{"id":212478,"date":"2025-07-16T20:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/212478\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T20:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T20:55:12","slug":"saints-first-round-draft-pick-kelvin-banks-jr-named-top-offseason-addition-from-pff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/212478\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints First-Round Draft Pick Kelvin Banks Jr Named Top Offseason Addition from PFF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saints First-Round Draft Pick Kelvin Banks Jr Named Top Offseason Addition from PFF<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New Orleans Saints<\/a>‘ first-round pick is already receiving praise.<\/p>\n

Pro Football Focus<\/a> posted a list of each team’s best offseason addition<\/a>, naming ninth overall pick Kelvin Banks Jr. as the best addition for the Saints.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\"Dec<\/p>\n

Dec 21, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns offensive lineman Kelvin Banks Jr. (78) against the Clemson Tigers during the CFP National playoff first round at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

PFF’s article, written by Dalton Wasserman, highlighted the team’s last-placed pass-blocking ranking from PFF in 2024 as a core reason New Orleans made the right decision with Banks. The Saints will be starting a young quarterback in 2025, and keeping their signal caller upright will go a long way.<\/p>\n

Banks earned an 89.9 pass-blocking grade from PFF in 2024 with the Texas Longhorns and presents one of the highest ceilings of the offensive linemen from the recent NFL Draft class. The first-round pick has explosive athleticism for his size and plays very disciplined at his position.<\/p>\n

New Orleans has indicated Banks will play his college position of left tackle for them in 2025, allowing 2024 first-round pick Taliese Fuaga to slide to right tackle \u2014 which he played with Oregon State. Fuaga has been a hit draft selection and was a standout for the Saints’ offensive line as a rookie. If Banks pans out as the team’s future at left tackle, New Orleans will have solidified their offensive line with question marks only at left guard.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\"Aug<\/p>\n

Aug 25, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga (75) during the warmups before the game against the Tennessee Titans at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, the Saints will have a first-time starter at quarterback in 2025. If it’s rookie Tyler Shough or second-year quarterback Spencer Rattler, the offensive line will have to be at its best to help the young signal-caller succeed. From having to keep their quarterback up in pass protection to making life easier for him with an effective running game, the offensive line will play a significant role in their quarterback’s development.<\/p>\n

The selection of Kelvin Banks Jr. was the easy choice. While some fans were unhappy with the decision to take a tackle in the first round for a second year in a row, the Saints’ disciplined drafting should set the team’s offense up for years to come.<\/p>\n

Related: Fox Sports Honors Underrated Saints Star on NFL 2020s Half-Decade Team<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: New Orleans Saints Tease Alternate Jersey Reveal for Late July<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saints First-Round Draft Pick Kelvin Banks Jr Named Top Offseason Addition from PFF originally appeared on Athlon Sports.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[843,7,2987,9737,896,55,2572,2571,6,453,3501,410,397,4085,1512,394,1078,283],"class_list":{"0":"post-212478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-clemson-tigers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-kelvin-banks-jr","11":"tag-mandatory-credit","12":"tag-new-orleans","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints","14":"tag-neworleans","15":"tag-neworleanssaints","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-offensive-lineman","18":"tag-offensive-linemen","19":"tag-pro-football-focus","20":"tag-saints","21":"tag-spencer-rattler","22":"tag-taliese-fuaga","23":"tag-tennessee-titans","24":"tag-texas-longhorns","25":"tag-tyler-shough"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114864909668044601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}