{"id":715922,"date":"2026-04-22T14:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715922\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:39:16","slug":"can-mickey-loomis-saints-nail-the-draft-2-years-in-a-row-pelicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715922\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Mickey Loomis, Saints nail the draft 2 years in a row? | Pelicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Give Mickey Loomis his props. He nailed the draft last year.<\/p>\n

Forget all of the naysayers who frowned on the selection of another offensive lineman in the first round and a quarterback whom many were skeptical about in the second round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loomis and the New Orleans Saints brass found a promising left tackle (Kelvin Banks), their quarterback of the future (Tyler Shough), and what looks like a trio of solid defensive gems in Jonas Sanker, Danny Stutsman and Quincy Riley. That\u2019s not even including defensive tackle Vernon Broughton, who was limited by an injury to just one game as a rookie.<\/p>\n

The last time the Saints came anywhere close to drafting that well was in 2017, when they hauled in Marshon Lattimore, Ryan Ramczyk, Alvin Kamara, Alex Anzalone and Trey Hendrickson in what most would consider the best draft class in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Now the question is can the Saints pull off a draft repeat<\/a>?<\/p>\n

They were unable to after that highly touted 2017 class.<\/p>\n

They followed that year up with a 2018 draft class headed by Marcus Davenport, Tre\u2019Quan Smith and Rick Leonard. Yeah, not ideal. None of those guys are still on the team. Will Clapp, the Saints\u2019 seventh-round pick that year, is now on the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Can the Saints put together back-to-back solid draft classes? Or will they follow up last year with a clunker like the one eight years ago?<\/p>\n

Best guess here is they\u2019ll get this one right, too.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I know what you\u2019re thinking, as names such as Davenport, Payton Turner, Isaiah Foskey and Trevor Penning run though your head.<\/p>\n

But there are several factors working in the Saints\u2019 favor to help get this year\u2019s draft right.<\/p>\n

First, the Saints already have filled two majo\u00bdr holes during free agency. Signing running back Travis Etienne and guard David Edwards filled two New Orleans-size potholes.<\/p>\n

Now the Saints can use their first three picks on the three positions<\/a> they covet the most: receiver, edge rusher and cornerback. It doesn\u2019t really matter what order they use their picks to get them. Just get them.<\/p>\n

Making things easier is that the Saints have the No. 8 pick. There will be a really good player at No. 8, and the Saints are in a position where they can draft the best player available on their board. The only way the Saints can botch their first pick Thursday night would be to draft a tackle for the third year in a row, or a quarterback or kicker. That\u2019s about as unlikely to happen as Loomis trading back in the first round, something he never does.<\/p>\n

Assuming Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Ohio State edge rusher Arvell Reese and Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey go early, that leaves four more teams drafting before the Saints are on the clock. The Saints will have at least one of these options to choose from: receivers Carnell Tate (Ohio State) and Jordyn Tyson (Arizona State); edge rusher Rueben Bain (Miami); linebacker Sonny Styles (Ohio State); safety Caleb Downs (Ohio State); cornerback Mansoor Delane (LSU); or running back Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame).<\/p>\n

Any of those choices should have Saints fans dancing in the streets Thursday night.<\/p>\n

While the No. 8 pick should be a can\u2019t-miss prospect, this draft inevitably will be judged by what the Saints do with their remaining seven picks. Last year, they hit on most of them. Reeling in two great draft classes in a row can turn things around for a franchise that has missed the playoffs the previous five seasons.<\/p>\n

The Saints finished fourth in the mediocre NFC South last season, but they swept the division champion Carolina Panthers. If Shough continues to show what he showed at the end of last season, the Saints can close the gap. Going into the draft, the Saints are projected to win 6\u00bd games by the oddsmakers in Vegas. That projection seems a bit low. A good draft can bump that total up a game or two.<\/p>\n

It’ll be up to Loomis and Company to make that happen with a draft that is a repeat of last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Give Mickey Loomis his props. He nailed the draft last year. Forget all of the naysayers who frowned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,5498,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-715922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-orleans","12":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","13":"tag-neworleans","14":"tag-neworleanspelicans","15":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116448877820045683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}