B-
New Orleans Saints
No fireworks, just a tidy B- for the Saints.
by Kenny proctor ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 3 steals
· 3 reaches
Call it a hunch or call it a gamble, but the Saints spent pick 150 on Nadame Tucker, a name most had 26 spots down the list.
They covered a lot of ground and still skipped offensive lineman, which is a strange place to end up. Neal falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch.
The roster is better shaped than it was, with edge rusher chief among the fixes. The back end got a real overhaul.
Good work on the whole, with offensive lineman the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 8 they get a ballhawk on the back end. Need was not the driver here.
No drama and no debate, Lee Hunter went about where he belonged in pick No. 42. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A wild overpay on De'Zhaun Stribling in pick 73, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Cade Klubnik in Round 4, Pick 32 is the kind of reach that only looks good if he outplays it. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Value with a capital V on Julian Neal in slot 136, a genuine coup. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
They reached into another round for Nadame Tucker, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Demond Claiborne is a better player than Round 5, Pick 32 suggests; smart patience, rewarded. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Kaleb Elarms-Orr slipping to No. 190 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.