With the 32nd pick in the NFL Draft, the New Orleans Saints were almost certainly going to draft Reuben Foster. However, in what was a very amusing scenario, the San Francisco 49ers traded above them to draft Foster, and this left the Saints in an awkward and unexpected situaiton.

With Foster being snatched from their hands, the New Orleans Saints drafted Wisconsin tackle Ryan Ramczyk. The move was ridiculed on social media by casual fans, as it is well known to all that the Saints defence is simply not up to scratch.

In reality, the Saints made a sensible pick with Ramczyk, for multiple reasons. For years now, the Saints have reached on prospects by drafting for need, but the Ramczyk pick was a ‘best player available’ type pick, which was refreshing. The Saints could easily have panicked and reached on another linebacker prospect such as Zach Cunningham, but they stuck to their board and opted for the best strategy, which is to draft the best player on the board.

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There is no doubt that the Saints needed to fix multiple holes on defence, but the pick of Ramczyk was not a case of Sean Payton loading his offence, as offensive tackle was a need for the Saints. Payton runs a pass heavy offence, and for this to work, good depth is needed on the offensive line to avoid fatigue. Ramczyk may well push for the starting job on the right side of the line, but even if Payton continues to roll with Zach Strief, then the Saints have a backup who in my opinion, was the best offensive tackle from the 2017 draft class.

Schematically, Ramczyk is also a good fit with the Saints because Sean Payton and Pete Carmichael often utilise jumbo sets on third and short. The Saints are rather unique in the sense that they often take deep shots from jumbo sets, and Ramczyk is a good enough pass blocker to not be a liability if the Saints want to go deep. His size and ability to get into the second level, will make him a huge part of the Saints offence from day one.

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Zach Strief had a good year in 2016, but his struggles against speed rushers have been apparent for a long time, so Ramczyk has an excellent chance of winning the starting job from the veteran. Strief is an excellent run blocker, but the Saints are a passing team, and pass blocking has to be the priority. Strief only allowed 2.5 sacks last season, but in the two years before that, he allowed 12 sacks, which isn’t good enough for a pass heavy team. It wouldn’t be that surprising to see Ramczyk win the right tackle job, and see Strief demoted to being used in jumbo packages, and as a swing tackle.

For years, the Saints have drafted for need, but this year felt different for many of their fans. The defence was addressed in the later rounds with the picks of Marcus Williams, Troy Hendrickson and Alex Anzalone, which makes one wonder why there was such a panic when Ramczyk was drafted. The Saints have drafted poorly in recent seasons, but they stuck to their board in the 2017 draft, and they could be returning to the playoffs because of this smart drafting.

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