{"id":632552,"date":"2025-12-27T12:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T12:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/632552\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T12:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T12:37:10","slug":"saints-nfl-draft-order-2026-where-new-orleans-stands-heading-into-week-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/632552\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints NFL draft order 2026: Where New Orleans stands heading into Week 17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Feelings around the New Orleans Saints\u2019 season have gone in an entirely different direction in recent weeks, and with that, their draft pick continues to fall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Here is the new draft order.<\/p>\n<p>Updated 2026 NFL Draft order<\/p>\n<p>What the Saints can do at #8<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Like the past few weeks, the Saints dropping in the draft order is not the end of the world. There are still several great players available, and S Caleb Downs could be one of the top options. Safety is not a position of need for New Orleans, but this is all about the best player available and talent. Downs is one of the best players in the draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If positional value were removed, Downs would be in the race for #1 overall. He can play throughout the defense, is a great tackler, and plays like a cornerback in coverage. Instead of safety, where his central college position is, Downs could play slot corner for the Saints. This would both fill a need and add top-end talent to the roster. This would become an even better pick if Alontae Taylor, who is out of contract after this season, leaves in free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feelings around the New Orleans Saints\u2019 season have gone in an entirely different direction in recent weeks, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,402,403,6,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-632552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-orleans-saints-draft","10":"tag-new-orleans-saints-mock-drafts","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115791570187506485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632552","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=632552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}