{"id":698653,"date":"2026-01-23T10:27:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T10:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698653\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T10:27:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T10:27:55","slug":"the-saints-first-and-second-round-draft-picks-make-their-marks-in-a-rebuilding-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698653\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saints\u2019 first and second round draft picks make their marks in a rebuilding year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) &#8211; The Saints (6-11) may have narrowly missed the playoffs, but they finished strong and showed signs of a rebuilding effort ahead of schedule. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. (71) lines up during an NFL football game...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/QD37ZJD7PREWBMTTGNLRASVFKQ.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" \/>New Orleans Saints offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. (71) lines up during an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo\/Tyler Kaufman)(Tyler Kaufman | AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Saints\u2019 progress this season was reflective of a strong draft class in 2025. Headlining the class for New Orleans are No. 9 overall pick, offensive tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., and second-round pick, quarterback Tyler Shough. Banks and Shough were announced as selections to the Pro Football Writers of America All-Rookie Team. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">It\u2019s the first time that more than one Saints rookie has been named to the All-Rookie team since 2019. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Banks instantly became a starter on the Saints\u2019 offensive line, where he was a standout. Banks played more offensive snaps than any other player on the Saints roster, 1,066 of 1,124.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Previous coverage:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">OVERTIME PODCAST<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Shough took over as the starting quarterback midway through the season, going 5-4 as a starter and becoming the franchise signal caller in New Orleans for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Shough finished his season with 2,384 yards passing, 10 touchdowns, and a 91.3 passer rating. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Shough is also an NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year finalist. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">See a spelling or grammar error in our story? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox8live.com\/2026\/01\/20\/saints-tyler-shough-kelvin-banks-jr-named-all-rookie-team\/mailto:WVUE-digitalcontent@gray.tv\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here<\/a> to report it. Please include the headline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Subscribe to the Fox 8 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC3ijTadOgOLbGWGC1rRy9lA?sub_confirmation=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WVUE. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) &#8211; The Saints (6-11) may have narrowly missed the playoffs, but they finished strong and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,896,55,2572,2571,6,31185,101871,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-698653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-orleans","10":"tag-new-orleans-saints","11":"tag-neworleans","12":"tag-neworleanssaints","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nflraw25","15":"tag-panthers_vs_saints_6804","16":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115943946208100236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698653","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=698653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}