The New Orleans Saints are coming off an extremely active draft, adding nine total players throughout the seven-round, three-day event. The team also added several undrafted free agents to the roster immediately after drafting. While time will tell what these rookies amount to, the Saints have addressed several positions of need.
New Orleans is currently a better team than it was prior to the draft. However, relative to other teams in the league, one analyst is arguing the Saints have regressed. Eric Edholm made that claim in NFL.com’s latest power rankings.
Prior to the draft, New Orleans was ranked 28, which is already pretty low. Following the addition of the league’s latest players, the Saints have dropped three spots to No. 31.
Saints ranked 31 in latest power rankings
The drop has more to do with what the three teams that were initially behind New Orleans did. The Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, and New York Giants all made huge moves throughout the draft, and that’s likely why they were able to jump the Saints.
To be fair, though, the Saints made their own big move, drafting Tyler Shough in the second round. That’s who Edholm decided to write about for New Orleans, acknowledging that Shough could realistically start at quarterback for the Saints in 2025.
"We really must be prepared for Tyler Shough to be a realistic option to start the Saints' opener, or at least man the quarterback position for a decent chunk of the season... The Saints took some other draft stabs on talent in a see-what-sticks approach, and I can't say I hate it overall. But I also am not going to spend most of my offseason shouting indiscriminately at strangers about New Orleans' hidden upside for 2025. It could be a trying campaign in some respects."Eric Edholm (NFL.com)
While the real power rankings will ultimately be determined on the field, this just shows there still isn’t much respect for the Saints right now. In all honesty, there shouldn’t be. New Orleans looked horrible last season, and the team hasn’t made any significant moves that would lead anyone to believe the Saints will be better. That means the franchise will have to go on the field next season and change its reputation game by game.