{"id":777172,"date":"2026-02-26T08:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T08:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/777172\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T08:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T08:38:35","slug":"saints-scouting-department-wins-award-for-top-2025-draft-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/777172\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints scouting department wins award for top 2025 draft class"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Saints were recognized by their peers on the strength of their nine-player 2025 draft class that included four starters who earned all-rookie honors. Left tackle <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.neworleanssaints.com\/team\/players-roster\/kelvin-banks-jr\/\" title=\"Kelvin Banks Jr.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelvin Banks Jr.<\/a>, the ninth overall selection out of Texas, opened all 17 contests for the Black and Gold, with his 1,066 snaps on offense a team-high for the unit. Quarterback <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.neworleanssaints.com\/team\/players-roster\/tyler-shough\/\" title=\"Tyler Shough\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyler Shough<\/a>, the club&#8217;s second round pick out of Louisville, assumed the starting role in week nine and was a finalist for Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year, completing 221-of-327 passes (67.7 pct.) for 2,384 yards with ten touchdown passes and just six interceptions, good for a 91.3 passer rating. Shough, who led the Saints on three fourth quarter game-winning drives in December, also rushed for 186 yards with a club-best three touchdowns. Safety <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.neworleanssaints.com\/team\/players-roster\/jonas-sanker\/\" title=\"Jonas Sanker\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jonas Sanker<\/a>, a third round pick out of Virginia, tied for the team lead with three takeaways to go with 78 tackles. A fourth round selection out of Louisville, cornerback <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.neworleanssaints.com\/team\/players-roster\/quincy-riley\/\" title=\"Quincy Riley\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quincy Riley<\/a> played in all 17 games with five starts in the team&#8217;s base defense, while holding down a spot in the three-cornerback rotation. Riley was tied for fourth among NFL rookies with ten pass breakups. Linebacker <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.neworleanssaints.com\/team\/players-roster\/danny-stutsman\/\" title=\"Danny Stutsman\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Danny Stutsman<\/a>, a fourth round selection out of Oklahoma, finished third on the team with 13 special teams stops and made 40 defensive stops in a supporting role.<\/p>\n<p>Launched in 2002, Inside the League (ITL) is a consulting service for the pro and college football industry. ITL&#8217;s Neil Stratton has run various college all-star games and works with the representation of the majority of all active NFL players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saints were recognized by their peers on the strength of their nine-player 2025 draft class that included&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2076],"tags":[11114,7,103632,81,896,55,2572,2571,6,15,1647,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-777172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-coach-executives","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jeff-ireland","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-new-orleans","13":"tag-new-orleans-saints","14":"tag-neworleans","15":"tag-neworleanssaints","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-draft","18":"tag-roster","19":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116136031266588633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777172","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=777172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}