Players on defense drafted by the Saints are expected to contribute immediately, especially if a player is a defensive back. The reason is that the Saints are a ball club that occasionally gets hit by the injury bug in regards to their defense. Their most injury-riddled position on defense is the secondary, last season players such as Patrick Robinson was lost for the remainder of the season due to a broken ankle injury that he suffered in the first matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.
Unlike in previous years where average quarterbacks would pickup apart the Saints pass defense, 2018 was not the case. The team was at the bottom of the league when it comes to pass defense, but their performance on the field would say otherwise. For many years under Sean Payton, the Saints have had subpar players on the defensive side of the football.
But the recent changes within their scouting department along with assistant coaches have changed the outlook on the Saints defense. Those trends must continue going into the 2019 season. The team now has a mixture of young players along with reliable veterans such as Demario Davis and Cameron Jordan to lean on right now.
Players that are selected in the mid to late rounds of the draft do not start at all or may just situational players at best. That’s not the case when it comes to the Saints defense. In past seasons, players such as Tyeler Davison, David Onyemata, and Hau’oli Kikaha were expected to step in and perform for the Saints.
The team was not constructed this way during the years of 2009 through 2013. Those ball clubs were built purely off of reliable veterans on the defensive side of the football. The changes started to come after the 2014 season when the front office overpaid for free agents that never really fit into the scheme of the defense.
Ever since the 2014 campaign, young players on the defensive side of the football have been thrown into the starting lineup and expected to contribute immediately. That mentality looks like it’s going to continue with the selection of safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson out of the University of Florida. Gardner-Johnson was selected in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
If Gardner-Johnson was selected by any other team that had Super Bowl aspirations, the chances are that he would be just a situational player at best. But with the Saints, there’s a considerable possibility of CGJ being that third safety on the defense that the team utilizes a lot under defensive coordinator Dennis Allen.
If Chauncey Gardner-Johnson lives up to his billing as a ball-hawking safety, then it would pay huge dividends for the Saints. The potential move would also continue the mantra of young players on defense being thrown into the line of fire expeditiously with the Black and Gold. Players on defense drafted by the Saints are expected to contribute immediately in the careers; those are facts.
Here’s a list of notable players that were selected in the 1st to later rounds of the draft and have become vital contributors for the Saints.
Tyeler Davison DT: 5th round selection (2015 Draft Now with the Falcons)
P.J. Williams CB: 3rd round selection (2015 Draft)
Sheldon Rankins DT: 1st round selection (2016 Draft)
Vonn Bell S: 2nd round selection (2016 Draft)
David Onyemata DT: 4th round selection (2016 Draft)
Marshone Lattimore CB: 1st round selection (2017 Draft)
Marcus Williams S: 2nd round selection (2017 Draft)
Alex Anzalone LB: 3rd round selection (2017 Draft)
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