New Orleans Saints Draft: Profiling LB Duke Riley from LSU

If the New Orleans Saints wanna break the LSU streak of not drafting a player, Duke Riley would be a nice addition.

Riley would be a nice fit into the Black and Gold linebacker core. He’s a throwback football player. Pursuit is his best quality. Duke goes wherever the ball goes. It’s as simple as that.

Riley can hit you like a ton of bricks. And if a running back can survive the impact, Riley will make sure the runner hits the ground eating grass. Of course it wouldn’t be voluntary like Les Miles eating it. The outcome will be more of a force feeding.

Duke Riley carries a nice load at 232 lbs. Moreover, he stands at 6′ tall which makes him a tad bit undersized. He’s projected to go somewhere mid round. The Saints are no doubt looking for a linebacker in this draft. Whether or not the pick comes in early or not is still in question.

Duke Riley shined at the NFL Combine. He ran a 4.58 40-yard dash which is pretty darn quick for him. This was an interesting quote by him from the NFL Combine.

"“The Combine was a grind, but my advice to someone if they were going is to stay away from negativity, negative thoughts. You hear guys talking about it saying, ‘Man they’re killing us throughout the process. Why are they waking us up so early? Why are they making us wait so long?’ Every time I heard somebody say something like that I tried to separate myself from them.”"

This one quote shows the maturity of Duke Riley. It’s so easy to get caught up in the negativity and conversation and let it affect you. Duke Riley was having none of it. The attitude seemed to pay off for him too. Riley performed exceptionally well in the 3-cone drill being in the top three. Riley also had a 10-2″ broad jump and a vertical of 34.5″.

Duke Riley will make any team better. He could fall to the Saints which would be grand. Here is some great tape against Alabama.