New Orleans Saints can risk not drafting a wide receiver early
However one wants to look at it, the New Orleans Saints are not going to be able to fill every hole on their roster in the upcoming draft. After gutting the team of many key veterans, New Orleans must use its draft picks wisely.
Just under ten days till draft day, the Saints have quite a bit of work still to do in regards to potentially finding diamond in the rough players late in the draft. They’ll need some after their hectic offseason.
The New Orleans Saints are going to have to prioritize their needs with only one first-round pick, and one position they can overlook is wide receiver.
The Saints have four picks in the first three rounds.
Not all those picks will produce high-quality, starter-worthy players. Both tight end Adam Trautman and linebacker Zack Baun, especially Baun, wouldn’t have been ready to shine upon coming to the Big Easy at the beginning of last season.
Assuming the Saints have one spot to fill, it shouldn’t be their No. 2 wide receiver. Although Rondale Moore and other top-tier receivers should be on the table, cornerback and defensive interior pose a much greater need.
The Saints released cornerback Janoris Jenkins. They also watched defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins leave in free agency and traded Malcom Brown. It’s been a brutal offseason for the Saints defense, one of the top-ranked in the league last season.
Along those lines, the Saints have Patrick Robinson and PJ Williams behind Marshon Lattimore. They have David Onyemata and Malcolm Roach as their starters at defensive tackle right now. Onyemata started 15 games last season while Roach didn’t start a single one.
The difference between Roach and Robinson, and a top-tier first-round pick at either of those positions is wide. However, the difference between the wide receiver the Saints could take at No. 28 and Deonte Harris or Marquez Callaway may not be that great.
The thought process behind adding a receiver would be to supplement what the Saints lost in Emmanuel Sanders, the team’s top receiver in terms of receiving yards and receptions. The team doesn’t necessarily need that though with who they have rising through the ranks.
New Orleans will also need to decide if that’s the case, but strengthening their defense and allowing their offensive weapons to showcase their talent is ideally how the upcoming draft will go.
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We’ll see if New Orleans agrees with that take on April 29, Day 1 of the 2021 NFL Draft.