The New Orleans Saints aren't expected to be a very good team in 2025. They have a first-year head coach in Kellen Moore and a less-than-stellar quarterback room. All of that leads to them being an easy pick to land the first overall selection in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Conor Orr of Sports Illustrated put together a list of 100 bold predictions for the 2025 season and the third bold prediction on his list was that the Saints would land the top pick in next year's draft. This doesn't seem too bold to be honest but Orr's fourth prediction is the one that would have fans raising eyebrows. That's because he said the Saints won't take Arch Manning with the first overall pick.
This would make Saints fans pretty mad if Manning was entering the draft, the Saints had the chance to take him, and opted not to. Well, Orr's prediction comes with an interesting twist and that's that not taking Manning wouldn't be their fault. Orr says that the Saints don't spend the first pick on Manning because the Texas product didn't enter the draft in the first place.
"[T]he truth is that the Manning family probably abhors the idea of Arch playing for his grandfather Archie’s franchise in his home state. Every chess move made by this football family has been to set up their kids with normal, successful lives, and placing the burden of his grandfather’s franchise on Arch’s shoulders would be deleterious to his progress at the next level."
SI just hit Saints fans with a 2025 forecast no one wanted to see
It would be quite unfortunate for the Saints to land the top pick in the draft only for Arch Manning, grandson of Archie Manning, to not declare for the draft and spend another year in college. That being said, no one would be surprised to see the Longhorns signal-caller do just that.
The Mannings have always used their full college eligibility and with NIL money looking the way it does these days, it's not as though Arch would be staying in college and avoiding a massive NFL payday. Back in the day, it was beneficial for quarterbacks or college prospects to leave school early because they weren't making money to play college football and the rookie deals for players back then were insanely expensive.
That's not the timeline we live in anymore. The Manning family values finishing school and then entering the NFL Draft. It's also possible that, as Orr pointed out, if New Orleans were to have the top pick, Arch might opt to stay another year simply to avoid playing for the Saints given what his grandfather went through when he was drafted by the organization.
It'd be fun to see another Manning land with the Saints but if the team does end up with the top pick in 2026, fans might not want to get their hopes up because Arch staying in college for another year feels like a pretty likely outcome.