The Saints Give It All For Ricky Williams
The Herschell Walker trade will always remain the all-time GOAT NFL trade but I think this one deserves to be the all-time draft-day trade. Sadly, I think it’s been forgotten about because nobody won the Williams trade unlike the Walker trade. Washington got some good players out of it, but they didn’t stick around and nobody got any playoff success from it. But let’s take a moment to look back at the nonsense that led to this famous ESPN magazine cover which served as the inspiration for the comic above.
Most people these days know Ricky Williams as a relative bust who liked pot too much. He was a stud in college, a Heisman winner at Texas who looked like a true franchise RB, back when that was a thing. The Saints wanted him. They publicly announced they wanted him and would trade their draft to get him. Seems dumb to me, you don’t have much leverage if you just tell the world you are willing to give up everything. When he fell to slot #5, Washington’s pick, the Saints made the deal. The Saints got Ricky Williams, Washington got the Saints entire 1999 draft (1,,3,4,5,6,7th rounders) and two picks from the 2000 draft (1,3). It is an absurd trade. Even teams who have traded into the #1 slot have given up less than the Saints did for Ricky Williams. Even for an era where runningbacks could still be the main building block of a team, this was ridiculous. It’s not like the Saints were a good RB away from competing. They went 6-10 and were at best mediocre. It was a desperate move from a bad franchise trying to stir the pot on a sinking ship.
Ricky was mediocre for the Saints. He wasn’t bad, but for an entire draft’s worth of picks he wasn’t living up to it. After 3 years the new Saints regime got a bunch of draft capital back and traded him to Miami, where he had a single all-pro season and another decent season before retiring early due to getting busted for pot. Back when pot was evil. He’d return to the league eventually but the rest of his career was basically proto Josh Gordon when it came to violating league policies for drugs.
So what about the other side? Well, Washington had recently been acquired by a new owner. One of Dan Snyder’s earliest known problems as an owner was not valuing the draft at all and spending huge sums of money in flashy free-agent signings. Albert Haynesworth is the poster child for this trait, but his very first draft as the owner was the first sign of things to come.
The pre-Commanders sent most of that Saints haul (1,3,4,5, plus another 3rd) to the Bears so they could draft Champ Bailey. You might not think that’s too bad. It’s not! Champ Bailey is a hall of famer. For the Broncos. Champ was absolutely a good pick for Washington but Toxic Dan and the DC Scumbags weren’t a great fit and eventually he was traded to Denver for Clinton Portis. Clinton Portis was good, and he was also delightful, but he was no Champ Bailey. This was their best result from the trade, and he cost most of the picks involved. The Commies then sent the 6th and 7th rounders from the Saints to the Broncos for Derek Smith. Smith fell in the draft due to injury concerns and he never played a down for Washington. The two picks from the next year would become LaVar Arrington (good, but plagued by injury), and Llyod Harrison, who was nothing.
The Bears may have become the ultimate losers in the whole deal, as they used the re-gifted picks from Washington via New Orleans to select Cade McNown and some other dudes you likely haven’t heard of. Chicago and first-round trades: a match made in hell.
I guess I should make a comic on the Walker trade someday huh
Didn’t Washington draft All-Pro OT Chris Samuels as part of the Ricky trade?
It’s not often that I get to say this about anyone, but I think we got the best of Ricky down in Miami.
After so long as a pass-heavy team under Don & Dan, he was the first Fins RB in a few seasons to be a major contributor. And he made it FUN.
Looking at his stats, the ugly gaping wound is 2007, the Cameron Calamity, after the year in Toronto. Wasn’t really the same after that, though 2009 wasn’t terrible.
You should do a Lateral about the Vikings screwing up and forgetting to submit a draft pick twice.
Holy crap, Washington also traded a 1, a 3, and a 2000 2 for Brad Johnson in the same draft.
You might find it interesting that Ricky is a semi-regular on Dan LeBatard’s podcast (basically his ESPN Radio show moved to podcast form), and provides a lot more context to the “guy who liked pot too much” narrative. He doesn’t deny that he uses it or anything, but it’s a broader picture of who he is and what he’s into. It’s not for me, as I’m not big into astrology or the brands of spirtualism that he is, but it is more depth into who he is and how he’s different from the Josh Gordon-type “just likes getting high for the fun of it” storyline.
Trans Pride background colors. A Joyous Pride month to all.
The funniest thing I remember about ESPN The Magazine (besides this wedding cover) is that they actually predicted Kurt Warner in the Super Bowl and Hall of Fame before he’d even played a regular season game for the Rams… they had an un-serious “our cover four months from now” prediction in every issue and that one turned out to be spot on.
Anyway, same joke I made with the last comic, but cut Ricky Williams out of this strip and paste him in the previous fog bowl comic for yet more weed-related hot boxing fun.
I remember a bunch about this trade, the cover, Tim Couch’s miracle hail mary that drove a dagger into Ditka’s heart, and then the disaster that was Jim Haslett.
But I had forgotten just how many picks the Saints gave up for him.
What did it really prove?
That Ditka was very overrated as Chicago’s coach. Payton was more of a leader, and McMahon was more of a face of the team than Ditka. And no matter what you think of Buddy Ryan he built the engine that won that Superbowl.
10 playoff points scored against the 85 Bears.
At first I thought “this is creepy”
Then I followed that ESPN link. It’s even creepier.
Boy the Redskins blew it.
I think pre-Commanders has a nice ring to it.
pre-Commanders….pre-Commies…..pre-Coomies…..pre-
God damnit Dave.
Ricky, now Errick Miron, is an odd guy with different priorities than most players. It was an awful trade and things didn’t work out for the Saints, but he still ran for 10k yards, only 30 guys ahead of him all-time. He’s just ahead of Clinton Portis actually.
Hey Dave, Fitzpatrick retired. I think that merits a comic, since he’s been an occasional muse of sorts for you.
Dude is a legend. He deserves one comic for every team he’s played for… and the only right answer *should be* 32.