There isn’t much history of NFL teams trading down from the 14th overall pick, but this is a good year for the Saints to try it:
If there’s ever been a year for Mickey Loomis to break his streak of NFL drafts without a trade down (dating back to 2007!), it’s this one: the New Orleans Saints are getting perilously older at multiple positions and they’re short on draft picks. Restocking the roster is going to be tough with just two picks in the top four rounds.
At the same time, the 2024 draft class is remarkably top-heavy. A historically small class of underclassmen declaring has winnowed the talent available in the later rounds, where the Saints expect to have most of their selections once compensatory draft picks are announced in a week or two. Some crafty maneuvering — moving down early on, packaging those later picks to move up in the middle rounds — could pay off in a big way.
But beyond Loomis continuing to snub trade offers and move down, there isn’t much historical precedent for trading out of the 14th pick. We went back and studied every draft class since 2004 to get an idea of what the Saints could ask for in a trade down in 2024:
Who has terrified quarterbacks and coaches the most for every team?
The modern NFL game is not built for defenses to thrive. Heck, even in times of “three yards and a cloud of dust,” it’s arguable the league never actually wanted defenses to win. At least, once the powers that be learned that offense sells like hotcakes.
Suffice it to say, playing defense in the NFL can be an impossible job. So the men that have courageously taken on the assignment of slowing down high-flying attacks stand out all the more.
In pro football lore, the best defenders ever are those who made offensive coordinators lose countless hours of sleep as they game-planned. They are the players who made quarterbacks quite literally see ghosts when standing in the pocket. They are pictures of reliability and dependability and are the preeminent warriors of the West’s favorite gladiator sport.
The below list examines the greatest defender in the history of all 32 NFL teams. My criteria was simple and rooted around these questions: What was their production like? Did they have a high intimidation factor? How available were they for their teammates? Did they pioneer a new way of playing their position?
It’s not easy playing defense in the NFL. But these fine gentlemen sometimes made the impossible seem like a casual task.
Revis Island has a new home. The place where wide receivers went to disappear now resides in the halls of Canton, Ohio as Darrelle Revis was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday as a first-ballot vote.
Revis was presented by his mother Diana Askew, whom he has said numerous times has made a major impact on his life and career.
He also made Jets fans cheer and boo in the same speech as he also brought up his signing with the New England Patriots in 2014, a move that resulted in a Super Bowl ring for Revis.
“The pressure [of playing for the Jets] was intense, but so was the love,” Revis said, via USA Today. “And to the Jets fans, for all the boos, cheers, when I was drafted 14th overall to burning my jersey when I signed with the Patriots, to now being here in Canton… I guess it’s safe to say we’ve been through a lot together.”
Revis played eight seasons across two stints with the Jets and, in addition to his season with the Patriots, also spent time in Tampa Bay and Kansas City. For his career, Revis was named First-Team All-Pro four times, a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and a member of the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 2010s.
Revis even mentioned fellow great Deion Sanders as an inspiration to him, similar to the connection between Michael Jordan and the late, great Kobe Bryant. “What Jordan is to Kobe . . . Prime is to Revis Island,” Revis said, via CBS Sports.
Revis closed out his speech with an inspirational quote based on his climbing of Camelback Mountain in Arizona.
“Most of you don’t know, Camelback Mountain is very dangerous. People die all the time,” Revis said, via NBC Sports. “I think that was when my sanity kicked in for me to go beyond my limits and do something different for myself as a player. When you’re at the bottom of Camelback Mountain, it’s just you and two voices. The doubter telling, ‘Damn, this shit’s high. I don’t know about this.’ And the believer saying, ‘I will not be stopped from reaching my goal at the top.’ The competition will always be you versus you. If you stay focused and fall in love with the process, you will always come out on top.”
Revis is now on the ultimate top of football greatness, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
While this year’s induction ceremony was filled with plenty of great moments, there was one that was just absolutely hilarious and perfectly summed up the plight of the Jets fan.
Revis thanked all Jets fans in his speech, which includes those who were mad he signed New England Patriots as a free agent in 2014. He laughed as he remembered the New York fans who were so upset at that signing that they burned his jersey as some sort of petty retaliation.
However, it appears as if there’s no hard feelings at all for Revis to the Jets fandom. If anything, it’s a hilarious memory from a spectacular career.
“The pressure was intense, but so was the love,” Revis told the crowd about playing for the Jets fans with a smile, “and to the Jets fans, for all the boos, cheers, when I was drafted 14th overall to burning my jersey when I signed with the Patriots, to now being here in Canton… I guess it’s safe to say we’ve been through a lot together.”
You can watch Revis’ full speech below.
Revis is one of the all-time great cornerbacks in NFL history, and he did make a return to New York to play for the Jets after winning a Super Bowl with New England.
While some Jets fans may never be able to let go of a franchise great like Revis playing for “the enemy,” it’s clear that most New York fans will always have a special place in their hearts for Revis Island.
With Revis smiling wide as he said the ceremony felt like MetLife Stadium as the Jets fans cheered him on, we have a hunch that the feeling is mutual.
Saturday will be a great day for Jets fans. Darrelle Revis and Joe Klecko take their place on football’s ultimate roster, the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
They are among nine players and coaches who will be enshrined into the halls of Canton, Ohio and be forever immortalized in football history.
You can watch the ceremony starting at 12 eastern on ESPN and the NFL Network. You can also stream on the respective websites and apps.
Here is the order in which the speeches will be made, starting with linebacker Zach Thomas and closing with longtime Browns offensive tackle Joe Thomas.
Revis Island is set to be forever immortalized in Canton, Ohio. Jets legendary cornerback Darrelle Revis received his gold jacket Friday ahead of Saturday’s induction ceremony.
Revis, New York’s first-round pick in 2007, played eight seasons across two stints with the Jets and also spent time in New England and Tampa Bay. He won Super Bowl XLIX with the Patriots.
The Jets inducted Revis into their Ring of Honor last season. He will now take his rightful place in the halls of Canton, Ohio with his mother presenting him.
If NFL wide receivers are competitive to the point of psychosis, defensive backs are on an entirely different level.
This week we got yet another example of cornerbacks arguing with each other over who’s better, both in today’s league and back in the day. Darrelle Revis and Asante Samuel went at it on Twitter yesterday for a while, while it started as a debate over Tariq Woolen vs. Sauce Gardner in 2022. This is hardly unusual, though. As Eagles corner Darius Slay put it:
I’ve been saying this lol that’s y we cant never workout together. 😂 https://t.co/ilR5fN8Pgg
The top two cornerbacks in the 2022 NFL draft class appear to be Sauce Gardner of the Jets and Tariq Woolen from the Seahawks. While Sauce eventually won the Defensive Rookie of the Year award there are some (present company included) who believe Riq is the superior defender. Apparently you can count four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Asante Samuel among them.
Yesterday on Twitter Samuel tweeted that Woolen had a better rookie year than Gardner.
For the record Tariq had a better rookie season then Sauce they both played outstanding but what in the hell do y’all be watching. Y’all are highly influenced by the media not facts.
Somehow that statement turned into an all out war of words between Samuel and Darrelle Revis. While Gardner jumped in to defend his game, Woolen stayed above the fray.
Never cared what these stat pages/blogs say, It all just looks good tbh. I just know that Riq this year gone be better than last years cause if I do then I can never be wrong. I don't got nun to prove to anyone except myself !!
We’re not going to argue that Samuel was better than Revis, but the stats do show Woolen was better than Gardner last year.
Playing cornerback is one thing, but when it comes to opinions, it’s worth noting that both Revis and Gardner appear to be paying for Twitter’s pathetic fascist-friendly $8 blue check service, while Woolen and Samuel have had the sense to abstain.
It’s easy to forget how ridiculously stacked the New England Patriots were defensively in their 2014 Super Bowl-winning season.
A Twitter post looking back on the unit got a retweet from multiple former Patriots players that were on the roster at that time, including Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins, Patrick Chung and James White.
Other standouts included Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis, Vince Wilfork, Chandler Jones, Jerod Mayo, Devin McCourty, Logan Ryan, Brandon Browner and Rob Ninkovich.
It’s one of the most imposing defensive lineups on paper in franchise history. Some of the greatest players that have ever suited up in a Patriots uniform were on the roster.
The 2014 Super Bowl champion, Patriots defense was absolutely stacked.
DT Vince Wilfork DE Chandler Jones DE Rob Ninkovich LB Jamie Collins LB Dont’a Hightower LB Jerod Mayo CB Darrelle Revis CB Brandon Browner CB Logan Ryan SS Patrick Chung FS Devin McCourty
The Patriots went on to defeat the Seattle Seahawks at Super Bowl XLIX that season.
After Tom Brady and the offense engineered another one of their improbable comebacks, Malcolm Butler, who was an undrafted rookie cornerback at the time, secured a goal line interception on Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson to help the defense seal the victory.
One of the greatest cornerbacks in both Jets and NFL history will soon take his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. And it will be none other than his mother that gets to do the honors.
Revis recently shared that his mother, Diana Askew, will be Revis’ presenter at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, August 5, two days after the Jets play the Cleveland Browns in the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday, August 3.
Revis’ mother always played a huge part in his life and his NFL career, so it’s only fitting that she be the one to have the honor of bringing her son to football immortality.
Joining Revis in this year’s class are fellow Jets great Joe Klecko, defensive back Ronde Barber, coach Don Coryell, linebacker Chuck Howley, cornerback Ken Riley, offensive tackle Joe Thomas, linebacker Zach Thomas and edge-rusher Demarcus Ware.
