Best groups on the Saints
By: Jake Rajala
The New Orleans Saints may have gone 7-10 last season, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a plethora of talent on their roster. They have some position groups that possess Pro Bowl talent. With that said, I’m going to unfold the best position groups on the Saints.
Wide Receiver
The Saints honestly don’t have a position group that’s a cream-of-the-crop unit around the league. Their WR spot is modest, but it isn’t exactly scary. I would say that the Saints have two B-quality WRs in Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. They then have Brandin Cooks, who returned home. He’s a C+ player in my opinion.
Olave recorded 1,123 yards, five TDs, and had five touchdowns as a sophomore. Sadly, he suffered a concussion and missed nine games last season! He still had a modest 82.4 PFF grade, which was 15th among WRs.
PFF dubbed Shaheed as a WR to break out last season. They were right until he suffered a crucial injury, which was a torn meniscus. He was averaging 17.5 YPC and on pace for 988 yards. Shaheed has Tyreek Hill potential in my opinion. They both started out as elite return specialists, too.
Linebacker
Demario Davis had a subpar season in 2024. However, he has still proven to be elite for the many seasons before last season. Davis can do it all. He is an excellent blitzer and he’s modest in pass coverage. His sidekick Pete Werner is a C+ linebacker. He can move sideline to sideline well. He can’t quite rock the world of RBs and WRs, however.
With that said, it’s clear that letting Zack Baun leave to Philly was a terrible mistake. They knew he was versatile, so I don’t understand how they failed to not let him move a spot over to ILB.
Offensive Line
Erick McCoy is a Top-3 center in the league. At LT, they have their first round pick Kelvin Banks Jr. They moved Taliese Fuaga to RT, which should be more smooth for him. The guard spot is a tad murky. Cesar Ruiz is average at best. PFF has given him a grade 67.6 for 2024. Trevor Penning is also the LG after playing LT last season. The 2022 first-round pick has the biggest “make or break” season in 2025. Penning excels more at run blocking than pass blocking.
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