Saints “marry” need and value by drafting Taliese Fuaga

METAIRIE – The New Orleans Saints’ biggest position of need going into the NFL Draft was tackle.

And they wanted to get good value for the 14th pick in the first round Thursday night.

They got what they needed and what they wanted when they selected Oregon State tackle Taliese Fuaga.

“I think (tackle) certainly was a must (position to be addressed in the draft),” head coach Dennis Allen said. “Depth (of prospects) and position of need don’t always marry up. This year it did for us.”

Allen said the Saints expected there would be a series of quarterbacks, a series of wide receivers and a series of tackles that would be selected early in the draft. They believed the depth at tackle was sufficient that at least one of their targets would be available at 14.

“We had a handful of tackles that we really liked,” Allen said. “It was very competitive and they were graded very closely together. We felt like there was a good chance that one or two of them would be available at 14.”

The Saints anticipated at least four quarterbacks going before their turn, but six wound up going in the first 12 picks. Even though every pick before New Orleans’ came on offense, the team’s bullpen of options remained in tact.

Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, considered a generational talent by many analysts, “was a consideration for us,” Allen said, until the Raiders snatched him with the final pick before the Saints.

Allen said the Saints had “a couple” of conversations about trading down a couple of spots before they went on the clock, but being satisfied with Fuaga they decided “not to over-think it.”

Fuaga, 6-foot-6, 334 pounds, was the fourth tackle selected, after the Chargers took Joe Alt of Notre Dame at No. 5, the Titans picked JC Latham of Alabama at No. 7 and the Jets took Olu Fashanu of Penn State at No. 11.

But some draft rankings had Fuaga rated higher than the No. 4 tackle and several projections had him being selected higher than No. 14.

Allen said Fuaga is “an extremely good athlete for his size” that is “extremely physical.”

“He’s a tough, physical player,” the head coach added, “and that’s what we want to be as a football team and that starts up front with the offensive and defensive lines.”

Allen described Fuaga as a player “everybody in the building loved on tape” during early draft preparations. Then during an interview with Fuaga at the NFL Draft Combine, he “fell in love” with the player’s personality.

“He was our type of player,” Allen said.

Fuaga said during a conference call after the selection that he was “kind of surprised” when New Orleans picked him “because they didn’t talk to me too much.”

Allen said that was because the Saints were comfortable with Fuaga as a potential pick after the interview. He called Fuaga “a man’s man, a guy’s guy, a dude’s dude,” adding that he’s “a grown man, one of the more mature players we talked to.”

The Saints tweeted a video of Allen’s phone call to Fuaga as the team was making the selection.

“You’re a tough SOB,” Allen told his newest player, “and that’s what I love about you.”

Fuaga said the biggest development in his game during his four seasons at Oregon State was that he became “a more nasty player.”

He played mostly right tackle with the Beavers, though it was routine for the linemen to practice across the line and Fuaga said he received “a lot reps” at left tackle.

It’s unclear where the Saints will slot Fuaga on a line that features a lot of uncertainty. Allen called center “the only position” that he’s “not sure” Fuaga can handle, but he emphasized that they will start the draft choice out at tackle.

The future of right tackle Ryan Ramczyk, the team’s most accomplished offensive lineman, is uncertain because of a chronic knee condition.

Two years ago New Orleans used the second of its two No. 1 picks (No. 19) to select Northern Iowa’s Trevor Penning with the expectation that he would start at left tackle before long if not right away.

But he was limited to just the final six games (124 snaps) in his rookie season because of injury. He was handed the starting position before last season, but was removed from the starting lineup after five games and played just 13 snaps the rest of the season.

Things you love to see. The moment Taliese Fuaga became a Saint 💛

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— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) April 26, 2024

On Wednesday, James Hurst who had been a versatile, part-time starter, announced his retirement and Andrus Peat, who started 67 of 111 games in which he played the last nine seasons, is an unrestricted free agent.

So the only two starting positions that are set are center (Erik McCoy) and right guard (Cesar Ruiz).

Fuaga is insurance against Ramczyk’s health issue and Penning’s slow start to his career, and might begin his career as the most likely of the three to start next season. Allen noted that the traditional distinction between which skills constitute a left tackle and those that constitute a right tackle has mostly dissipated in recent years.

Pre-draft scouting reports on Fuaga generally gave him higher marks for run-blocking (especially outside zone-blocking) than pass-blocking, largely because Oregon State utilized a run-heavy offense.

But Fuaga didn’t allow any sacks in 734 pass attempts during his career.

“Some people didn’t think I could pass block,” Fuaga said in a conference call from his family home in Oahu. “I think I showed a lot of potential. I still have a lot to learn, but I think I’m on the right track.”

Fuaga, who left school a year early, said he began to think an NFL career was a realistic possibility last season after the Beavers game against UCLA, in which he faced Bruins edge rusher Laiatu Latu, who was selected by the Colts one spot after the Saints took Fuaga.

“People started to see that I had the ability to play the game,” Fuaga said. “A lot of people thought this guy can play the game too.”

Fuaga, a native of Tacoma, Washington, said he’s been advised of the different climate he’ll face in southern Louisiana after starting a friendship with former LSU wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (who was drafted by the Jaguars at No. 23) while the two trained together in California before the NFL Combine.

The three-day draft continues at 6 p.m. Friday with the second and third rounds. New Orleans enters Day 2 with the 13th pick in the second round and no third-round pick.