JACKSON: The Saints draft is a quiet embrace of a rebuild
04/26/2025
By Ross Jackson
The NFL Draft is typically all about excitement. An influx of playmakers and skill position players are often seen as a more impactful draft class than organizational building blocks.
However, the latter looks like the approach the New Orleans Saints have taken, and that may be exactly the right choice in their situation. With a roster needing major retooling (and some purging of the previous regime) the Saints have spent the first two draft days quietly rebuilding the foundation, not just decorating the walls.
Why? Because there are no finished walls on their roster. And there is no one beholden to the decisions of the past.
Who’s Next? 👀#SaintsDraft pic.twitter.com/Ok3II9FrVP
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) April 26, 2025
Experience and Leadership in Focus
So far, this Saints class is filled with talent that have played a lot of games and bring a specific mentality and character to the locker room. Head coach Kellen Moore highlighted these elements as an important factor in their selection process.
“So far with these four guys, I think they represent high character guys,” Moore said after day two of the Draft. “A lot of guys have been captains, who’ve been leaders in their different spaces, guys who played a lot of football at big time programs throughout this country. And so all that experience, I think, is going to be really, really valuable for us.”
New Orleans is taking players that have the experience to hit the field and contribute; even in less-exciting, non-skill position roles.
With a new coaching staff in the building, there are likely pieces that they like on the roster. Veteran leadership, institutional experience, and genuinely intriguing weapons here and there. But considering the focus of the draft so far, this team is silently embracing the rebuild they needed to embrace following the departures of former quarterback Drew Brees and then former head coach Sean Payton.
They have a new quarterback, they’re rebuilding the trenches that struggled on both sides last year, and adding to the culture the organization is trying to reconstruct.
The Derek Carr Era Will End
Even if everything between the Saints and Carr ends up fine and he takes the field in 2025 (an unlikely scenario, it feels) the Saints have made it clear that they are ready to move on.
Taking Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough as the franchise’s highest-drafted passer since Archie Manning in 1971 is quite the statement. One that suggests that the Saints are ready to move ahead with their new quarterback, rather than relying on the previous staff’s addition.
Shough is going to be 26-years-old soon after the season begins. The likelihood of him not being a starter his rookie year seems unlikely.
This throw from new @Saints QB Tyler Shough 🤯
(via @CoachDanCasey) pic.twitter.com/EBAwIKIlUd
— NFL UK & Ireland (@NFLUKIRE) April 26, 2025
Building the Trenches
All offseason long, the Saints have made it clear that they intend to build from the inside out. With the selections of offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. and defensive tackle Vernon Broughton, they’ve begun doing exactly that.
Last year’s offensive line struggled to stay healthy, and Banks has only missed one game in his entire playing career. With a major question mark still at right tackle after Trevor Penning’s progress last season, the team adds an exclamation point that will directly or indirectly impact the position. New Orleans now sees at least one player that could have started this season (lineman Dillon Radunz, for instance) now bump to be a starter-quality backup, the year after drop offs at depth hampered the team’s ability for success.
Broughton allows the Saints to now have three new additions in the defensive interior since the new coaching staff arrived. Jonah Williams was a free agent acquisition and former LSU Tiger Davin Godchaux was acquired via trade.
Those three interior linemen are likely to make a roster that carried just four or five defensive tackles most of the season. The position now looks in line to be flipped from the build of the previous regime to being built in the image of the current staff.
Sanker Could Assume a Bigger Role Than Expected
The Virginia safety is joining a room that saw Justin Reid added this offseason while Tyrann Mathieu’s contract was redone to include a litany of playing time incentives.
Sanker could quietly be a part of the future at the position sooner rather than later.
The Saints had serious tackling issues on defense as the season went on last year, Sanker (who had over 200 tackles in his last two seasons) immediately helps as an active and instinctive box safety of defensive coordinator Brandon Staley’s choosing.
This Draft Class Feels More About Hard Work Than Fun Work
This draft class so far is being labeled “boring” and for good reason.
There have been no big pass-catchers, elite running backs, or exciting namesakes. Fans have every right to be deflated and skeptical. But this may simply be a part of the necessary process of a new coaching staff getting its building blocks and not settling for what was left behind by the previous regime, which had a lot of shortcomings.
New Orleans has five selections remaining on the final day of the draft, including two fourth-rounders. There’s a chance that the team begins to get a bit more flashy with its selections after laying the class’s foundation. But, it’s worth expecting more walls to be constructed rather than decor moved in, based on what has transpired so far.