B
New Orleans Saints
The Saints turned the phones into found money: B.
by [email protected] ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 2 steals
· 4 reaches
The Nadame Tucker pick is the one that will follow the Saints into the fall. They took him 41 spots ahead of his grade, and the board is not shy about saying so.
They won the margins on every swap, and it adds up fast. For all the activity, offensive lineman went untouched, which is hard to explain. That Stowers pick is the receipt they will wave around later.
Good work on the whole, with offensive lineman the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 11 they get a green-dot type in the middle. More want than need.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Malachi Fields in pick 52, miles early. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Eli Stowers slipping to the Round 3 slot is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It fills a real need, too.
Value with a capital V on Mike Washington Jr. in No. 84, a genuine coup. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Will Lee III in the 132nd pick. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
A real head-scratcher, Nadame Tucker in Round 4, Pick 36 is miles ahead of his ranking. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They reached into another round for Trey Moore, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Kaleb Elarms-Orr in pick No. 172 is early enough to raise a brow, if not a full objection. A want more than a need, though you can never have too many.
Fair-plus on Zane Durant, a quiet win that adds up over a draft. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Zavion Thomas at the 236th pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.