The New Orleans Saints joined the National Football League (NFL) as an expansion team in 1967 and first participated in the 1967 NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting, more commonly known as the NFL draft. [1] In the NFL Draft, each NFL franchise annually seeks to add new players to its roster. Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second-worst picking second and so on. The team which wins the Super Bowl receives the last pick in the subsequent Draft, with the penultimate pick going to the losing team. Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof. Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades. [2]
In the 1967 NFL Draft, the Saints had two first-round picks; first and last. They traded away the first overall pick to the Baltimore Colts, [3] while with the 26th pick, they selected Leslie Kelley, a running back from Alabama. [4] The Saints have selected first overall once, drafting George Rogers in 1981, [5] second overall twice, drafting Archie Manning in 1971 and Reggie Bush in 2006, [6] and third overall once, drafting Wes Chandler in 1978. [4] The team's most recent first-round selection was offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga in 2024 NFL draft.
^ | Indicates the player was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. |
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* | Selected number one overall |
† | Indicates the player was selected for the Pro Bowl at any time in their career. |
— | The Saints did not draft a player in the first round that year. |
Year | Each year links to an article about that particular NFL Draft. |
Pick | Indicates the number of the pick within the first round |
Position | Indicates the position of the player in the NFL |
College | The player's college football team |
The 1983 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 26–27, 1983, at the New York Sheraton Hotel in New York City, New York. No teams elected to claim any players in the supplemental draft that year.
The 2001 NFL draft was the 66th draft annual of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible professional football players. The draft, which is officially referred to as the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York on April 21–22, 2001.
The 1982 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 27–28, 1982, at the New York Sheraton Hotel in New York City, New York. At the time of the draft the Raiders were still the Oakland Raiders, they relocated to Los Angeles in May 1982. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.
The 1979 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, New York. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.
The 1968 NFL/AFL draft was part of the common draft, in the second year in which the NFL and AFL held a joint draft of college players. It took place at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City on January 30–31, 1968.
The 1967 NFL/AFL draft was conducted March 14–15, 1967, at the Gotham Hotel in New York City. It was the first common draft between the NFL and the AFL, part of the AFL–NFL merger agreement of June 1966.
The 1971 NFL draft was held January 28–29, 1971, at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City, New York. The Boston Patriots, who did not officially change their name to New England Patriots until after the draft, used the first overall pick of the draft to select quarterback Jim Plunkett. It was the first draft where the first three selections were quarterbacks.