New Orleans Saints: 5 best draft picks all-time
By John Buhler
The New Orleans Saints have participated in nearly 50 NFL Drafts in their length history. Here are the five best picks the Saints have ever made to date.
The New Orleans Saints have been an NFC franchise for going on 50 years. Though the Saints struggled mightily for the first few decades of existence, New Orleans has fielded competitive teams annually in the NFC South first under then-head coach Jim Haslett and now under elite offensive guru head coach Sean Payton.
The Saints have won the NFC South three times as a member of one of the most up-for-grabs divisions in the NFL since 2002’s realignment. New Orleans with Payton as head coach and Drew Brees at quarterback won its first ever trip to the Super Bowl in 2009 by defeating Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.
While New Orleans has had the good fortune of some key free agent acquisitions like Brees formerly of the San Diego Chargers, most of their recent success stems from making great decisions in all rounds of the NFL Draft. New Orleans for about the last decade has done arguably a better job than any team in the NFC in extracting high-end talent in the later rounds of an NFL Draft.
Not only do the Saints do a phenomenal job of finding and selecting late-round talent that the other teams in the NFL just don’t seem to see, the Saints also tend to get the most out of their players they draft. In essence, when the Saints draft a player, he plays his best ball in New Orleans before his career comes to a close elsewhere.
Going on 50 years as an NFL organization, here are the five best draft choices the Saints have made in an NFL Draft.
Next: 5. OG Jahri Evans, 2006, No. 108 overall