T3 Mock Draft - Help Me Help the New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints are facing a challenging draft season with significant cap constraints and multiple roster needs. We analyze how the team can address their wide receiver, cornerback, and defensive line needs while managing the most dead money in the league and being over $55 million above the salary cap.

• Saints are in the bottom half of the league in total offense and points per game
• Derek Carr started strong last season before performance declined significantly 
• Brandon Cooks returns to join Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed in the receiver room
• Defensive veterans include Cam Jordan, Tyrann Mathieu, Justin Reed, and Demario Davis

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Chapters

• 0:19 Introducing the Saints Draft Needs
• 0:47 Saints' Financial Struggles
• 1:32 Offensive Roster Assessment
• 2:43 Defensive Personnel Evaluation
• 3:03 First Round Pick: WR Ted McMillan
• 5:13 Second Round: DE Adisa Izuchukwu
• 6:53 Third Round Selections
• 9:55 Draft Recap and Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

welcome back to t3. I'm your host, mr you. We are in mock draft season and we're still doing NFL mock drafts. Today's draft team will be the New Orleans Saints. Where do I begin? Their knees allegedly are wide receiver, cornerback and defensive line man. They need so much more than that, but guess what? They're hamstrung. They have probably the most dead money in the entire league. Their cap is over $55 million, so they're over the cap and the cap is humongous right now. And they're over the cap. So they're actively trying to restructure at least five contracts that I read so far. Right now they have the bottom half of the league in total offense points per game.

Speaker 1: 1:09

They struggled, they started the season. Derek Carr was like a world beater in the first few games and then, all of a sudden, something just happened in the roof. Well, I said the bottom fell out on the team and they just started to look really, really bad. Uh, they had some bright spots here in there, I would say offensively, but honestly, things look really rough and they need a lot of help. They don't have the money to get that help, so they're trying to get some, uh, big players, so to speak, on their lines and especially on on the d line. A lot of guys are returning that are steady influences there. Brandon Cooks is back in New Orleans, so that's going to definitely help out Derek Carr Right now.

Speaker 1: 1:51

This is what it's all about. Carr's in his last season and all that money is front-loaded and it's just sitting there. That's why they're trying to struggle to restructure it. But Chris Lovett should be back. Healthy Bub means to be backing him up. Rashid Shaheed should be there. Shorten is going to be a deep threat for the most part last year, so he's going to need Olave Cooks and Shaheed to help him out a lot. Those guys are offensively talented, so that shouldn't be a problem. The O-line situation they're going to need a lot of protection there to keep Carr upright. That hasn't been the case for him recently.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Kamara should be back. Kendrick Miller should be backing him up again. But on top of that, the defensive line outside of Cam Jordan and Tyron Matthew and Justin Reed. It looks pretty rough. I guess I can include Demario Davis in there too. He's definitely a longtime veteran. He knows what he's doing. But beside that it was pretty rough.

Speaker 1: 2:49

So I want to try to go ahead and get into helping this team out. It's not a pretty picture, but I'm going to do my best to try to help this team get some wins today. So we're going to help out the New Orleans Saints. We're going three rounds on this one and see if we can help them do some knees at wide receiver, d-line and cornerback. Honestly, if I can find a running back to kind of replace Kendrick Miller backing up Kamara to keep him healthy, I think I would do that. But we'll see where it lands. They're picking at nine with their first pick.

Speaker 1: 3:28

I'm not taking any of these nonsense trades today. We don't have time for that. So I'm looking at how we can really help these guys out. I'm not enthusiastic about the O-line. I know that that's not what they're posting as a need, but I feel like it would help Carr, because the more that Carr stays upright, the better off this team is going to be. So I recognize it in an accent for that. But I'm going to try to help him out anyway. We'll look at guard first. This is a reach as far as spacing goes and we are going to pick again until 40. I'm going to see if we can move some folks around.

Speaker 1: 4:12

I'm going to take Membo here. This guy's a stud. He's a right tackle, so maybe I shouldn't take him. He. He looks decent as a one block in pass protector. Now I'm starting to have some doubts the more I see here. You know what? Let's get carl some help.

Speaker 1: 4:34

Uh, at wire receiver. I know that he is, but I feel as though we got room to kind of expand this and I don't know that we're set at wide receiver. Ted McMillan is sitting here. We're going to go ahead and take him. Big wide receiver, about 6'4". He's definitely going to get 50-50 balls every single time. He's a stud. There's some issues there that I think people talk about, but he has great hands, great body, great frame. He's not going to get out-muscled by anybody out there, especially anybody that's in the secondary.

Speaker 1: 5:11

I think it helped Derek Carr out a lot and put some other guys like Cooks and Shahid and Olav here on alert. They got a potential number one wide receiver on the team and they're going to have to fight for their time. That's a good problem for Derek Carr to have, because he needs all the weapons on the field that he can get, get a ball out of his hands quickly and get that ball into somebody's hand that can help the team out because right now they're not looking good projection-wise and who knows where they're going to finish in the division good projection-wise, and who knows where they're going to finish in the division. But offense is going to probably be where they put all of their chips because of Derek Carr's contract and where they are as a franchise. So we got some wide receiver help, which is good.

Speaker 1: 5:48

I want to try to look at either D-line or cornerback. So let's get out of offense and look at defense. Ooh, a zero cool sitting right there. But they don't really need that. But oh, wow, that's a, that's a. He's gonna be hard. Oh, he's gonna be really hard to pass up. Wow, um, um, and I'm picking again until 71.

Speaker 1: 6:12

We got four picks in the three in three rounds, which is really good. Uh, can't pass on this guy. I mean, he just got his sack. Production is something that I think the saints don't really seem to be sitting on, that kind of uh ability. Uh, cam jordan's awesome man. But beside that, I think a zero cool will help this team and help the defense and get the ball back in car's hands on offense. So, so we're going to go with that. I know we're going outside of the knees, but that's what I do sometimes. I see things that sometimes we don't hear him talk about and I'm going to go ahead and help him. So this is what we're doing.

Speaker 1: 6:49

So at this point I got two picks left 71-93. I want to try to get them some help in secondary. So Darian Porter I know a little bit about him. I kind of feel like he's the guy. He has the height, he has the speed, he has ball skills, he's great at tracking the ball. No problem there. I think it could just be an issue of does he have the physical ability as far as? Does he mind hitting and taking hits? Let's take a chance on him.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Darren Port out of Iowa State. Got one more pick left Before we shut down the Saints. I think they're doing pretty good so far. Take me a million to Arizona at nine. Ezekiel out of Boston College I really like him a lot. Darian Porter Out of Iowa State let's see how we can help these guys. Let's see if we can help them out on offense.

Speaker 1: 8:01

I'm really trying to find a running back for these guys. Oh, I didn't think about this because I know that derrick car is in his last year and, honestly, the chances of them. Bringing Derek Carr back on a new contract are almost slim to none, and Spencer Rattler is the guy that's left behind there. But honestly, do you view him as the guy that's going to take over this offense and lead the Saints to where they ideally want to be? I don't really feel that kind of confidence. So I'm going to try to help this team in any way possible. We know that tight end is a concern too a little bit for me. Jawan Johnson is the number one right now and Taysom Hill kind of plugs in. But I feel as though Taysom Hill he's kind of one of those guys that he helps out in different areas, but right now he's injured.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Let's take Mason Taylor here. I mean, he's great at the run game and the pass game. High IQ. He has the size you want. He has the athleticism you want. We're going to take him. Help Derek Carr out. He needs all the weapons he can get. So we got Ted McMillan at number nine out of Arizona Sticks four Just a wide receiver, extraordinary prototype of what you want.

Speaker 1: 9:25

Yuzuru Koo a dressing machine out of Boston College. Darian Porter solid quarterback, he's a ball hawker, he's a ball hawk. If that's what you want, that's who they're going to need on their defense because of the strength of the front seven. And then Mason Taylor is going to give Derek Carr so much needed help at tight end. Help balance out who they got going on with Jawan Johnson and when takes him here he's healthy and comes back. But let me know what you think about this mock draft for the New Orleans Saints. Love to hear your thoughts on this. Hit us up on all of our social media platforms or on our YouTube channel. Hit me up with that grade and please, while you're there, please like, share and subscribe. Thanks so much again. Have a fantastic day, guys.