2015 NFL Draft Grades: New Orleans Saints

How did the New Orleans Saints’ grade out in the 2015 NFL draft? 

The New Orleans Saints entered the 2015 NFL draft with nine picks—by far the most they’ve had in a single draft in the Mickey Loomis-Sean Payton era—and ended up making nine selections, despite trading up once. That’s because their trade-up from the sixth-round to the back end of the fifth cost them a sixth-rounder next year as collateral.

They started the draft in unusual Loomis-Payton fashion letting the first three picks come to them, making solid, if not sexy, picks. But then they went back to their wacky selves in the third-round, making two picks that not only had a knowledgeable draft analyst who doubles as Saints fan scratch his head but scream profusely so as to awake a sleeping baby (thankfully there weren’t actually any babies in the house).

They switched back to their conservative and sensible self (mostly) on Day 3 once again. In a three-day draft, only getting one day of wacky Mickey and Sean has to be considered a win for Who Dat Nation.

Below are the picks followed by a pick-by-pick analysis before finally giving an overall grade for the Saints’ 2015 draft.

Andrus Peat was far from the sexy pick and had some scratching their heads when it was made. But there’s an easy explanation. Peat projects as an excellent right tackle in year two. In 2015, which would have been his senior season at Stanford, he’ll be the “swing tackle”, meaning he’ll come into the game when Payton uses his jumbo six-offensive linemen offensive personnel grouping.

Stephone Anthony was a player beloved by this analyst, and the only reason that pick gets a “B+” is because ideally it would have been made a few picks later after a trade out of the first-round. But that’s mostly splitting hairs.

Day 2 got crazy, though it started out fairly reserved. Hau’oli Kikaha is not spectacular, but he can at least stand out on the field and not look like a dork. He leaves a lot to be desired as a pass-rusher however. It was the third-round where Mickey and Sean went back to bad Mickey and bad Sean from previous years’ drafts.

Garrett Grayson in the third-round? Chris Bonner, Sean Mannion and Brett Hundley were available, not to mention there was no reason to draft a quarterback, and that Grayson is atrocious. It still shocks my system, and it happened a few days ago now (or at least it feels that long ago; I’m not really sure at this point, as I’m surviving on just coffee and adrenaline).

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P.J. Williams three picks was only moderately better. Bad Mickey and Sean managed to take all the positive energy and good feelings they regained from the entire offseason and seemingly ruin them in a matter of about 15 minutes. That crazy couple is a menace to the health of New Orleanians, I’ll tell you.

Then it’s as if they went to sleep, came back in the morning and thankfully reverted back to good Mickey and Sean, because the Saints’ Day 3 was overall quite stellar. A seventh-round pick is whatever anyway. Marcus Murphy at least has a chance to compete for the returner job and maybe see some snaps in a Darren Sproles-type role.

It was the three fifth-round picks which proved that bad Mickey and bad Sean were simply overcome for a night by the old flesh trying to protrude back to the surface causing them to stumble for a night. But they are Saints, and so they repented and turned back to their new ways.

Davis Tull is an “EDGE” the Saints were in love with throughout the draft process. They met with him thrice and determined he was the perfect player for their system. Using SPARQ scores, Tull was the best athlete in the “EDGE” class, somehow even better than Vic Beasley—the best overall player in the draft, in part because of his freakish athleticism.

Tyeler Davison is not a name many were familiar with but he too is a wonderful athlete with a big body who perfectly fits in the middle of the Saints’ hybrid defensive line. Then they made up for the terrible P.J. Williams pick by taking a much better corner, Damian Swann of Georgia, with the 31^st pick of the fifth-round.

Overall, minus Day 2, the draft was pretty darn solid. With it, it was still better than most Saints drafts. The best part was that they fought the urge to draft a wide receiver, not because this wasn’t a good class—it was—but because they really like the combination of Nick Toon, Seantavious Jones and Brandon Coleman.

Overall Grade: B-