The 2015 regular season is over, and that means it's time for legit 2016 NFL Draft analysis and predictions for the top 20 picks, which are now set. Picking No. 12 overall will be the New Orleans Saints, and they're coming off of a 7-9 season. The defense had another pitiful year overall, and there's no question that their draft should be defense-oriented. With that in mind, the Saints should take Baylor DT Andrew Billings in the first round.
New Orleans' defensive line has just been horrible, with the exception of Cameron Jordan. Truly, no one else really make much of an impact, and it makes the job of two very good safeties damn near impossible in Kenny Vaccaro and Jairus Byrd.
The other three starters on the defensive front four are Bobby Richardson, John Jenkins and an ancient Kevin Williams. Thirty-seven starts between those three -- that's right, 37 -- during the 2015 season, and they only had one sack combined. Jordan had 10 by himself, and only one other guy had more than four sacks.
But this isn't just about sacks and the pass rush. The Saints were one of the worst teams against the run as well, giving up over 2,000 yards rushing at 4.9 yards per pop. That's brutally bad, and really, their entire defense struggled at everything.
Essentially, what we're looking at here is a team that simply gets beat in the trenches all game long. They have some proven playmakers in Vacarro, Bryd, Dannell Ellerbe and Brandon Browner -- when he's not committing a penalty, anyway -- but those guys can't do anything if the line up front doesn't do its job at least some of the time. And in 2015, it was case of them only have one defensive lineman who is NFL starting material, that being, of course, Jordan.
Enter Andrew Billings.
Described as maybe the most disruptive defensive lineman in all of football by CBS Sports, Billings can flat out blow up a play.
Built in the mold of dynamic 4-3 defensive tackles in recent history such as Tommie Harris, Gerald McCoy or Aaron Donald, Billings has the proper makeup and film to show he's capable of being a truly fantastic defensive lineman. He's exactly what the Saints need right now and they're picking in the perfect spot to have a chance at grabbing him.
He's one of the strongest players in college football, and it shows as he's able to bull over offensive linemen, sometimes even removing their feet from the ground and putting them on their back. Billings is also excellent at sniffing out and blowing up run plays. Simply put, he looks like a natural out there.
The Saints could truly have a couple of legitimate building blocks with the combination of Billings and Jordan on the defensive line, and it would only make everyone else's job more doable, improving each level of the defense drastically. This one is a no-brainer.
