Interview with New Orleans Saints offensive lineman DeOn’tae Pannell

In preparation for the 2012 NFL Draft, the New Orleans Saints had to have a solid plan for their limited number of draft picks.  One part of that plan involved several pre-draft visits with some potential hidden gems like offensive lineman DeOn’tae Pannell.

For those of you that haven’t heard of Pannell, he helped anchor the offensive line at both the guard and tackle positions during his time at Penn State.

Being versatile at both, this only probably increased the Saints interest in Pannell leading up to the draft.  Another thing that the Saints looked at was where Pannell’s ranking going into the draft.

On several scouting sites, Pannell was ranked as a late round draft pick or being an undrafted free agent.  With the Saints only having one pick in each round in rounds 3-7, Pannell could easily fit the mold the Saints follow each year.

The college scouting department for the Saints spearheaded by Rick Reiprish pride themselves on finding the overlooked players like Lance Moore, Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory, and Junior Galette.

Pannell has been described as being not only a positive minded hard worker, but a team oriented person.  I was able to speak with Pannell’s agent Brandon Taylor with Metis Sports Management prior to the draft who was able to put me in touch with him.