2024 NFL draft: Saints sending top evaluators to LSU pro day
As always seems to be the case, the New Orleans Saints were well-represented at LSU’s pro day on Wednesday. But will this be the year they pick any Tigers in the 2024 NFL draft? Few players have gone through Baton Rouge to New Orleans when turning pro, and many of them haven’t done so until they already impressed playing for other teams — guys like Tyrann Mathieu and Foster Moreau.
Since Mickey Loomis was hired as general manager back in 2002, the Saints have drafted just three players out of LSU: wide receiver Devery Henderson (second round, 2004), defensive tackle Al Woods (fourth round, 2010), and offensive lineman Will Clapp (seventh round, 2018). Having so few draft picks come out of a recruiting powerhouse in their own backyard has perplexed Saints fans, but Loomis has always explained it as being the luck of the draw.
And while Loomis wasn’t in attendance at LSU’s pro day, one of his top lieutenants was — assistant general manager Jeff Ireland, the team’s college scouting department head. So was head coach Dennis Allen and first-year offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. Who could they be scouting?
LSU boasts a ton of top-100 talent this year. In addition to quarterback Jayden Daniels, a likely top-four pick, wide receivers Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. are seen as first-round talents. Defensive linemen Maason Smith and Mekhi Wingo might be picked on the second day of the draft, too, as second- or third-round picks. Three or four other Tigers could hear their names called during the event’s final rounds of selections. Maybe one of them ends up staying in Louisiana.
