The Saints draft grades are in

Good morning, and welcome to the Tuesday, April 30, edition of the Saints Insider newsletter. In my opinion, you all get passing grades for reading this newsletter. 

Passing the test

Just getting this out of the way first: Handing out draft grades in the immediacy of the NFL draft is a ridiculous exercise. We've never seen any of these athletes play a down of professional football, we don't know if they're going to stay healthy or land in a coach's dog house or become transcendent superstars. 

BUT! We, as a human species, simply cannot help ourselves. The draft is done, and we want to know how our teams did. So, intrepid beat writer Matthew Paras took a look around at the multitude of draft grades handed out Monday. 

The prevailing opinion was that the Saints did pretty well for themselves despite only making two of the top 149 selections. 

One "A" grade came from NFL.com with this description: “New Orleans took a step forward in the NFC South race this weekend. (Taliese) Fuaga and the Saints seemed like a perfect pairing, with the nasty lineman fitting the team's mold and filling a big need. They traded up in Round 2 for (Kool-Aid) McKinstry, a potential first-round value at a position where you can never have enough talent.”

Picks to click

Rashid Shaheed. Juwan Johnson. Carl Granderson. Deonte Harty. J.T. Gray. 

Yep, the Saints have done a nice job unearthing talent in the undrafted free agent signing period the last few years. 

Who is next up on the list of contributors the Saints found after the draft? Here are three of the best bets. 

Dattitude

I joined Dattitude host Jim Derry to recap the Saints draft class. We had some differing takes on a few topics — specifically when it comes to fifth-round quarterback Spencer Rattler — but we both agreed that the Saints found some players that will help them this year and in the future. 

That's all for now. Thanks for following along! 

Cheers,

Luke Johnson