled with an injury during his rookie season.

Rounding out the Saints receiving corp are Lance Moore, undrafted out of Toledo, and Devery Henderson, 2nd round pick in 2004 out of LSU.

(1) This figure is subject to change as our database has not been fully scrubbed as of the date of this post.

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