Great Players The Saints Could Have Drafted: Curley Culp

The 2016 NFL Draft gets underway on Thursday, April 28, in Chicago, Illinois.

Between now and then, we’ll be looking back at some of the past drafts by the Saints, and some of the better players they passed up on when it was their turn to pick.

Of course, every NFL team has had their “steals” and “busts” over the years, as the NFL Draft is such an inexact science, but it’s kind of fun, and at times, agonizing, to look back and see what players they could have, and maybe even should have drafted.

Today, we go back to the 1968 NFL Draft.

In the first round, with the 7th-overall pick, the Saints selected Notre Dame defensive tackle Kevin Hardy.

Not a good pick, to say the least, as Hardy never played a down for the Saints, and lasted only 4 seasons in the league, all as a reserve.

One pick later, the Dolphins selected fullback Larry Csonka, who went on to a Hall of Fame career.

But since Hardy was a defensive tackle, and since the Saints took defensive tackle Willie Crittendon in the fourth round, after not having picks in either the second or third rounds, we'll focus on a defensive tackle they could have, and should have, taken.

In the second round, with the 31st-overall pick, the Denver Broncos selected Curley Culp.

A 6-time Pro Bowler, Barney was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

In 16 seasons, including seven with the Kansas City Chiefs, seven with the Houston Oilers, and two with the Detroit Lions, Culp played in 179 games, en route to a Hall of Fame career.

Had the Saints selected Culp in the 1968 NFL Draft, they might not have been so bad, for so long.