The New Orleans Saints are feeling some serious pressure to address their defensive tackles depth chart after most of the players from last year’s team left in free agency, but they need help at defensive end, too. They haven’t gotten anything out of their 2021 first-round pick Payton Turner and, right now, it looks like the starting ends will be a 34-year-old Cameron Jordan on one side and career backup Carl Granderson on the other — and both players are entering the final year of their contracts.
Turner and Tanoh Kpassagnon round out the depth chart, which doesn’t inspire great confidence after a couple of blitzing linebackers outproduced them as pass rushers last year. The Saints didn’t lose much in Marcus Davenport but they still need a big boost at defensive end.
It’ll be tough for the Saints to address all of their priorities in the opening rounds, though, so it’s worth taking a look at the 2023 draft through a wider lens. We’re going to spend the next few days highlighting prospects who fit New Orleans’ prototypes at positions of need in the early rounds, the middle of the draft, and the dark horses expected to be available later on. Let’s start at defensive end: