It’s okay to look to the 2025 NFL draft for hope when the New Orleans Saints aren’t giving you reasons to cheer for their work on the field. The Saints are closer to locking in a top-five draft pick than they are to qualifying for the playoffs. After losing to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, they’re 2-6 and stuck in the longest losing streak since the 2005 season impacted by Hurricane Katrina.
But if there’s a silver lining to such a poor start, it’s the possibility of an improved outlook next season, starting with the NFL draft. If the selection event started today the Saints would be picking sixth overall. That’s a great opportunity to add an impact player at a position of need, and New Orleans clearly needs the help.
Things will change, but here’s where the Saints are slotted in after Week 8 according to the full draft order projection from Tankathon:
- Round 1, Pick 6 (6th overall)
- Round 2, Pick 5 (37th overall)
- Round 3, Pick 4 (68th overall)
- Round 4, Pick 3 (104th overall)
- Round 5, Pick 8 (146th overall)
- Round 7, Pick 21 (238th overall, via Washington Commanders from Atlanta Falcons)
- Round 7, Pick 36 (253rd overall, projected compensatory for Isaac Yiadom)
Remember, the Saints traded their sixth rounder to Washington for defensive tackle John Ridgeway III this preseason, but they got a seventh-round pick back in that deal. It replaced the seventh rounder they traded to the Philadelphia Eagles a few years back with safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Washington owns multiple seventh-round draft picks but the Saints should get one of the least-valuable selections out of the bunch.
Will the Saints turn it around? That remains to be seen, but history isn’t on their side. If they keep losing, at least fans can hope for better days ahead with a top college football prospect on the horizon.
