Saints Roster: Realistic expectations for Kawaan Baker in 2022

Kawaan Baker is entering his second season on the New Orleans Saints roster. What should fans expect from him in 2022? 

In the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the New Orleans Saints selected Kawaan Baker out of South Alabama. Fans were hoping that the team would spend an earlier draft pick on a wide receiver but they waited until the seventh round to do so and Baker was the guy.

Despite the Saints not having much talent at the wide receiver position, Baker never saw time on offense. He appeared in two games during his rookie year but only spent time with special teams, appearing in 51% of the snaps during his two games.

Saints Roster: What should fans expect from Kawaan Baker in 2022?

The wide receiver position is no longer a weakness in New Orleans now that Chris Olave and Jarvis Landry joined the team in the offseason. Those two and Michael Thomas will make up the starting trio at the position, giving them the best wide receiver trio the Saints have had in quite some time.

A realistic expectation from Baker is that he provides what he did in 2021, which is mostly contributing on special teams. He’s likely going to be a third-stringer on the depth chart behind Olave and Tre’Quan Smith and he has more competition to make the roster this year.

New Orleans added talented UDFA wide receivers in the form of Dai’Jean Dixon and Rashid Shaheed and those two guys could give Baker a run for his money when it comes to making the roster or practice squad.

While it’d be nice to see Baker become more of a contributor to the Saints offense, he’s a seventh-round pick who hasn’t shown much offensively to this point. Last year was his chance to show what he could do while the team had a weak wide receiver room and he didn’t rise to the occasion.

If Baker makes the roster, he’ll likely be a special teams contributor with maybe a few targets sent his way.

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