Why This Pick Works

This pick makes sense in every direction. The Saints needed a legitimate number one wide receiver to play alongside Chris Olave. What they have not had since they drafted Olave at 11 in 2022 is a second credible threat that forces defensive coordinators to make real decisions. Tyson changes that calculation immediately.

The résumé is legitimate. Back-to-back third-team AP All-American honors in 2024 and 2025. A 1,101-yard, 10-touchdown campaign in 2024 that earned him Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year. A transfer from Colorado to Arizona State that demonstrated both the willingness to find the right situation and the talent to dominate a Power 5 conference once he did. He worked directly with Hines Ward — four-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl XL MVP — as his wide receiver coach at Arizona State, and the influence shows in his route precision and contested-catch development.

The Concerns — And Why They Don’t Change the Grade

The concerns are real and worth naming. He ran a DNP at the combine — didn’t run the 40 — which is a yellow flag for any receiver without verified elite speed. He’s not a burner. Furthermore, he has a history of hamstring injuries that interrupted portions of his last two college seasons, and he only started 9 games in 2025. The consistency questions are legitimate. Nevertheless, his catch radius, his contested-catch ability, his inside-outside versatility, and his ability to separate at the line of scrimmage all grade at a level that justifies the eighth overall pick. He models his game after Davante Adams and Justin Jefferson. Both are fair comparisons. He is not there yet. He has the tools to get there.

His brother Jaylon plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA. His father John played at Florida A&M. He is a multi-sport athlete — football and track — which explains the lateral quickness that does not show up in straight-line speed metrics.

Miller is the kind of player who makes offensive line coaches nervous in a very specific way. He is not a sack machine — four career sacks at Georgia over four seasons is modest for a Day 1 or Day 2 selection. However, Miller’s value does not live in the sack column. Gap control, knockback on double-teams, and the kind of interior disruption that creates clean linebacker runs — that is where he earns his money, even when the quarterback stays upright.

His Pro Football Focus numbers are more revealing than the raw box score: 11.3% pass rush win rate on interior snaps, 7.4% run stop rate, and snap alignment across the A-gap, B-gap, and over the tackle that shows genuine positional versatility. He described himself to reporters as a “Swiss Army knife,” and he earned that description at Georgia — one of the most demanding defensive programs in college football, coached by Kirby Smart and defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann, who do not make room for players who cannot execute at a high level.

Coincidentally, Miller attended Cedar Grove High School in Ellenwood, Georgia — a program that has won multiple state championships and whose team is also called the Saints. He is joining the Saints for the second time.

Back-to-back Georgia Bulldogs. This is not an accident. Kellen Moore and Mickey Loomis trust what Smart’s program produces — disciplined, technically sound players who understand their role and execute it consistently. Delp is the exact tight end type that Kellen Moore’s offense wants: a move tight end who can threaten linebackers in space, win on intermediate routes, and be a reliable checkdown for Tyler Shough in his first full year as the starter.

The combine numbers were impressive — 4.49 in the 40, 38-inch vertical, 23 bench reps — and confirmed what Georgia tape suggested: Delp is a genuine athlete at a position where athleticism is the separator. His 70 career catches and nine touchdowns are modest by superstar tight end standards, but Georgia runs the ball first, second, and third, which means Delp’s production came in a system not designed to showcase pass catchers.

The concerns are the short arms — 9½-inch hands help, but below-average arm length limits his ability to win at the catch point against physical coverage — and inconsistent finish through contact that shows up in contested situations. He’s not a blocker yet in the NFL sense, though he has the toughness and the technique foundation to develop. Furthermore, his family background is interesting: his father Chris played lacrosse at Rutgers, and Oscar lettered in lacrosse himself. His brother Harry walked on to the Georgia football team in 2024 as a tight end. The Delp family takes football seriously from multiple angles.

The Trade Logic

This is the most interesting move the Saints made all weekend. Wilson was the seventh overall pick in 2023 — a former consensus top-10 prospect who had 12 sacks and four forced fumbles over three seasons in Las Vegas while missing just one game. The Raiders declined his fifth-year option, which tells you the money did not match the production at that contract level. At a fifth-round pick plus a swap, however, the value calculation is completely different.

The Saints reportedly tried to trade for Kayvon Thibodeaux first and were rebuffed by the Giants. When that fell through, they turned to Wilson — which might sound like a consolation prize, but isn’t necessarily. Wilson is 26 years old, durable, and entering a contract year, which means his motivation is real. He will be behind Carl Granderson and Chase Young on the depth chart, but the Saints need pass rush depth, and Wilson provides it at a price that makes sense given where the Saints are in their rebuild.

What to Expect in New Orleans

The knock on Wilson in Las Vegas was that he never developed the pass rush repertoire to justify a top-10 pick price tag. At a fifth-round price tag, consequently, those expectations reset entirely. A rotational edge who can get you five or six sacks and force a few turnovers is a useful piece on a defense that is still finding its identity under a first-year head coach in Kellen Moore.

Jeremiah Wright’s story is the kind of story the NFL loves — and should love. He came out of Selma High School in Alabama as a top-15 defensive tackle nationally. Wright is only the fourth Auburn player the Saints have ever drafted — and the first since defensive end Frank Warren in 1981, a 45-year gap. Furthermore, the path from Selma — a city whose name is written into American civil rights history — to the NFL is never a straight line, and Wright’s path was less straight than most.

He started as a defensive tackle at Auburn, tore his ACL in 2021, then converted to offensive line and spent three years learning a completely different position. That kind of positional conversion, done successfully over multiple seasons at a Power 5 program, requires intelligence, athleticism, and the kind of coachability that NFL teams covet. Additionally, he has a newborn son — Jeremiah Jr. was born in July 2025 — which means he is walking into his first NFL season as a new father, carrying everything that implies.

The Saints added David Edwards in free agency to shore up the interior line. Wright joins a competition for snaps rather than a guaranteed role. He played all 25 of his starts at right guard, and that is where he projects. He led Auburn with 33 knockdown blocks in his final season. He is a fourth-round selection with legitimate upside and a story worth following.

Yes, he is the younger brother of Chargers quarterback Trey Lance — which means he has had a front-row seat to NFL life his entire adult life. That kind of access to a professional quarterback’s preparation, film study, and daily routine is not nothing for a young receiver trying to make a roster. What the tape shows is a 6-foot-3 receiver with genuine vertical threat ability, elite athleticism scores at the combine (98 athleticism score), and FCS-level production that translated to NFL-level size and speed measurements.

The context matters here. North Dakota State does not produce NFL receivers frequently, but when they do — see Christian Watson with Green Bay — the scouts tend to be right about the athleticism translating. Lance ranked sixth in the FCS with 21.2 yards per reception in 2025, had multiple 1,000-yard seasons (the first Bison to do so in history), and showed the burst and vertical that Tyler Shough will need when defenses load up to stop Jordyn Tyson and Chris Olave.

He is FCS production. That is a legitimate caveat. Moreover, the level of competition he faced at North Dakota State, even in the Missouri Valley Conference, is a step below what he will face weekly in the NFC South. Nevertheless, at 136th overall, the price is right to find out whether the athleticism is real at the next level. His brother’s NFL career gives him a window into the professional game that most rookies don’t have from day one.

The Styles family had a day. Sonny Styles went seventh overall to the Washington Commanders. Lorenzo Styles Jr. went 172nd to New Orleans. The father, Lorenzo Styles Sr., played linebacker in the NFL and graduated from Ohio State alongside his son in April 2025. It is one of the more remarkable family stories of this draft weekend.

Lorenzo Jr.’s story is unconventional. He started his college career as a wide receiver at Notre Dame. After two seasons, he transferred to Ohio State and flipped to the defensive side entirely — converting first to cornerback, then to safety. The position change required a redshirt year in 2023 to absorb the new responsibilities. His coverage instincts, consequently, are still developing — the reports consistently note that his athletic tools significantly outpace his coverage fundamentals at this stage.

What is not developing is his athleticism. A 4.27 40-yard dash — second fastest among all draft prospects this year — and a 39-inch vertical give him a physical profile that special teams coaches love and that gives defensive coordinators a tool to work with in coverage if he develops the technique to match the tools. The Saints lost Alontae Taylor to Tennessee and need secondary depth. Styles fills that at a price that allows development time.

Barion Brown is not a pure receiver in the traditional sense. He is a weapon — specifically, the kind of weapon that the NFL’s revised kickoff return rules have made significantly more valuable than they were three years ago. He holds the SEC record for career kickoff return touchdowns with six. He returned kicks for touchdowns from Kentucky to LSU, on multiple occasions returning kicks over 99 yards. He is one short of the NCAA career record in that category.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Brown attended Pearl-Cohn High School where he won back-to-back state championships in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash before committing to Kentucky. After three productive seasons with the Wildcats, he transferred to LSU for his final year. There, he led the team with 53 receptions for 532 yards despite just one touchdown catch — real production inside a Lane Kiffin offense built around the transfer portal.

The concerns are the drops — 21 career drops that the Saints will work to address — and the inconsistent route running that NFL.com’s scouting report described plainly. He plays faster than his 4.40 40 suggests, which is the best possible compliment a speed player can receive. In the sixth round, picking up the SEC’s all-time kick return touchdown leader who also contributes as a receiver is very good value. The three-receiver class — Tyson, Lance, Brown — is the first for the Saints since 1989.

Hall is a seventh-round pick. He’s a seventh-round pick for a reason. Iowa football produces cornerbacks — it has for decades, under Kirk Ferentz — and Hall is a product of that system: disciplined in coverage, sound in technique, reliable on special teams, unspectacular in the ways that seventh-round picks tend to be unspectacular.

He led the Big Ten with 10 pass breakups in 2025, which is legitimately impressive production for the conference level. He started all 11 games in 2025 after a career spent as a reserve, demonstrating the kind of development arc that late-round picks need to show to earn roster spots. A 4.59 40-yard dash is not going to get him on the field in man coverage against NFL receivers, so he will need to develop as a zone cornerback and special teams contributor.

This pick arrived via the Tyree Wilson trade from Las Vegas. The Saints gave up the 150th pick and received Wilson plus this seventh-round selection. At 219th overall, Hall is a practice squad candidate and a developmental cornerback who fits the profile of what you take when you have roster flexibility and a clear position need.