{"id":869883,"date":"2026-04-19T12:12:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869883\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T12:12:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:12:30","slug":"the-new-orleans-saints-best-worst-draft-picks-since-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869883\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Orleans Saints’ Best & Worst Draft Picks Since 2000"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports has come up with a fun exercise. Reviewing each team’s best and worst picks from the 21st century, so far. With 25 different draft classes to choose from, was it easy to nail down New Orleans<\/a>‘ best and worst picks? DeArdo did a fine job with the Saints<\/a>‘ selections.<\/p>\n

Let’s see who was chosen.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

New Orleans Saints<\/p>\n

Best pick: DE Cameron Jordan<\/a> (No. 24 overall, 2011)<\/p>\n

Jordan edged out offensive tackle Jahri Evans<\/a>, a perennial Pro Bowler who played a key role in the Saints’ first championship in 2009. Jordan, 36, is still playing at a high level as he prepares for his 16th season. He had 10.5 sacks last season and is 22nd all-time on the NFL’s career sack list.<\/p>\n

Worst pick: DT Jonathan Sullivan (No. 6 overall, 2003)<\/p>\n

After a lackluster rookie season, Sullivan entered the 2004 season overweight and out of shape. He was inactive for the team’s final eight games and was traded to New England<\/a> ahead of the 2006 season. Sullivan recorded just 1.5 sacks in 36 regular-season games.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Jordan has a chance to return to New Orleans, but his selection is an easy one. The best move in Saints history is signing Drew Brees<\/a> away from the Chargers, but this exercise is about draft picks, and the former Cal Bear was a no-brainer. Jordan finished with more than ten sacks in his 14th season. He has plenty left in the tank and should return to New Orleans for his 15th season.<\/p>\n

Sullivan is a name Saints fans have forgotten or wish they could forget. With fewer than 2 sacks in 36 games from a top-10 pick, this pick was an awful return on investment. The Saints sit with the eighth pick in this year’s draft; a selection like Sullivan is a possibility, but New Orleans will likely finish with a player who contributes more than the defensive tackle.<\/p>\n

Alvin Kamara<\/a> is an excellent draft pick from the 2017 draft. Kelvin Banks, Jr., had a stellar rookie season and has a chance to overtake Jordan for the best pick spot if he continues to play well. Maybe even Tyler Shough<\/a> should be considered for the best pick with a few years of stellar play.<\/p>\n

Busts are hard to predict because they may come down to desire instead of overall talent. This is the crapshoot portion of the draft. Scouting the talent is easier than scouting the person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports has come up with a fun exercise. Reviewing each team’s best and worst…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[2825,6867,13189,7,11379,25594,1167,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,283,117941],"class_list":{"0":"post-869883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-alvin-kamara","9":"tag-cameron-jordan","10":"tag-drew-brees","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jahri-evans","13":"tag-jonathan-sullivan","14":"tag-new-england","15":"tag-new-orleans","16":"tag-new-orleans-saints","17":"tag-neworleans","18":"tag-neworleanssaints","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-saints","21":"tag-tyler-shough","22":"tag-worst-pick"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116431313607980240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869883","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=869883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}