The New Orleans Saints’ 2022 draft class got a raw deal. Injuries hit them harder than most, with multiple players missing much of their rookie season with injuries — first-round left tackle Trevor Penning lost the start of his season to turf toe surgery, and ended it with a Lisfranc fracture; second-round cornerback Alontae Taylor missed four games, and fifth-round linebacker D’Marco Jackson was lost for the entire season to an undisclosed training camp injury.
So it’s kind of difficult to evaluate the rookie draft class. Aaron Schatz and Alex Vigderman gave it a shot for ESPN, and they reached a sensible conclusion by ranking New Orleans’ first-year pros near the middle of the league at No. 18 overall. Here’s their reasoning for that placement:
