It sure seems like the New Orleans Saints are expecting to pick a defensive lineman in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft, and the one-and-only mock draft from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer has them picking a pass rusher to line up off the edge. He has them taking Kansas State defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah at No. 29 overall:
The Saints are another potential trade-up team, perhaps for a pass rusher. But the way this has fallen, they find a hard-charging, stout, long defensive end who fits their mold for the edge. Now, they’d have to hope they get more out of him than they have with more recent first-rounders at the position (i.e., Marcus Davenport, Payton Turner).
Anudike-Uzomah isn’t as big as the Saints tend to favor at defensive end, weighing in at 6-foot-3 and 255 pounds with 33.5-inch arms, but he’s still got a significant edge on other first-round prospects like Nolan Smith, Will McDonald IV, and BJ Ojulari, and he might come closest to the prototype out of the second-tier pas rushers. He’s a very good athlete, too, having posted above-average numbers in the agility drills and beaten their thresholds in the jumps.
More importantly than all that Anudike-Uzomah was highly productive in college. A two-year starter at Kansas State, he made the most of those opportunities to rack up 20.5 sacks and 26.5 tackles for loss (plus 8 forced fumbles) in just 33 games. He brings a speed and flexibility element off the edge that the Saints have missed.
But will they consider him this early? The only sub-260-pound defensive ends the Saints have fielded in the last five years were Al-Quadin Muhammad (253 pounds), Carl Granderson (254), and Scott Patchan (251), all of whom were asked to bulk up before they saw significant time. And only Muhammad was drafted, and not until the sixth round. It would be a big shift in philosophy for the Saints to pick a player with Anudike-Uzomah’s size this soon.
That’s why New Orleans is being projected to trade up for a heavyset defensive end like Myles Murphy (who was picked at No. 20 in Breer’s mock draft) or Lukas Van Ness (taken at No. 8 overall). They stick to their prototypes to a stubborn degree and it limits their options. If either of those guys gets within range of a move up the board, we shouldn’t be shocked if the Saints make yet another first-round trade.
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