There’s no other way to look back on Marcus Davenport’s five years with the New Orleans Saints than as a disappointment. Between injuries and inconsistent play, he hasn’t lived up to the hype as a player they invested multiple draft picks in acquiring. After playing in 67 of 87 possible games, including the playoffs, Davenport has yielded just 21.5 sacks and 7 forced fumbles, with 26 tackles for loss. By year’s end he was playing behind former undrafted free agents who had outproduced him.
And the decision to trade up for Davenport was cited as the Saints’ worst draft-day mistake in the last five years by Pro Football Focus draft analyst Mike Renner, who gave the Saints a lot of credit for their success scouting other college prospects. But he can’t overlook their big miss on No. 92:
“The Saints have owned the single-best draft hit rate in the NFL over the past five seasons, bar none. Even the Davenport pick is difficult to call a miss when considering his performance when healthy. It’s a tough pill to swallow, though, given that Green Bay walked away from that draft after the trade with the better player (Jaire Alexander) and the Saints’ 2019 first-rounder while Davenport failed to make a consistent impact.”
The Saints have caught some heat for errors in the draft’s first round in recent years, whether it’s trading up for Davenport, betting big on center-guard convert Cesar Ruiz, or passing on better prospects in favor of Payton Turner. So it’s a good thing they’ve done well in the draft’s other rounds. Second- and third-round picks like Erik McCoy, Pete Werner, Paulson Adebo, and Alontae Taylor have all played heavy snaps. The jury is out on one of last year’s two first rounders, Trevor Penning, but Chris Olave is an award-winning step in the right direction. Hopefully the Saints can start a trend of productive early-round draft picks after a couple of misfires.
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