Canal Street Chronicles
Several issues need to be fixed this offseason and the draft could help provide some solutions.
The New Orleans Saints roster is a concern going into the offseason. Almost every position needs to be upgraded, and the weak points of this roster are extremely weak. With the current cap space for the Saints, free agency will look like a few 1-year cheap deals that help make issues look a bit better. While these moves help fix the cap in the long run and the roster stay afloat, the NFL Draft is where the Saints can get answers. Overall, the 2025 NFL Draft is not the strongest in the 1st Round. This draft class will be remembered because of its depth. Day 2 will be massive for teams to find their starters for the future. Athough the Saints made a great move to acquire a 3rd Round pick in the Marshon Lattimore trade, New Orleans still needs more top-100 picks.
As of now, in the top 100, the Saints have 4 picks:
Three positions on the Saints roster must be fixed in the 2025 Draft: Guard, edge rusher, and defensive tackle. They can address these needs with their first three selections in the draft, but it will depend on what happens in the 1st Round. The issue is that the Saints should not focus on certain positions at pick 9 due to how the roster look right now. The team needs top-end talent, and being open-minded at that pick is the best move. Also, flexibility on Day 2 will be best for the Saints to upgrade this roster. Look at last year’s draft; the Saints did not need to select Kool-Aid in the 2nd Round, but they did because he was the best available talent at that pick. Ultimately, it was a great decision because of the Lattimore trade and Paulson Adebo's injury Having another top-100 selection allows this flexibility to happen on Day 2 while also allowing the Saints to draft positions of need. So now, the question is, how can they do it?
The Saints have two options to get more top 100 selections: Trade away players or trade back in the draft. Starting with trading players, this option has a low chance of happening. As I mentioned before, the Saints roster is questionable, so there are not many players they can trade away. The other issue is even if they can trade them away, the return will probably be a later-round pick. Depending on said return, the Saints could package some late picks and jump into the top 100, but just like last year’s draft, trading up is not a great idea.
One name that does come to mind is Derek Carr, but there are some issues with this trade. Carr’s contract is not attractive, and if this trade were to happen, the Saints will have to take...
