The New Orleans Saints' 2025 draft is in the books with the team adding nine total players to their roster. Of those picks, five were on defense and four were on offense so the Saints did a nice job at least making sure both sides were getting beefed up.
The most notable pick of the weekend was undoubtedly in the second round when the Saints took Tyler Shough, passing on Shedeur Sanders in the process (though a lot of teams ended up passing on the Colorado signal-caller). The Shough pick was surprising to many because it seemed to be a reach by New Orleans.
That was the issue Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN had with the Saints' draft. He thought they reached too much with their picks and gave them a B- for their efforts in this year's draft. Kiper didn't like what the Saints did in the first, second, and third round and noted that he didn't think they had value picks.
Mel Kiper Jr. calls out Saints for "reaching" in 2025 NFL Draft
Kiper really disliked the Shough pick and anyone watching the ESPN draft coverage was all too aware of how he felt about Sanders' slide. Kiper mentioned that Shough was below Sanders on his big board and mentioned that he doesn't think Shough is someone who can win the Saints games this year.
It's interesting that Kiper said he was critical of the Saints' first-round but then later noted he liked the pick of Kelvin Banks Jr. Perhaps this was Kiper's way of saying New Orleans should have taken Sanders with their first-round pick instead of Banks since he was clearly a fan of the Colorado quarterback.
Some might be wondering if Kiper disliked these picks so much, then why did he give them a B-? He discusses that, pointing out that he liked a few of their Day 3 selections, including Danny Stutsman and Quincy Riley.
All in all though, it doesn't sound like Kiper was a fan of what Mickey Loomis did in the 2025 draft. Hopefully Loomis knew what he was doing and these players can prove Kiper wrong.
