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One of the more obnoxious terms thrown around NFL draft discourse is “generational talents.” But it’s used wrongly. Analysts typically use it to describe that cycle’s best prospects, when really it should be reserved for the elite players that come around just once a decade or two.
And when you get down to reviewing the Saints’ draft history, you’ll see that they’ve had two once-in-a-generation draft classes separated by many, many years: 2006 and 2017. With a new era of Saints football ahead of them in the wake of Drew Brees’ retirement and numerous roster cuts and free agent departures, they need to try and catch lightning in a bottle one more time.
Look at those draft classes: 2006 featured home-run hits in the early rounds and in the draft’s closing minutes, with New Orleans landing players who achieved yearslong careers like Reggie Bush, Roman Harper, Jahri Evans, Marques Colston, and Zach Strief, all of whom are already in the Saints Hall of Fame. They’ve been chasing that success ever since, with some fans wistfully clinging onto every seventh round pick the Saints have had as possibly being the next Colston or Strief.
But a draft haul like that doesn’t come around often. The Saints didn’t find one like it until 2017, once Jeff Ireland had a few years to assemble a great staff of scouts and after Sean Payton overhauled his coaching staff. And the results paid off: they hit on both of their first rounders in Marshon Lattimore and Ryan Ramczyk, while nailing second-day picks in Alvin Kamara and Marcus Williams, with Trey Hendrickson (an afterthought at the time) earning more than any of them with his $15 million per-year Bengals deal.
That’s the kind of rookie class the Saints need to find again. And of course that’s easier said than done. The long series of forgettable drafts stretching between 2006 and 2017 are a testament to that. Sure, some years here and there were buoyed by a great pick or two, but by and large, the Saints don’t have a great history. Two impressive drafts in 15 years isn’t a stellar precedent.
2009 had Malcolm Jenkins and Thomas Morstead; 2010’s Patrick Robinson and Jimmy Graham are still in the league; 2011 flamed out quickly after first rounders Cameron Jordan and Mark Ingram; Terron Armstead is the only significant player to stick with New Orleans for the long haul from 2012 to 2015, while Michael Thomas and David Onyemata remain impact players with the Saints from 2016.
And they have to do better if they’re going to remain competitive post-2021. The roster they’ve built right now can hang with anyone, but things get dicey in 2022. The Saints have just 30 players under contract and rank among the league’s tightest salary cap situations, with few levers to pull to create space after making so many maneuvers this offseason. The salary cap is expected to skyrocket in 2023 once new NFL broadcasting contracts come into effect, but that’s still a two-year lull to survive. There’s a ton of pressure on the next two Saints draft classes to hit the ground running.
Fortunately, they have the means to address their needs. New Orleans has eight picks in the 2021 draft, owing to compensatory selections and a savvy late-round trade; the 2022 draft is in even better shape as things currently stand, with six of their own picks locked in plus three comp picks on the way, per the latest projections. That totals 17 draft picks over the next 12 months, more than they’ve made in the last three draft cycles combined (16).
We’ll see how many they actually end up with. More roster moves and signings and losses and trades will impact the comp pick formula, and it’s a safe assumption that the Saints will aggressively navigate the board on draft day. Whether they move up — as they’ve done in every draft Payton has conducted, since 2006 — or down (which they haven’t done since 2007) remains to be seen, though.
With such a slimmed-down depth chart in 2022, moving back to acquire even more picks is the smart move. That runs against Payton’s established strategy, but we need to be ready for anything in the post-Brees era. The on-field product is going to look different. It reasons that the Saints offseason will set some new trends, too.
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