3 best moves the Saints made in 2024 NFL Draft

The 2024 NFL Draft is in the books and the New Orleans Saints appear to have put together a solid draft. They added seven new players to their roster and unlike previous years, didn't trade all of their picks away.

The NFC South is a winnable division and the Saints came close to winning it a season ago. Will these draft picks help get them back into the driver's seat in the NFC South?

Let's look at the three best moves the Saints made in the draft.

3. Not moving up in the first round

The Saints have been known to be an aggressive team in the draft. Just two years ago, they made a deal to land two first-round picks, drafting Chris Olave and Trevor Penning with those two picks. This year, it wouldn't have been shocking to see them want to move up and get an elite tackle prospect considering how strong of a need they had for a tackle.

Well, the Saints stayed put at 14 and the risk paid off, as they managed to get Taliese Fuaga with that pick. We'll touch more on that in a bit but it was refreshing to see the Saints not trade away a bunch of picks and still be able to land a player who will be an immediate game-changer for them.

2. Landing Spencer Rattler in the fifth round

While the Atlanta Falcons were overly aggressive in selecting Michael Penix Jr. eighth overall (when he wasn't thought to be a top-10 prospect), the Saints sat back and waited until the fifth round to draft a quarterback. Spencer Rattler was once thought to be a first-round draft prospect but after a shaky year in 2021 at Oklahoma, he transferred to South Carolina and was mostly forgotten about.

Rattler has a lot of upside and this pick was the definition of low-risk/high-reward. If Rattler can become the guy he once was, the Saints will have gotten an absolute steal here. If he doesn't pan out, all they used to get him was a fifth-round draft pick. Win-win.

1. Selecting Taliese Fuaga in the first round

With the 14th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the New Orleans Saints drafted Taliese Fuaga out of Oregon State, giving them immediate help on their offensive line. As I mentioned above, sure the Saints could have moved up and tried to get Joe Alt or J.C. Latham but they decided to be patient and the decision paid off for them.

Fuaga will bring a solid run-blocker to the Big Easy and should help protect Derek Carr. If the Saints want Carr to get back to his Raiders form, he needs better protection upfront and adding Fuaga is a step in the right direction in doing that.