The New Orleans Saints have had on-and-off success over the last eight years in the NFL draft. The hiring of Jeff Ireland coincides with this trend. It’s typically pretty solid with some deathly lows. The second round has arguably been their best round in that time frame. Leave Foskey as TBD and Ireland’s worst second rounder is Pete Werner. That’s a pretty strong hit rate.
As this year’s draft rolls around, Bleacher Report’s Ryan Fowler took a look at each team’s highs over the last ten years. Fowler formed an ultimate draft class of each team’s best selection from each round over the past decade. The range has expanded but you won’t see any pre-Ireland draftees on this list. Here are his picks for the Saints:
Round 1: OT Ryan Ramczyk (2017)
Round 2: WR Michael Thomas (2016)
Round 3: RB Alvin Kamara (2017)
Round 4: DL David Onyemata (2016)
Round 5: DT Tyeler Davison (2015)
Round 6: OT Landon Young (2021)
Round 7: LB Kaden Elliss (2019)
The Saints’ 2017 draft produced a legendary draft class. That class, somewhat surprisingly, is tied with 2016 for the most selections in this exercise. When you take a deeper look at the Saints 2017 draft, it features two 1st round picks and three players third round picks. The majority of the ultimate draft class were easy decisions, but there were a few tough calls.
Fowler highlights Marshon Lattimore as the player who missed the cut. The battle between him and Ramczyk was decided by the offensive tackle’s 1st team All Pro in 2019. C.J. Gardner-Johnson is another player who has a strong case to be on the list. The fourth rounder was a big part of the defense, but Onyemata’s longer tenure may have given him the edge.
Other quality players who didn’t make the list are Trey Hendrickson. He steadily improved before hitting double-digit sacks in his final year in New Orleans. However, no third round pick was beating the Saints all time leader in touchdowns, Alvin Kamara. Michael Thomas’ dominant stretch led to Marcus Williams, Erik McCoy or Vonn Bell receiving the second round slot.
