{"id":864371,"date":"2026-04-12T00:39:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/864371\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T00:39:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:39:35","slug":"saints-no-8-overall-selection-primed-for-impactful-addition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/864371\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints\u2019 No. 8 overall selection primed for impactful addition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Ross Jackson<\/p>\n<p>Even though the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.louisianasports.net\/saints-football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Orleans Saints<\/a> were once in line for the No. 1 overall selection at one point during the 2025 season, their No. 8 overall selection in this year\u2019s NFL Draft positions them perfectly to add an impact player.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s draft class is brimming with promising talent at the top of the talent pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From fearsome edge rushers and versatile defenders to a game-breaker running back and a variety of playmaking pass-catchers, the players sitting atop this year\u2019s selection process align well with the Saints\u2019 desires.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>New Orleans may have starting talent at every position, but will still be looking to buoy those groups with an influx of youth and playmaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Holding on to their selection rather than trading up or down, the Saints could see seven top talents go off the board and still have little to no issue landing a day one contributor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Players that would fit well for the Saints that are expected to be drafted early include:<\/p>\n<p>Any of those nine players would become immediate and key contributors for the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Considering that at least one player not named will go inside the top seven selection, Indiana quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/prospects\/fernando-mendoza\/32004d45-4e51-6487-98a2-f3a9ce2f5835\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fernando Mendoza<\/a>, at least three of them will be available should the Saints stand pat at No. 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then, with every offensive lineman that could potentially go early as well, another name would fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Saints may not have ended up with the No. 1 overall pick nor a top-five selection, but their spot in the draft is perfectly aligned for the team to continue building toward its next era. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ross Jackson Even though the New Orleans Saints were once in line for the No. 1 overall&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-864371","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-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116388951737897961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864371","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=864371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}