So what are the New Orleans Saints going to do in the first round of Thursday night’s 2023 NFL draft? No one knows for sure, but there are some clued-in draft experts who know more than most. The Saints always seem to surprise us on draft day, but while this pick would be unexpected for a couple of reasons it just might be the right move.
In his final first round mock draft for NFL.com, Lance Zierlein has the Saints making a surprising (but sensible) pick in former Alabama defensive back Brian Branch. There haven’t been many projections linking New Orleans to the secondary, but there’s a compelling argument in favor of Branch at No. 29.
Branch is one of the most consistent defenders in this entire draft and offers the versatility to play as a nickel or at either safety position. With his football intelligence and toughness as a tackler, it will be hard to keep him off the field as a rookie.
Branch is only an average athlete by pro standards (he was a four-star recruit coming out of high school and posted a pedestrian 5.27 Relative Athletic Score) but you wouldn’t know it watching his game tape. He’s one of the smartest players in this draft class and was very rarely caught out of position in college. He was the most important player in the Crimson Tide secondary last year directing traffic and handling a variety of assignments, and he was often trusted to guard the slot.
He’s lined up in the slot on over 1,100 career snaps and it projects as his best role in the NFL, meaning he could be the C.J. Gardner-Johnson replacement the Saints struggled to identify last year. Like Gardner-Johnson, Branch is an eager and aggressive tackler in run defense — he’s only missed four tackles in his three-year college career while often mixing it up at the line of scrimmage (his 14 tackles for loss last season trailed blue-chip teammate Will Anderson’s 17).
Don’t get caught up on the “nickel” description, either. Branch would immediately be playing 60 or more snaps each week in the slot for New Orleans and could be a viable replacement for Marcus Maye or Tyrann Mathieu if the Saints move on from one of them next year. And Saints general manager Mickey Loomis curiously mentioned in his pre-draft press conference that the nickel defensive back may be more of a priority position than strongside linebacker, which checks out given the way the game is played these days. There’s absolutely a scenario where the Saints zig when we expect them to zag and pick Branch rather than a trench player in spite of his athletic limitations and their recent draft trends.
