Peter King sticks the Saints with his ‘Who?’ pick in final mock draft

Thanks, Pete. The Saints drew the short straw in Peter King’s latest weekly column for NBC Sports, getting linked to a prospect King himself doubted is worth a first-round selection in his final 2021 NFL mock draft. I’m sure Georgia cornerback Tyson Campbell is a great young guy with a bright future, but the portrait King has painted for him isn’t very flattering.

King introduced Campbell by writing: “Every year, I like to put at least one ‘Who!!!’ in my first round. So in my calls over the last few days, I’ve asked most of my football contacts who they’d put in the first round that no one has there,” and Campbell was the name one of King’s NFL contacts shared.

The Athletic’s Dane Brugler graded Campbell as a second round value, dinging him for struggling to make plays on the ball in flight — Campbell has been credited with just 11 passes defensed in 33 games for Georgia, including 24 starts, with only one interception. The Athletic’s consensus board ranks Campbell at No. 58 overall, and seventh among corners.

At this point, Campbell is all projection as a 6-foot-1, 193-pound athlete who timed the 40 yard dash in 4.36 seconds at his pro day, on Georgia’s friendly home turf. That’s a tough sell to Saints fans; Campbell sounds a lot like Stanley Jean-Baptiste, the Nebraska project New Orleans burned a second round pick on back in 2014. They certainly need another starting quality corner to pair with Marshon Lattimore, but that doesn’t describe Campbell.

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Final 2021 Saints mock draft: seven rounds of picks, with trades