DBWI: WI No Ricky Williams trade?

(OOC: This occurs in a different universe from my Columbine TL, it should be noted.)

This year marks the 20th anniversary of what is widely considered to be the worst trade in NFL history. I am talking, of course, about the New Orleans Saints trading all of their 1999 draft picks and a first, second, and third round pick in 2000 to the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for Ricky Williams. Mike Ditka just had to have Ricky Williams, and this led to the infamous wedding cover (it also led to Ditka's firing in 2000, of course, after the Saints lost most of their games)...

We all know what happened now, don't we? The Indianapolis Colts used the players they got from the Saints to build their roster (including Lavar Arrington and Edgerrin James (1)) and, well, there's a reason they were the dominant team in the 2000s and 2010s--winning seven Super Bowls and making playoff appearances every year Peyton Manning played for them (old Peyton just about sealed the GOAT title on himself with his last Super Bowl appearance); there's a reason Lucas Oil Stadium is "the house Ricky built..."

So, WI the Saints don't trade to get Ricky Williams from the Colts, or the Colts pick someone else? It took years for the Saints to recover; it wasn't until they drafted Eli Manning in 2004 that they began recovering--Eli's (and Peyton's) post-Katrina work helped in his popularity, and it did lead to two Manning vs. Manning Super Bowls that are considered to be among the best in SB history...

(1) ObWI: Edgerrin James comes out a year earlier? He considered doing so, but wanted to win the Heisman Trophy and NC with Miami, and did so; when the Colts announced that they were using New Orleans' 2000 first-round pick to draft him, Ditka's name effectively became mud in New Orleans (not that it wasn't anyway; that just sealed it). Colts GM Bill Polian has said that he would have considered drafting James if he'd declared for the draft in 1999...
 
I was at the game where Ditka grabbed his crotch and flipped off the crowd.

It's hard to imagine that nobody would have taken the offer. If the Colts didn't, maybe the Eagles or Bengals or Cowboys would have. Only questions are do they draft well (Cincy would have taken a bunch of busts), and do they use some of those picks to trade back up and get the guy they wanted?

Saints probably don't change much. McNabb was already off the board and nobody else was going to be an immediate game-changer, so Ditka still gets fired after the season. We won the Eli sweepstakes because Jeff Blake and Jake Delhomme both got hurt in 2003, and the Chargers took Rivers while the Giants took CFF. (Dan Rooney reportedly wanted CFF....hard to imagine the Steelers without Aaron Rodgers.)
 
Hard to tell if this, or the Hershel Walker trade may be the most consequential of the 90s for the NFL - the Colts got more mileage out of it than the Cowboys did at least.
 
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