Draft experts believe the Saints have the best draft class in the NFC South

Sometimes in the NFL, a draft class can make or break a team. Franchises find themselves at a crossroads and the selected rookies can either propel the team to success, or be apart of the downfall. The New Orleans Saints are a team that kind of entered the draft in this position.

Coming off a 9-8 season, the team’s third in two years with the other season being 7-10, New Orleans missed the playoffs for a third straight year. However, aside from getting a new offensive coordinator, the Saints didn’t make any major changes. Instead, the organization kept its core veterans in place and turned to the draft, hoping it would be enough to make the Saints contenders again.

While the results won’t be here into the fall, early evaluations are that New Orleans did pretty good in the draft— better than the rest of the teams in the NFC South, at least. Gennaro Filice and Nick Shook made that clear in a recent ranking of all 32 draft classes. The Saints, while not ranked all that high at No. 25, had highest ranking in the division.

Saints draft class ranked 25th in NFL

With New Orleans at 25, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were No. 27, the Carolina Panthers were No. 30, and the Atlanta Falcons were dead last at No. 32. Of course, the Falcons have been receiving heavy criticism for their quarterback situation, but selecting Michael Penix Jr. was just one questionable decision that landed Atlanta that low.

Getting back to the Saints and their ranking, Filice raved about the selections of Taliese Fuaga and Kool-Aid McKinstry, but argued the rest of the draft doesn’t necessarily jump off the page. However, Filice did say defensive tackle Khristian Boyd could be a nice rotational piece early.

Ultimately, this is just the ranking of the draft classes, and the players haven’t even taken the field yet. But, with this division being so even, the difference in winning the NFC South could come down to how well the newcomers perform.

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