Alontae Taylor is the Saints rookie to watch following OTAs

The New Orleans Saints shocked the fan base when they spent their second-round pick on Alontae Taylor out of Tennessee. Taylor might not have been the pick the fans wanted to see but he’s who the team added and he might be the perfect fit for this defense.

When the second round of this year’s NFL Draft was taking place, New Orleans Saints fans were eagerly awaiting to see who the team would take with the 49th overall pick.

After Jaquan Brisker went one pick ahead of them to the Bears, it felt as though NOLA panicked a bit with their selection of Alontae Taylor. This isn’t anything against Taylor, of course, but it was a surprising pick, to say the least.

Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report put together an article where he listed every team’s rookie to keep an eye on following OTAs and Taylor was his pick for New Orleans.

Ballentine offered this analysis:

"They may have found a third impact player with second-round cornerback Alontae Taylor.Last season, rookie third-round pick Paulson Adebo wound up starting all 17 games. According to John DeShazier of the team’s website, Taylor has been putting in extra work with his new teammate.Now, Adebo sees the same mentality in Taylor that helped him be successful right away."

Ballentine focuses on how the Saints were able to get a starting cornerback in the third round of last year’s draft and now Taylor would give them another potential option and he was another non-first-round pick. That would be impressive scouting by New Orleans if Taylor can emerge as a force in this defense.

Saints fans need to keep an eye on Alontae Taylor

New Orleans’ bread and butter is their defense. They lost Marcus Williams and Malcolm Jenkins this offseason with Williams joining the Ravens and Jenkins retiring but they’ve put in the work to make sure their secondary has remained strong. Taylor was one addition, Marcus Maye was another, and Tyrann Mathieu was the biggest name to join the team.

Taylor is entering probably the best possible situation he could with joining a team like the Saints who have a strong defense already built up. He should be able to succeed early on in his career.