METAIRIE, La. – One of the last things Northwestern coach Randy Walker did before he died of a heart attack in 2006 was help to get offensive tackle Zach Strief drafted by the New Orleans Saints.

Walker’s advice to Saints coach Sean Payton: “This guy will play 10 years for you.”

Sure enough, Strief is now heading into his 10th year with the Saints. He said the milestone has always meant a lot to him so he could prove Walker right.

“I told my parents when I was a young player I’d really like to actually make it 10 just to make him right, because it’s like the only way to honor what he did for me,” Strief said. “I can’t call him, I can’t talk to him. So it’s a pretty cool deal. It’s special for me.”

Walker died unexpectedly at age 52 in June 2006, just two months after Strief was drafted in the seventh round.

“That was something that was always very hard for me not to be able to have told Coach Walker what he meant to me. You know, I had just finished, it wasn’t time. And yet, his belief in me has always been something that was important to me,” said Strief, who said his appreciation has grown over the years for Walker’s tough coaching style and the way he taught guys to be men.

Strief said he texted Payton after he signed his most recent contract extension in 2014 to remind him of Walker’s words.

But Strief laughed at the memory of how he found out that Walker went to bat for him.

He said Payton told him after he was selected that he essentially wasn't even on the Saints' radar until Walker recommended him when Payton called to ask about former Northwestern quarterback Brett Basanez. And Walker said, "What do you think about our right tackle?"

Strief said Northwestern had another offensive lineman, Trai Essex, who was drafted in the third round by the Pittsburgh Steelers a year earlier (and went on to play eight years in the NFL). He said Walker told Payton, "If Trai is a third-round pick, then this guy will play 10 years for you."

"It was 100 percent of why we ended up drafting Zach," recalled Payton, who had worked under Walker when Walker was the head coach at Miami (Ohio) in the 1990s. "Randy was one of those guys that it was hard to ever get a glowing recommendation. ... You had to know Randy to appreciate that was like a once-in-an-eight-year recommendation."

Strief agreed, saying Walker was the kind of coach that rarely gave out compliments and was always "pushing, pushing, pushing."

"So it kind of stood out to me that he stepped forward and said, ‘This guy will play for you,’” said Strief, 31, who has been the Saints' starting right tackle since 2011 after spending his first five seasons as a backup.

Payton said the Saints had decent grades on Strief, but he remembered hanging up the phone with Walker and going to look for Strief's magnet on the draft board.

"I probably had to get a ladder so I could reach up on the board and bring it back down," Payton said. "But I knew Randy well enough to know if he felt that strongly about him, he was going to be tough.

"That had a lot to do with his selection. That had everything to do with his selection."