Canal Street Chronicles
Feelings around the New Orleans Saints’ season have gone in an entirely different direction in recent weeks, and with that, their draft pick continues to fall.
Here is the new draft order.
There are still great options even with the Saints dropping back in the draft order, and one of them has also seen his stock drop a bit. At one point, EDGE Rueben Bain Jr. was projected to be the top pick in the draft, and this held for a while, until two things: measurement concerns and a drop-off in production.
If you remember last season, OT Will Campbell had massive concerns over his arm length, which was a significant outlier for offensive tackles. Well, the same exact things are happening to Bain, who has sub-31-inch arms. This will be a storyline you will hear about all offseason, and with the Saints in particular, it could really hurt their evaluation of the prospect. The measurements would stop New Orleans from selecting him at the top of the draft, but pick 7 is different.
On the field, Bain is a dominant force that wins with everything. He demands so much attention from the opposing offense, and at times, the only way of getting around the defensive lineman is getting the ball out as fast as possible. As a run defender, Bain is also excellent.
Where he plays on the defensive line will be an interesting conversation, because moving to the interior could be best for his career, given his arm-length issues. Funny enough, that is the exact conversation with Campbell, but guess what? He did not move to the inside and is a great offensive tackle for New England, so why not keep Bain on the edge across from Chase Young?
