Saints Roster: Realistic expectations for Josh Black in 2022
Joining the New Orleans Saints roster this offseason is defensive tackle Josh Black, who spent his college career at Syracuse. What should fans expect from him?
The New Orleans Saints are no strangers to adding undrafted talent and seeing them go on to become good players. Josh Black could be the next example of this.
Black played at Syracuse from 2017-2021 and his best season came in 2019 when he had 39 tackles, six tackles for loss, and four sacks through 12 games. He went undrafted this year and while he wasn’t an immediate UDFA addition for New Orleans, he did eventually join them and is now on their roster.
Saints Roster: What should fans expect from Josh Black in 2022?
I won’t lie — It’s not going to be an easy path for Black to make it onto the final roster. Not only was he a latecomer to the roster this offseason but he has a lot of competition when it comes to the defensive line reserves.
Our Lads has Black as the fourth-string RDT behind Shy Tuttle, Malcolm Roach, and rookie Jordan Jackson. Obviously, there’s a chance that Jackson disappoints but the Saints spent a draft pick on him. They’re going to give him more opportunities to prove himself. Black might not have those same opportunities.
Roach is someone who also could be passed by on the depth chart, as he didn’t have a super impressive performance in 2021. The former Texas standout went undrafted in 2020 and was decent as a rookie but only appeared in seven games last year.
With all of that said, a realistic expectation for Josh Black is for him to make the practice squad at best. He might be able to sneak onto the 53-man roster at some point if injuries pile up or something else unexpected happens but if fans are going to have any sort of expectations for the former Syracuse product, it’ll be as a practice squad member.
Fingers crossed that Josh Black surprises everyone and becomes another UDFA gem for New Orleans.
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