The picks up from the first three rounds of the 2022 NFL draft, and three premium positions are on the ledger for the New Orleans Saints. After going wide receiver (with Chris Olave), offensive tackle (in Trevor Penning), and now cornerback (through Alontae Taylor) with their selections. But not every player is limited to their first position designation in New Orleans. For head coach Dennis Allen and the Saints, Taylor is expected to start out playing corner, not safety, while making an immediate impact as an impactful special teamer.
“He’s an outstanding special teams player,” Allen said Friday evening. “So in terms of adding some depth to our team, in terms of helping our team, as a core special teams player we really helped our group today.”
There’s no doubt that the Saints see the value in Taylor and how he makes the team better by investing a second-round selection on him. But if he can change the field position game for you in his early career, there’s a massive desire for that in the NFL. Pro Football Reference found that the Saints allowed more punt return yardage (391) than any other team last year, with the second-most punts returned (43) across the league.
