Draft season is upon us ladies and gentlemen! With the NFL Draft less than a month away, I thought it would be a good time to drop a full 7 round mock; with trades! But this year, I wanted to do it a bit differently. Instead of your basic 7 round mock where you scroll through pages of picks and find your team’s selections with relatively no commentary, I decided to break the mock up and do an article on each individual team’s haul! Giving you a breakdown of what each team brought in and how I think it could help. So without further adieu, let’s kick things off!
With the 28th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the New Orleans Saints select…
- Jaelan Phillips, DE, Miami(1st round)
- Davis Mills, QB, Stanford(2nd round)
- Rodarius Williams, CB, Oklahoma St(3rd round)
- Dazz Newsome, WR, UNC(3rd round)
- Tommy Togiai, DT, Ohio St(4th round)
- KJ Britt, LB, Auburn(6th round)
- Brady Breeze, S, Oregon(7th round)
- Noah Grey, TE, Duke(7th round)
The Saints are in an interesting position with the retirement of their franchise QB. It appears they will be rolling with who they have on the roster, but I believe they will look at the draft for a potential replacement. They could move up but in this scenario, I believe they stick and pick.
In the 2nd round, they find a QB that could potentially develop into their next star. Davis Mills was a highly regarded QB coming out of HS but didn’t see a ton of starts in college and the shortened COVID season certainly didn’t help. But Davis has a ton of talent. He is excellent within the pocket, good arm, pro-style experience, and sneaky athleticism. He could be a player that can take over at some point. In the 3rd round, they grab Dazz Newsome out of UNC. A talented and productive receiver with good speed, route running, and ability after the catch. He will make a good compliment to their all-pro Michael Thomas.
On defense, they use their first pick to grab a very athletic edge rusher in Jaelan Phillips. Phillips had some injury issues which saw his stock fall just a bit, but he is chock-full of talent and an excellent grab towards the end of the round. He will provide a spark off the edge and elevate this defense in a major way. They spend much of this draft finding athletic playmakers to add to their defense to provide depth and have the upside to be full-time starters in the future.
Overall, the Saints do a good job of finding players that can make an impact on their team immediately as well as finding players that can develop into such roles. Phillips and Newsome could see time early and often while a player like Mills could be their QB of the future with a little development.
