Charles Grant may be the biggest question mark among defensive lineman right now.
He's clearly got the talent to be an elite two way defensive end. He did struggle through a toe injury last season. He suffered the injury early on but little was made of it after the first month of the season. If it was a nagging injury, it could well have hampered his leverage and taken away his explosive burst off the ball and accounted for much of the decline in his sack number last year. To my knowledge there are no character concerns. The coaching staff clearly isn't shy about remaking the roster - they've signed Anthony Simmons and Scott Fujita at linebacker and acquired Bryan Scott and Omar Stoutmire in the secondary as well as signing Keith Davis to an offer sheet.
It's hard to predict whether the Saints will take Mario Williams or D'Brick. On one hand, they have two young talented ends in Grant and Will Smith and seemingly wouldn't need Williams. They also say that Jammal Brown is more than capable of moving to LT in place of Wayne Gandy which would obviate the need for Ferguson.
Both players are said to be once in a decade talent, but I've seen more questions about Ferguson than Williams.
There've been rumors, mostly on the Saints homer forums, that Grant could move inside to tackle or might be traded. I think Grant could do okay as a three technique type tackle but I think it's more likely that the three ends go back into a rotation similar to what Haslett used to do with Grant/Howard/Smith and Whitehead before Smith.
If the Saints don't take Williams, I'm a believer that Grant will rebound in a big way in 2006. If they do take Williams, I'll temper my expectations until we're told how the Saints decide to use them.
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