The Saints made a mind-boggling pick in Peter Schrager’s first 2023 mock draft, reaching on wide receiver Jonathan Mingo at the end of the first round:
Say what? NFL Network’s Peter Schrager debuted his first 2023 mock draft on Tuesday with a curious pick for the New Orleans Saints: Ole Miss wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, who is currently projected to go late in the second round or midway through the third round. Schrager likes him to New Orleans at No. 29 overall.
Look, Mingo isn’t a bad prospect. Far from it. But his scouting report describes a prospect who typically goes off the board later in the draft. He’s athletic and brings good size, timing the 40-yard dash in 4.46 seconds at 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, with 32.1-inch arms and a decent catch radius. He’s a well-rounded athlete but he doesn’t separate easily from opposing defensive backs and lacks a high success rate on contested catches. He needs more experience and was targeted only 206 times in his four-year college career.
He also missed seven games with a broken foot in 2021 and had to undergo a second surgery in April 2022 after it failed to heal properly. Mingo rebounded well from that to post career highs in receptions (51), receiving yards (861), first-down conversions (35) and touchdown catches (5) last season, but he still doesn’t have the resume of a first-round pick.
But teams sometimes pick players in the first round whom they don’t grade as first-rounders. The Saints have certainly done that. Still, you’d like to see them address a more pressing need along the defensive line than reach on a receiver to open the draft. We’ll see if Schrager knows something we don’t come draft day.
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