Ditka's deal for Ricky was pretty smart after all

Sporting News, The, Nov 19, 2001 by Dan Pompei

The Saints have been ridiculed and derided for the Ricky Williams trade almost from the day they made it. The perception was they gave up eight Beanie Babies of great potential value for one Quackers the Wingless Duck.

But more than 2 1/2 years after the deal, it's time for that perception to change. Quackers, after a few stumbles and crashes, has learned to fly, and has become quite precious. What the Saints gave up, meanwhile, doesn't look nearly as valuable now as it looked on April 17, 1999. It is clear now that the Saints got much more than Williams out of the deal.

The controversial trade, in fact, has served the organization well.

Williams, now in his third season, has established himself as one of football's premier backs, a player capable of carrying an offense and trampling a defense. This season, he has accounted for 41 percent of his team's offense. No running back has accounted for more.

Through eight weeks, Williams, who spins out of tackle attempts by big men and lowers his shoulder into smaller men, had gained more yards after contact than all but three players, according to STATS Inc. His fourth-quarter average per carry of 5.3 yards is outstanding.

Williams had a fumble and a dropped pass in the fourth quarter of a tough loss to the 49ers Sunday, but his 121 rushing yards were the primary reason the Saints were in the game. He was so impressive to 49ers linebacker Julian Peterson that he called Williams "a future Hall of Famer." In the winning locker room, other 49ers defenders marveled at Williams' leg drive, his ability to get low and hide behind his line, and his second gear.

"He's turning out to be one of the best running backs in the league," 49ers consultant Bill Walsh says. "He's powerful, he's intense and he has stamina. I didn't know if it would ever happen, but it has happened."

Former New Orleans coach Mike Ditka said the Saints always thought Williams was the best player in the 1999 draft. He is as convinced now as he was then that the Saints did the right thing by making the trade.

Here are the players chosen with the eight draft picks the Saints gave up: one budding star (Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington), one decent player (Broncos tight end Desmond Clark), one player who has barely kept his roster spot (Bears receiver D'Wayne Bates), three players who are on their second team after failing with their first (Dolphins quarterback Cade McNown, Lions linebacker Khari Samuel and Chargers cornerback Lloyd Harrison), one player who is out of the league (former Broncos receiver Billy Miller) and one who never played in the NFL (former Redskins draft pick Nate Stimson, a linebacker).

Would you trade Arrington, Clark, Bates, McNown, Samuel and Harrison for Williams? If you needed a running back, you would.

"He's proven he's worth every pick," says former Saints general manager Bill Kuharich, now the pro personnel director of the Chiefs. "I don't think we would have been a better team with the picks, given where our team was at the time."

Of course, had the Saints not made the Williams deal, they could have kept the picks and chosen better players than the ones who were chosen in those spots.

Both Kuharich and Ditka said if the Saints had not moved up to the fifth pick to take Williams, they likely would have taken McNown with the No. 12 overall pick. They previously had traded away their second-round pick. In the third round, let's say the Saints would have addressed their biggest need that year, running back. One they liked who was still on the board was Sedrick Irvin, who hasn't done much after being chosen in the fourth round by the Lions.

The Saints' next-most pressing need was receiver, so they could have tried to address that in the fourth round. None of the receivers chosen from the 107th pick down has done much. Let's say the Saints would have taken Na Brown, a fourth-round pick of the Eagles. In the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds, we'll give the Saints three players who filled lesser needs: cornerback Jason Craft of the Jaguars, tight end Clark of the Broncos and defensive tackle Jermaine Haley of the Dolphins.

In 2000, they could have taken running back Jamal Lewis with the second pick in the first round. In the third round, the Saints could have had a receiver such as Laveranues Coles of the Jets.

That's about the best-case scenario. But to assume the Saints--or any other team--would have drafted that well is folly.

And there is more to consider. By trading away eight draft picks, the Saints acquired more than $12 million in cap space. It was as if you downsized to a lesser house and subsequently had extra money to upgrade your new home into a small palace. That cap space enabled the Saints to go on a spending spree that allowed them to sign defensive tackle Norman Hand, receivers Joe Horn and Willie Jackson, middle linebacker Charlie Clemons, outside linebacker Darrin Smith, cornerback Fred Thomas, punter Toby Gowin and quarterback Jeff Blake.

Not many drafts in NFL history have approached a yield of eight starters and a very good backup quarterback.