What are the New Orleans Saints going to do to cure what ails them this offseason? Many Saints fans are hoping for an exciting young quarterback to take over for Derek Carr, who has looked more like a free agent bust than a franchise-saving pickup through his first 13 games as their starter. Others are looking to get faster defensively or more explosive in the receiving corps.
But a lot of draft experts are predicting the Saints will add to their offensive line, and that would make sense, too. It fits New Orleans’ established strategy with 11 picks in the top two rounds invested in the offensive or defensive lines since 2015, when Jeff Ireland took over the college scouting department. And this projection from Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy has the Saints doing just that, picking Notre Dame left tackle Joe Alt in the first round at No. 9 overall.
Alt, who formally declared for the 2024 draft as an underclassman entrant, would be the steal of the year if he fell to New Orleans. He’s a top-five talent in the upcoming draft class with more than 2,200 career snaps behind him (almost exclusively at left tackle). He’s drawn four penalty flags and allowed four sacks in his three-year run at Notre Dame.
The Saints have preached patience with Trevor Penning despite benching him, and everything head coach Dennis Allen has said publicly suggests Penning will have the opportunity to win his starting job back in the spring. But drafting Alt (or another left tackle) in the first round would slam the door shut on Penning returning to the starting lineup. Maybe the Saints would then consider moving him to guard, as they did with Andrus Peat. Or maybe they would just cut ties altogether and see what they could get for him in a trade.
Back to Popejoy’s mock draft: this was a two-round projection, and he had the Saints using the pick coming back to them from the Denver Broncos on Utah linebacker/defensive end Jonah Elliss. The younger brother of former Saints linebacker Kaden Elliss, he’s a 6-foot-2, 246-pounder who doesn’t quite meet the athletic thresholds the Saints maintain at defensive end.
But Elliss has been disruptive. He created a career-high 39 pressures in 2023 (with 12 sacks) plus 16 tackles for loss, 3 pass breakups, and a forced fumble; his draft stock is on the rise despite a season-ending injury suffered in mid-November. He can certainly play, but the question is whether it would take Allen and the Saints coaching staff three years to figure that out like it did with Zack Baun.
