3 New Orleans Saints heading into a make-or-break season in 2022

2. Adam Trautman

The Saints’ 2020 draft class is going to go down in history as one of the team’s worst draft classes ever. One of the picks from that year’s class was Adam Trautman, who the team took in the third round out of Dayton.

We all figured with Trautman hailing from a smaller school that he’d take some time to turn into the kind of player NOLA needed. He had guys ahead of him on the tight end depth chart as a rookie so the 15 catches for 171 yards and one touchdown weren’t alarming by any means.

In year two though, people expected Trautman to take that next step because the team desperately needed him to. They lost Jared Cook and Josh Hill in the offseason and while Nick Vannett joined the team in free agency and Juwan Johnson switched to tight end, Trautman was expected to be the guy.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out well for Trautman. The former third-round pick improved on his rookie numbers but not by much. He had 27 catches for 263 yards and two trips into the end zone during his sophomore season as a pro tight end. Not exactly eye-popping.

Trautman went over the 50-yard mark in just one game in 2021 and there were several times when he cost the team big plays due to stupid penalties. A touchdown was wiped off the board earlier in the season due to a Trautman hold and the two-point conversion in the Titans’ loss was from further back due to another bone-headed penalty by the tight end.

Year three is now approaching for Trautman and it’s now or never for the Dayton product. If he has yet another lackluster season, the team will turn to the tight end well and find a replacement for Adam Trautman. He needs to figure it out in 2022.