The New Orleans Saints 2017 draft class is one the best drafts the NFL has seen in years, and the latest praise for Trey Hendrickson both emphasizes that fact and puts a spotlight on one of the Saints' worst mistakes of the last 10 years. Pro Football Focus' Bradley Locker listed Hendrickson as one of the 10 most valuable non first round picks since 2016.
The fact Alvin Kamara was in the same class and the nod still goes to Hendrickson tells you just how impactful he was. You can't keep everyone from a class like 2017, but letting him go stings to this day.
Hendrickson comes in at 10th on the list and is one of just 2 players who isn't on the team that drafted him. The other is Tyreek Hill, who pushed his way out of town. In other words, teams don't tend to let players like this go once they're in the building.
Letting Trey Hendrickson go was a massive mistake for the Saints
I don't know what made letting Hendrickson walk look worse: Hendrickson's consistency after leaving New Orleans or the utter failure of the Marcus Davenport experiment. Both are pretty bad and play a big part in the regret around the decision.
The Saints choosing Davenport over Hendrickson only looks bad in hindsight. At the moment, however, it almost felt like a no brainer. Davenport was the first round pick who had shown potential but an inability to stay healthy.
Davenport's athletic ability jumped off the field, and it felt like a matter of time before he was able to put it together. The team also simply invested too much to not prioritize him, which was easy to do when you saw the flashes of what he could be.
Hendrickson felt like an overachiever after his big year with the Saints. He slowly worked and broke out in 2020. The problem was in comparison to Davenport, Hendrickson simply didn't have the same ceiling as a player.
The problem is Davenport never hit his ceiling, while Hendrickson's ceiling was much higher than anyone believed. Funny enough, Davenport justified the belief in him the following year. He had a career high 9 sacks, though injuries once again played a part.
That season wasn't close to what Hendrickson accomplished that same year, but it at least showed Davenport was growing. Then 2022 happened. Davenport finally stayed healthy for the majority of the season only to finish with 0.5 sacks on the season.
That was Davenport's last year in New Orleans. He only lasted 2 seasons after the Saints cut bait with Hendrickson. Meanwhile, Hendrickson was a consistent double digit sack player, had 17.5 sacks twice, led the league in sacks, and was a 1st team All-Pro.
It may have been easy to justify the decision when it happened, but the Saints couldn't have gotten it more wrong. As we look back 6 years later, it was clearly one of the worst decisions the Saints have made recently.
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