The New Orleans Saints landed a foundational draft in Kellen Moore's first season as head coach. The NFL Draft class featured: Kelvin Banks Jr., Tyler Shough, Vernon Broughton, Jonas Sanker, Danny Stutsman, Quincy Riley, Devin Neal, Moloki Matavao and Fadil Diggs. The class was highly enough to be recognized by Inside the League for having the NFL's best draft class.
It's the Saints second time winning this award. It isn't difficult to guess when the Saints last won this award. The 2017 draft will go down as one of the greatest drafts of all time. In a time where the Saints seemed dead in the water, that draft class rejuvenated the team and produced the most successful stretch of seasons in team history.
The award has been around since 2018, so the Saints were the inaugural winners of the award. 8 years later, they're back again. This is a huge feather in the cap of the scouting department to once again find such a stacked collection of rookies.
Saints 2025 draft class feels like the start of something special
This class didn't have the instant impact of the 2017 class. Marshon Lattimore and Alvin Kamara both won Rookie of the Year that season. Lattimore elevated to being one of the better corners in the league and Kamara instantly was one of the more dynamic players. That's just the two highlights. Similar things can be said about Ryan Ramczyk, and Marcus Williams' ranginess was a game changer for the Saints defense.
That class helped end the Saints playoff drought as rookies. The 2025 class didn't make it that far, but it does feel like the Saints are leaning towards something special. It has one thing the 2017 class didn't have, and that's a quarterback. That's like a force multiplier to any draft class.
Finding a quarterback is difficult enough, but they also secured their left tackle of the future. The pairing of Shough and Banks could be the future of the offense. On the other side of the ball, Sanker and Riley feel like potential cornerstones of the secondary. Sanker has the potential to fill Alontae Taylor's role at STAR if Taylor leaves in free agency. That move would only catapult his importance to the defense. When played at a high level, a versatile safety can transform a defense.
To top it all off, the class is also growing with it's coach. The draft coming in the first year of Kellen Moore's tenure feels like a huge statement of what kind of start the Saints are off to in this era. They finished the season strong. There's still a ways to go before they reach the 2017 class, but maybe this movie is a slow burn.