Great Players The Saints Could Have Drafted: Luis Sharpe

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 1982 NFL Draft.

In the first round, with the 13th-overall pick, the Saints selected Georgia receiver Linsay Scott.

That didn't work out very well, as Scott played four years, only catching one touchdown pass.

3 picks later, with the 16th-overall pick, the St. Louis Cardinals took UCLA offensive tackle Luis Sharpe.

It was a really good pick by the Cardinals, as Sharpe turned out to be a productive offensive tackle for more than a decade.

A 3-time Pro Bowler, Sharpe was a starter from his rookie season in 1982 through his final season in the league in 1994.

In 13 seasons, Sharpe, who went to three-consecutive Pro Bowls, from 1985-1987, appeared in 189 games, starting all of them.

Sharpe, one of the more unheralded offensive linemen of the 80's and 90's, would have been a nice fit on Bum Phillips teams, as well as the teams coached by Jim Mora.