2022 NFL Draft grades for all 32 teams: Who won the NFL Draft?
New Orleans Saints 2022 NFL Draft grade: B-
11. Chris Olave, WR, Ohio State
19. Trevor Penning, OT, Northern Iowa
49. Alontae Taylor, CB, Tennessee
161. D’Marco Jackson, LB, Appalachian State
194. Jordan Jackson, DL, Air Force
The New Orleans Saints always march to the beat of their own drum.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but you don’t have to like it.
The Saints target specific players every year and they are willing to make trades that don’t make sense on paper to go and get them.
It seems like they almost intentionally want to have tiny draft classes sometimes and again — there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
It just flies in the face of conventional thinking that the more picks you have, the better chance some of them have of hitting. It’s just playing the odds.
The Saints got a good receiver in round one after trading up and I think Chris Olave is going to bring a new element to that offense they have desperately been missing.
With Michael Thomas coming back from injury and Chris Olave getting picked, the Saints will have arguably the most drastically different-looking receiver group in the NFL this season.
Trevor Penning is a good player who will slide into the spot vacated by Terron Armstead immediately and give the Saints a bookend of bash brothers at the tackle positions.
Alontae Taylor was probably a reach in the second round but again — the Saints target very specific guys. He’s got good size and athleticism and joins a revamped Saints secondary which now also includes Tyrann Mathieu.
D’Marco Jackson was the Sun Belt defensive player of the year last year and had a whopping 19 tackles for loss.
Jordan Jackson out of Air Force is going to bring some quickness to the interior defensive line as well.